THE NEW EXAMINATION MODEL

Any new decision in education involves a huge amount of work required to restructure the entire system - from planning to development of methodological aids, personnel and their introduction to the education system. The schoolchildren and parents think that all changes are chaotic, since the intermediate stages between the development of a project and its implementation remain hidden.

A new model of final and admission examinations for higher and secondary special schools announced recently has provoked a mixed reaction among the society. Many people believe that our education system is experiencing a transition period, and that the introduction of endless innovations will further shake the unstable system. How can such global changes be introduced on such an unstable ground?

Officials of the State Examination Center (SEC) and the Ministry of Education say that the new model is a result of the national curriculum introduced nine years ago, in 2009. Final exams in secondary special schools in 2017, where the graduates are ninth-graders who have studies under the curriculum, were conducted using the new standards. For graduates of the 11^th grade (full secondary education), the introduction of new standards is planned by 2019.

Stage by stage

From now on, final examinations will include three subjects only: mother tongue, mathematics and English. The number of subjects on admission examinations to higher schools will be reduced from five to three. At the same time, it is necessary to pass admission examinations in core subjects, except the disciplines tested during the final exams. Upon admission, the commission will take into account the results of final examinations. In addition to test answers, where one should choose the right one, open questions without answers will be introduced in the exams. It is clear that if officials are going to introduce a new model in two years, then absolutely new methodological aids should be developed during such a short period. How effective will this be? Is it going to be a real shock for graduates? Moreover, the tutors will have to review the teaching system as well.

The decree on the transition to a new education system was signed back in 1997. The World Bank allocated a loan for the development of the new system. However, the bank demanded that the government had to reject the existing Soviet education system completely to be eligible for the loan.

The introduction of the national curriculum standard in 2009 has passed a number of stages: methodological studies, the search for pilot schools, development and approval of national curriculum standards, preparation of textbooks, trainings for teachers and only then - the introduction of the new system in schools. Thus, the reform of the system of final and admission examinations is a logical continuation of the overall program of changes.

Changes in the structure of the assessment of knowledge occur constantly. It is not easy to adapt to them easily. However, according to experts, this is an inevitable process. Gradually, new questions and techniques are introduced in exams. It so happened that schoolchildren and their parents have to live with the innovations and their consequences literally.

The tradition of tutoring is another story. It emerged spontaneously just when the old system was broken, back in the 90s. With our independence came the changes in textbooks and educational programs. Some schools still used old Soviet textbooks, while the others used the Russian ones. We used to use the Azerbaijani textbooks published hastily. Therefore, we have always suffered from a shortage of benefits, programs and methods, and the tutors, who were aware of the system of admission examinations, were our last resort. The experts say though that this is not so important now.

"I would not say that the curriculum has become more complicated. For example, in the 90s, we used to teach the square equations in the seventh grade, now they are taught in the eighth. The culture of tutoring has grown and hypertrophied to such an extent that the schoolchildren often do not consider it necessary to attend schools, if they have an option to hire the tutors," says one of the experts.

What can we expect from the new model?

The new assessment program will be built upon data analysis. Traditionally, we are inclined to think that all the students must be exemplary. There is no such thing abroad, says the expert. In the West, they try to identify a student’s talents to know which subjects to focus on and develop these talents. That is why the unemployment rate does not exceed 3% in developed countries. Since 2017, the schools are finally introducing profiling. The schoolchildren will pass the necessary general minimum in subjects that they will not need when entering colleges or universities. And new classes will be formed in core subjects. A student who plans to enter the medical university will be able to study the profile subjects of chemistry and biology in the 10-11th grades, paying only the necessary minimum attention to other subjects. In fact, this should become a legal school alternative to tutoring.

The next step is the grading of subjects. For example, a future engineer will need English at a satisfactory level, while an interpreter will be at an excellent level. This would help to further optimize the preparation for admission exams.

Many are frightened by the transition to a new system, especially the departure from the test system and the introduction of the so-called open questions - without answers that need to be written by students individually. What are the evaluation criteria for the analysis of answers to open questions?

According to the expert, the most difficult part is the evaluation of essays. Since every essay is a subjective individual position, it was decided to abandon this evaluation criterion, although the ability of a student to analyze, to build proposals, to structure the text, and to express his thoughts in full are important.

In technical subjects, the correct answers must be clear. But in this case, variations are also possible - were there any errors, how correct was the decision, at what stage the errors were recorded, and so on.

Competitive education

Another specialist, who is one of the founders of the admission commission, said that higher education is not a privilege of the elect, rather it is a service that the state provides to its citizens in the whole world. Getting education is any citizen's constitutional right. The world is driven by technology, the requirements to regular professions become more complex. Therefore, the education system must be accessible.

"In 2006, at the forum in Kiev, I shared with audience the experience of admission examinations in Azerbaijan. At that time, 140,000 students graduated from the school, of which 120,000 applied to universities. Colleges had 26 thousand vacant places, but only 24,2 thousand of them were occupied. The remaining 1,800 remained vacant, since the level of entrants did not meet the requirements. The next day, one of the forum delegates from England approached me and said: "With a ratio of 120 thousand job seekers, you should have provided at least 80 thousand vacancies. Instead, you left free 1,800. The world is expanding, now any person can claim any job across the world. We need to ensure that they have access to education in order to make it competitive in the world labor market."

To enter the Sorbonne, one does not need to take exams and pay money, the knowledge of French is enough. This oldest university in the world is open to everyone, although not everyone can graduate from it: one must study and pass exams, work hard. What is happening here? An applicant, who fails the admission exams, sends his documents to a college in another country - Turkey, Russia, China, Ukraine, or Georgia. The tuition payment also goes to the budget of these countries.

It was planned to create special paid preparatory courses at the universities, which would be good, but this initiative has not been supported.

In the 1990s, the admissions committee made the most of what was required at that stage - the test system provided equal opportunities to all applicants by solving the anti-corruption problem. But today it is of no use. Every year the tests become more complicated. The modern world requires not the volume of knowledge be checked, but critical thinking, logic. It is necessary to develop another mechanism for determining knowledge, such as holding competitions, olympiads, laboratories in universities, so that a seventh grader, who dreams of becoming a lawyer, could undergo training in jurisprudence at a younger age.

Another expert believes that testing mathematical skills in all groups of specialties is incomprehensible and useless. A person who wants to study humanities must take exams on subjects that are interesting to him and which he needs in the future. The knowledge of mathematics at the academic level is not needed for historians and lawyers.

Also, testing two important subjects within a month is also difficult from a psychological point of view: "Young people who have not yet formed psychologically cannot be exposed to such a stress."

However, the combination of final and admission examinations, as well as increasing the number of subjects on final exams, or their decrease during admission means an increase in the level of complexity of the questions. "The combination of final and admission exams means an increase in the number of subjects and the level of difficulty in the final exams. Our schools are not yet ready for this," said the expert, adding that it will be difficult to implement this process under current conditions.

On the other hand, the problem, which aggravates an already painful process of reform and innovation, is the lack of personnel. The director of one of the Baku schools commented on this situation: "Yes, they say about the low level of education. But a functioning certification commission has not yet been established. I cannot arbitrarily fire an incompetent teacher. This is a complicated bureaucratic procedure involving the Ministry of Education. In addition, the dismissal of all incompetent teachers will lead to a form of social explosion - a huge number of people will be unemployed." Each teacher should be given a minimum of six hours of lessons per week. The lack of staff prevents the better implementation of reforms.

Although the forthcoming events have some degree of difficulties, it is not a chaotic process. According to our expert, many Western countries with internationally recognized system of education and curriculum have gone through the same process. "For example, in the Netherlands, the existing education system is the fifth curriculum. Perhaps we will need more time and more new curricula before we develop a sustainable working model. Unfortunately, the whole process takes place under the ongoing educational process and, as a result, both the students and their parents are exposed to stress."