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Minister of Education Marcel Chládek has already commented several times in the past on this year’s final exams. He confirmed that the exams will take place, but in a different form than we know them. At a Thursday briefing he officially stated that oral final exams are being cancelled.
At today’s press conference, Minister of Education Marcel Chládek announced new information on the organization of the oral part of the final exams for the current 2019/2020 school year. “We will have to change the final exams as we know them a bit, because the situation forces us to,” the minister said.
According to him, we must therefore adopt special measures in this extraordinary situation. We waited longer for a statement; according to the prime minister a few steps were needed first.
First of all, yesterday they approved a law that allows the ministry to change the course of the final exams in an extraordinary situation. It was not certain whether graduates would return to school and moreover the recommendations of the Public Health Authority were applicable to the old, usual form of the exams.
Classic oral final exams will not take place
The news announced today by the minister applies to all types of secondary schools, including grammar schools, secondary vocational schools, conservatories, schools of applied arts and secondary sports schools. Classic oral exams will not be held this school year.
Instead, the final exams will be carried out by calculating the average of all annual grades in the examined subjects for all years of secondary school; in the last two grades, mid-year and end-of-year report card grades will also be counted.
An average up to and including 0.5 will be rounded down. That means an average of 1.5 becomes a 1, an average of 2.5 becomes a 2, and so on. This applies to both the theoretical and practical parts of the exams. Failure to complete the required number of teaching hours and failure to complete the number of practical training hours, if due to school closures because of the coronavirus, are not reasons for not grading students in the regular term in the second semester and for not allowing them to take the final exam.
That means that even if you do not have the number of hours announced in advance, you will still receive a grade.
The headmaster of the secondary school will determine by 7 May 2020 groups of related subjects whose grades will be included in the assessment of the final exam subject (for example English language, English seminar, etc.).
In eight-year programs, grades from years 5–8 are counted in the same way. Thus from years 5 and 6 only the end-of-year grades, from years 7 and 8 also the mid-year grades.
Graduates will have their final averaged grade determined by 12 May. If a student disagrees with the grade, they can appeal and request a classic oral final exam by 15 May. They will then take the classic oral final exam.
Procedure
The dates of these classic final exams must be announced by schools by 19 May and will take place between 25 May and 13 June 2020. It is estimated that 2000–3000 students will take them, who are expected not to agree with the grade according to the minister. Examinations take place at more than 600 schools, which minimizes the number of students at the classic exams and will make it possible to follow the recommendations of the regional public health authorities.
Teaching for the final grades will officially end on 7 May 2020. The school will issue the report card for the last grade together with the final exam results by 30 June according to the schedule.
You can cancel an optional subject by 7 May. But if you do not do so that early, you will have to take the classic exam in it either remotely or in person. The remedial exam from last year was also not cancelled; in the same term, 25 May – 13 June, students who are repeating the internal part will have to graduate. Those who repeat the external exam will take it on 3–8 September.
