"The exam result could be not a ticket out for finishing the 9th grade, but an entry card to the next level of education," the minister explained this idea in an interview a month ago when she was asked to comment on the increase in the number of students who did not pass the exams this year. More than 800 students were unable to meet the minimum threshold of 15%. According to a previously developed plan, this academic year, the minimum threshold was supposed to be raised to 20%. However, according to the minister's proposal, to obtain a certificate in the future, it will be sufficient to have positive annual grades in all subjects. In the minister's opinion, this decision will allow the next educational institution - secondary school, gymnasium, or vocational school - to assess the results of a potential student according to its needs. At the same time, it will reduce the number of young people who received positive grades in all subjects but failed the exam due to unfortunate circumstances. In August, the Ministry of Education began promoting a whole package of changes for government consideration, which includes not only the proposal to abolish the exam threshold but also to restore the possibility of correcting tests during the academic year. Initially, it was planned to consider these amendments in the government this week, just before the start of the new academic year, but now the consideration of the issue has been postponed for a week. The minister's proposal to abolish the exam threshold has caused a sharp divide in the sector into two camps. Educators report that there are supporters and opponents of this idea even within the same school. "Exams at the end of primary school are necessary, and the minimum threshold is also necessary," believes the director of Abel Primary School, Dace Kalniņa-Aleksandrova. This school in the Jēkabpils region has about 150 students. The director notes that in primary school classes, most children lack motivation to study. They study for their mothers, for their teachers. The director of Limbaži State Gymnasium, Gunta Lace, finds the minister's idea of the exam result as an entry card to the next level acceptable. In this educational institution, when admitting students to the 10th grade, they already evaluate the results of centralized exams. "This is a more objective indicator than the average annual grade or grades in individual subjects," she believes. The first choice for young people with weak academic results will most likely be vocational educational institutions. The schools are not pleased with these amendments, as they have long observed a distorted reflection of students' knowledge in the annual grades assigned by schools. By organizing diagnostic tests for first-year students on their own initiative, they often find that students' knowledge lags behind the grades assigned by schools. Most often - in the Latvian language among children from former minority schools. The changes proposed by the minister deserve discussion, summarizes the head of the Education and Science Workers' Union. However, it is unacceptable that the proposed decisions are currently not based on data, as well as the fact that significant changes in educational policy are being promoted in the summer, "when practitioners are on vacation and it is more difficult to keep track of current events."
