The most scandalous admissions campaign draws to an end

High-school graduates are facing a moment of truth when they will learn whether they have been accepted to the college of their choice. The admissions campaign came to an end the other day, and higher education institutions are publishing lists of admitted students. The reader will remember that over 570,000 high-school graduates competed for their right to become undergraduates this year. NGOs that have been monitoring the admissions campaign, as well as the Ministry of Education and Science and other involved bodies are now analyzing to what extent the admissions were honest and transparent.

Nevertheless, the main shortcomings and flaws of the campaign are already evident. Many high-school graduates and their parents will remember the long lines to admissions offices on hot days and complaints at the Ministry of Education that failed to avoid this. However, the innovations introduced by the Ministry of Education this year sparked the most outrage. The main point of discontent here was the high-school diploma’s grade-point average and the results of additional exam (for creative majors) were factored in during the admissions process. It often happened that students with a high grade-point average in their high-school diplomas and high scores in their independent testing certificates were given low grades in additional exams, and vice versa, students with low grades performed great on exams. What is the cause behind such discrepancies? Who got it wrong when determining the level of students’ proficiency — the school or the higher education institution?

On the one hand, it is a good thing that the knowledge the students acquired throughout their school studies are not disregarded and are taken into account during the admissions procedure. On the other hand, how can grades in high-school diplomas be taken at face va-lue if they are sometimes too high and fail to reflect the real proficiency level of students? This is no secret that some parents want their children to have good grades in all subjects and hence have higher chances of being admitted to college ahead of other students, so they are prepared to pay for grades. However, this kind of deception is easy to unmask through additional exams that colleges require students to take. However, if a student indeed has good grades and knowledge, why does s/he get a poor grade in admissions exams? Experts of the Opora civic network consider this bias in evaluation the biggest shortcoming of the current campaign.

“Grades on high-school diplomas and the score in the independent testing certificate did not always match the score obtained in an additional examination administered by a college. This led to a situation in which high-school graduates with 200 points in independent testing and a gold medal from the school scored a mere 124 points, while applicants with 125 points in their future major and fairly mediocre grades in the high-school diploma did very well at 196 points,” said Olha Aivazovska, head of the board of governors, Opora civic network. “These manipulations led to the replacement of two-thirds of applicants in the top part of the admissions lists. Is it indeed conceivable that the school and the Ukrainian Education Quality Evaluation Center, which administered external tests, got it wrong, while the admissions commissions were able to rectify their mistakes?”

There were more than enough mistakes during the admissions procedure this year. Independent experts were surprised to find out that students that had not participated in Olympiads or defended their research work in the Small Academy of Sciences were listed among those who could be admitted ahead of all other, ordinary applicants. These lists contained also the names of applicants who did not even apply to the given university. In the opinion of civic observers, the cause behind this situation lies in either the overloaded admissions commissions, which failed to check the authenticity of the applications, or conspiracies between applicants and college representatives, which looks like corruption.

Experts are also concerned that under the new law “On Higher Education,” which can be passed in September 2010, entrance exams will be reinstated. Students will be admitted to college based on independent testing results, high-school grade-point average, and the results of exams administered by colleges.

“If entrance exams are brought back, this will lead to a situation in which higher education institutions will set passing grades themselves. Then no matter how high a score you get in independent testing and how good the grades are on your graduation certificate, if there is a need to give you a lower-than-deserved grade and thus keep you from competing, this will be done through internal examination. Such cases were recorded this year, and so there is every reason to worry,” added Aivazovska. “At present figures say more than politics, statements, or good intentions. They point to one thing — results don’t match in the admissions process. That is why we need to look for the causes behind this situation. If this is not done and instead internal exams will be made mandatory, we will come to a point at which Ukraine will revert to corrupt admissions practices. The Ministry of Education and Science should draw the necessary conclusions in order to prevent this from happening next year.”

Andrii Chernykh, coordinator of the Student Defense civic initiative, said that the entrance exams or interviews would guarantee the return of “money-filled suitcases” and “telephone rule” in colleges during the admissions procedures, which will effectively block the way for talented, gifted young people to higher education institutions. This may affect not only gifted youth. The return of entrance exams will be a step backwards when the way to the leading universities of the country was most often opened through connections, arrangements, and money. Under these conditions we can forget about equal access to education regardless of whether you graduated from a city or village school, your academic performance, etc. Why was independent external testing introduced when it will effectively lose its weight after the return to entrance exams? Its main task has been to overcome corruption in higher education. If the grade received in a university-administered examination takes priority, the high-school graduate certificates will lose weight, too. Experts believe that this will simply deprive students of a stimulus to study hard.

Given such a great number of flaws and problems in this year’s admissions campaign, it is horrible to even imagine what will happen next year when the system of university exams is restored. Is the government really having such a difficult time keeping to one, clear-cut, and consistent, direction in the development of the system of education? Experts say that experiments in education do not produce anything good but only cause new problems. Take, for example, the return to the 11-year curriculum in schools: students will now wait for three months to receive textbooks based on the new curriculum, while pre-school children must receive mandatory pre-school education, even though there is a lack of facilities and teaching staff for this. Isn’t it time to put an end to experiments in education and put the training of educated youth, rather than someone’s ambitions, first?