This year’s final examinations organised under changed conditions – subject to the introduction of multiple precautionary measures – will be regarded as full examinations, the Minister of State for Public Education stated at the Operational Group’s online press conference held on Friday.
Zoltán Maruzsa said the government decree laying down the rules for the organisation of this year’s final examinations was released on Thursday evening. The final examination certificates to be awarded at this year’s examinations will qualify as comprehensively valid also in the future, and will render students eligible for admission to higher education, he highlighted.
He confirmed that only written examinations would be held between 4 and 21 May. Examinations in major subjects will begin at nine a.m. instead of eight, thereby avoiding students having to travel to school at the same time as those going to work for eight. There can be maximum ten students in each room, but this number can also be reduced to eight or nine, and there must be a minimum distance of one and a half metres between students which can be increased to up to 2 to 2.5 metres, depending on the size of the room. There will be mandatory disinfection in every building, and if required, students and teachers will be provided with face masks; however, the wearing of face masks will not be compulsory, he said.
Where necessary, they will also provide accommodation for students, with only one student in each room, he indicated.
Mr Maruzsa said the range of examination venues will also be extended. If necessary, any classroom of any public education institution can be used for the purposes of the final examinations. They would like to avoid having too many people present in one place, including corridors. According to their calculations, in the case of examinations organised the conventional way, there is a need for four thousand supervisor teachers; this year, six thousand teachers will be required. If they had fixed the maximum number per room at fewer than ten, this number could have risen to eight to ten thousand.
The Minister of State said he himself and his colleagues with the appropriate qualifications will enrol for supervision at the final examinations. He also mentioned that at the meeting of the task force, he indicated that they would like police presence in the vicinity of schools.
Oral examinations will only be held in the case of five subjects: target-language civilisation studies, Bible studies, Jewish studies, folk arts and religious education. Special rules are also being devised for physical education as in the case of this subject written examinations are not possible. Students who are exempted from written examinations will also be allowed to take oral examinations, he said.
Mr Maruzsa confirmed they will cancel the early examination applications of students in lower grades who will finish their studies later. They will be able to take early examinations in the autumn and during later examination periods.
He added that only those will be allowed to take examinations at a higher level who are seeking admission to higher education this year. This is also true of those who took their final examinations earlier, and enrolled for higher-level examinations due to applying to higher education this year.
The Minister of State for Public Education pointed out that while language final examinations, too, will be limited to written tests, when converting the final examination results into language certificates, they will be taken into consideration as complex language examinations. He repeatedly drew attention to the fact that taking final examinations this time is not compulsory for anyone; those who decide – whether because they were unable to properly prepare, or due to health risks – not to take their final examinations now will be able to do so later. The Office for Education must be notified of withdrawal electronically by 20 April, and any already paid examination fees will be reimbursed.
Applications can also be modified; if a person who wanted to take a higher-level examination in any subject believes that they were unable to properly prepare and would like to take the normal intermediate-level examination, they can do so. It is also possible to change an application for an intermediate-level examination to higher, thereby obtaining a language certificate. He also mentioned the government decree released at the weekend which permits the restarting of language examinations in examination centres which have the necessary accreditation.