Generally the EIT in 2011 was organized on high level. OPORA observers point out the disciplined behavior of the participants on testing points. The graduates almost didn’t use the supporting materials (cribs, cell phones, attempts to get the information behind the room) and concentrated on the tests. So, the number of tests, cancelled because of procedural violations, lessened in few times.
The question of the testing attendance and the effective usage of the state budget wasting millions of hryvnias since 2010 when the testing became optional for some categories of the graduates is still problematic. E.g., in 2011 the budget losses were 10 million 296 thousands 080 hryvnias because of small attendance. 128 701 graduates changed their minds and didn’t come for testing.
The most extraordinary organization problems noticed by the observers are:
- Ineffective delivery of the EIT certificates through the Ukrposhta. without this document the graduate has no possibility to get to the testing premises and take part in the testing. There were some cases when the certificates weren’t handed to the graduates;
- More durable checking of the tests comparably with the previous year, when the evaluation of one “A” group paper (only close questions) lasted for 7 days. This year it lasted from 10 to 14 days:
- Graduates’ complaints on the different complication of the Ukrainian language and literature tests during the first and the second session.
But, it can turn out that the most unusual year for testing will be 2012 when the testing terms will coincide with the studying at schools, hence it is planned to finish the EIT till the middle of June. This is the way of resolving the issue of Euro-2012 when there can’t be any public important campaigns. In addition to this, the next year will be the graduation of the pupils who have studied two foreign languages beginning with 5th grade. If they would like to pass both language exams, they would have to abandon one of them in favor of the nowadays system of grouping the foreign languages.
The procedural violations were both from the graduates and from the testing staff.
In 11% of testing points where OPORA observers worked, there wasn’t complete keeping the procedure of checking participants’ documents (certificate, permit, passport or birth certificate). We remind that such cases lead to the incidents that were vastly popular during the unique state exam in Russian Federation when the students took part in testing instead of the school-leavers for money. Rough personal identification is not the only preventing measure for such systematic violations. Besides, in Lviv region 42-years old mother decided to pass the EIT instead of her 19-years old daughter. The paper of the latter was annuled.
In 6% of the testing points there were cases of using the cell phones by the staff that contradicts the EIT procedures. Because of the fact that cell phone can be used for the passing of the tasks contents and reveal them before the end of the tests, it is prohibited to use cell phone for the paricipants, the staff of TP (except the responsible for testing and the delegate of UCEQE), for the observers. The chats create problems for the graduates who can’t concentrate on the task. In Khmelnytskyy region there was a case when the participant was allowed to participate in the additional session because of her complaint for the chats of instructors.
7% of OPORA observers put the highest mark – 3 pts – for the organization and passing the tests, 20% - 2 (good), 4% - 1 (unsatisfactory).
In 19% of the testing points there were some graduates who were late for the test. Undisciplined participants won’t have the possibility to participate in the additional session because the ungrounded absence of punctuality is punished according to the procedures. But the observers claim that even the workers of TP’s “advised” the graduates to consult the health care institutions for the false medical certificate. But the observers who visited the regular commissions who had the right to decide upon the participation of the graduate in the additional session, point the careful checking of the certificates and multiple appealing to the health care services.
In 7% of the testing points there were tryings to pass the tests instead of the graduates on the stage of initial document checking or by the instructor in the room. The OPORA observers suppose that such cases will last until there will be the administrative fines for such a fraud.
In 9% of the testing points there were attempts to use the additional tools in the tests. The violations lead to stopping of the test and the finish of the graduation for the school-leaver in 2011. Each year the tools change. One of the popular supplies is the earphones through which the answers can be dictated, the online consulting via the internet in the WC or other recreational zone. OPORA recommends the graduates to pay more attention to the preparation and not on the helping tools with the dubious efficiency.
The attendance of the graduates proved the lessening of the EIT weight duting the admission.
Beginning with 2010 when the Admission terms enlarged the list of groups who can graduate without EIT, the attendance is smaller than in 2008 or 2009. The graduates planned to pass the EIT for different subjects 949 449 times; the potential participants omitted the testing 128 701 times or in 13, 55% from the declared. So the state budget losses were 10 million 296 thousands 80 hryvnias.
THE RECOMMENDATIONS AFTER THE OBSERVATION
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with the lobbying of the profile ministry:
- Enhance the financing of EIT. The salaries of the staff are very small as for their responsibility. It is worth considering that the absent motivation influences the quality of work.
- To make the legislative base for EIT. It is necessary to formalize the status of the certificate, the legal responsibility for the procedural violations by the staff and the approval of EIT results as the graduate exams to the universities that have no alternative.
Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Evaluation
• Ensure proper control over the use of mobile phones on test premises from both staff and students;
• Organize a full official investigation into the improper delivery of certificates to participants of the test;
• View the system of certificates’ distribution by Ukrposhta , which is resource intensive and not sufficiently reliable, in order to locate the certificates, secured by code or number on the personal students’pages in the Internet;
• More active work with the media on procedural innovations of EIT and organize full-scale information campaigns for graduates the next year;
• Ensure proper informing of the graduates about the test by updating the website www.testportal.gov.ua, upgrading the portal, ensuring the proper functioning of the search engine and release forms of complaints, appeals and applications for students.
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Ukraine
• Ensure the proper communication and cooperation with the Ministry of Health and its local offices during the consideration of applications by regulatory commissions about the causes of absenteeism of graduates to EIT, which were supported by medical certificate;
• Prepare a program of cooperation with the Ministry of Health to test medical certificates of applicants during the admissions process, providing the right to outside competition entry;
• Ensure timely approval of the testing program for all subjects not later than October 2011, which would create preconditions for more high-quality preparation of tests to the developers;
• Publish information on each subject, or session on the number of entrants who answered the 100% task testing and compare data from the 2008-2010 years.
Graduates and their parents
• More carefully prepare to the EIT not only on the content of the subject, but also on procedural requirements;
• In case of violations of test participant’s rights shall he immediately report the incident to public observers, UCEQE, regional CEQEs and MESYSU..
PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT
In 2011 the amount of the public observers and the attention of the media to EIT lessened. The situation can cause substantial worsening of the organization and justice of the testing.
4 grougs of observers attended the EIT, the biggest is the educational (school parents committees, stewardship councils, the trade unions of the education and science workers), the second place is the public, the third is for media and the least is the state control (departments of education on various levels).
The most active civil organization out of the organizations that traditionally maintain the testing monitor campaigns was CN OPORA. It provided 82% of the observers.
SELECTED CURIOUS INCIDENTS
Biology
In the TP in Zaporizhzhya National university on 10:34 AM the partly damage of the secure pack was found (the rupture in the bottom was nearly 10 cm). According to this violation the protocol was completed. But the observers claim that there were no possibility to get the test papers through the gap.
In school # 15 (room # 10, workplace # 10) in Cherkasy near 13:05 the observer noticed the fact of providing help by the instructor to one of the participants. Only 3 graduates were left in the room, 2 of them sat in front of the violator and didn’t see what happened behind their backs. For a long time the instructor whispered something to the graduate and pointed at the right answers. It turned out that the instructor worked as a teacher at school # 9 in Cherkasy and the graduate studied in the same school. While passing the package to the responsible for the TP and to the delegate from the UCEQE the observer told about the violation. The instructor couldn’t clearly explain what had she done near the desk of the graduate for a long time so she didn’t know what to write in the explanatory note. Because of this the delegate of the UCEQE began to dictate the explanation because he witnessed what had happened. The graduate, as it was written, raised her hand and asked the insructor how should she correct the mistake that occurred while she copied the answers to the answer sheet. But the observer told that the answer sheet lay far from the graduate so the explanations doesn’t correspond with the incident. When the protocols were filled in, the observer wasn’t permitted to add his opinion about the incident.
History of Ukraine
In school # 4 in Tsiurupynsk in Kherson region the observer entered the testing point without the documents checking. He attended the ballot and even went through the rooms. Before the graduates came in the staff paid attention that nobody saw the observer’s ID. In the same school the document checking for the testing participants and the beginning of the tests were performed without the law enforcement delegates. The militiamen arrived at 11:07 and explained that they were “in the village for an emergency call”.
Geography
In Sarny school # 4 in Rivne region the observer had to warn the deputy responsible for EIT because of multiple cell phone usage for chats and SMS. It turned out that she had a birthday. Nevertheless the violation was fixed in the protocol.
Foreign languages
Observers of OPORA recorded the case when the test participant was denied the right to continue to work on tasks because of trying to get help. The graduate came down from the third floor, where the EIT was performed at first to talk on the phone. On-duties noticed the violation and made the act of removing a participant from the point of testing (secondary school № 65 of Lviv). And in the Interregional Center of Vocational Education for artistic modeling and design in Lviv, the evaluation was organized in workshops for tailoring.
At the testing point, which was located in Zaporizhzhya National University, the graduate with damaged spine had to solve the tests over 2 hours, standing on the desk on the knees. The staff wasn’t warned about the special needs of the graduate in advance, so the staff workers couldn't provide nothing further than sympathy.
Mathematics
In gymnasia number 3 of Kherson the police who should control the pass and make the verification test of participants’ documents, came to the point of testing only at 11:00. In his defense the workers of Ministry said they were told by the direction to come just at the beginning of testing. and not before.
In PT school № 9 (Rivne), the graduate tried to ask the right answers when the public observer was in the toilet.
Ukrainian Language and Literature
Violation of the procedure was recorded in Kuznetsovsk school № 1 (Rivne).The on-duties couldn’t begin the admission of the graduates at a certain time to the school building. So they had to do it in the last minute before the test without verification of documents. An authorized person that was present at this testing point didn’t give an opportunity to fulfill their legitimate duty and Import this information into the protocol. The Rivne office prepared an appeal addressed to the Director of the UCEQE about the impedion of work of observers.
To the testing point, which is located at the Zaporizhzhya Institute of Economics and Information Technology (Melitopol), some students could not get in time. The reason for delay was the major test by SAI for the local carriers. Most taxis in the city are illegal and they did not leave on schedule at work, and test participants who were not prepared for such force majeure could not appear on the testing spot at a specified time. However, for those students who were late for 5 or 10 minutes was an exception and they participated in testing.
In the Mykolayiv School number 50, the on-duty did not allow public observers to the testing room. He demanded an unknown document entitled: "napravleniye".Although the problem was resolved in favor of an observer, it’s a shame that some organizers were not sufficiently knowledgeable in the procedures.
In testing points in Vinnytsia the guards use metal detectors, and it was previously known by the graduates. Everyone who comes from audiences is checked for the mobile phones and other technical devices. This makes a very positive effect on discipline.
In the secondary school № 4 in Colomyya the applicants who have completed work on the tasks were carrying mobile phones and used them freely at the point of testing. In the audience number 19 the instructor also abused this. Her phone called twice (at 12:15 and 12:57). She left the audience to answer the call.More than once in the audience, watched by activists of OPORA, one could hear sounds of ringtones from corridors.
In Ivano-Frankivsk (secondary school number 21) 7 instructors didn’t appear on the testing for unknown reasons. However, the replacement was found quickly and is in no way affected the course of testing.
REFERENCE
CN OPORA conducts the EIT monitoring campaign in 12 regions of Ukraine. The organization registered 463 observers. The coverage of each subject was from 25 to 75%, the most attention was to the most popular tests. The reports of the observers are sent via SMS in the encrypted way after the end of testing and it gives the possibility to get and check the information about the problems, violations and incidents on the TP’s.
Monitoring fields of the OPORA observers:
- Evaluation of the organization level directly on the testing point;
- Monitoring of the regulatory commisions that consider graduates’ complaints about the procedure violations or state the order of resolving the problematic issues of testing conduction;
- Participation in the work of the Appeal Committee of the UCEQE that considers the requests of graduates about the disagreement with EIT results.
Besides the OPORA observers provide free legal consulting to the graduates and their parents in case of violation of the participants’ rights. It is possible to obtain help both from the observer and via the hotline phone: 044 225 32 81
The observation is kept as the part of national campaign of the EIT monitoring supported by the Alliance of the Program of Promoting the independent testing in Ukraine (USETI Legacy Alliance).
To the media!
After calling on the hotline number of the organization (044) 225 32 81, you can get expert help or report the abuse. OPORA hopes that it will help to protect the rights of those students who wish honestly get a student ID. If you want to be our media partner and place a banner of free telephone hotline, please let us know at [email protected]. For its part, OPORA will always be ready to provide you with the latest information on monitoring IET or admissions, to help prepare informational material, place a banner of socially responsible media on its website.