Director of the Central Examination Commission: the matura exam is not a cup of tea at my aunt’s
The three closest high school graduates are now living in enormous stress and anxiety. Students complain about distance education and the accompanying uncertainty about the exams. Marcin Smolik, director of the Central Examination Commission, replies: – Of course, it would be good to be able to plan everything and say exactly how it will be, but in a way we are at the mercy of the virus.
The next matura session is to start on May 4, in less than a month. Many high school graduates have lost hope that they will return to full-time education this year. Although they know the scope of the material in the exam, and the decision of the Minister of Education, Przemysław Czarnek, has cut it, some of them believe that it is unfair to conduct high school exams at the height of the pandemic.
But their younger colleagues who will not take their final exams until 2022 and 2023 are also living in the examination tension. Even though they are still learning remotely (some of them are longer at home than in schools, because in high schools and technical schools, remote lessons started in November last year and there is no end to them), no one is talking about what their tests will look like. They have to prepare themselves as if there was no pandemic. In addition, those who pass their secondary school-leaving exams in two years, they hear from everywhere that theirs will be clearly more difficult – we also wrote about it on tvn24.pl.
We asked Marcin Smolik, director of the Central Examination Commission, whether the date of this year’s Matura exam is up-to-date, and the scope of the material for the next one and the level of difficulty in 2023.
Marcin Smolik, director of the Central Examination CommissionMaciek Jazwiecki / Agencja Gazeta
Justyna Suchecka: Three difficult matura sessions are ahead of us. This year’s high school graduates say about pandemic uncertainty, next year’s that they should already know if their exam will be cut. On the other hand, those who pass their Matura exam in two years are embittered that it will be more difficult. And which of these exams is you stressing out the most?
Marcin Smolik: – We are always stressed in the Committee with this next exam. This is a huge undertaking – thousands of students, teachers, sheets. Fortunately, the printing and other technical issues are fine for now, but when I look at what’s going on in terms of the number of infections, I can’t be completely calm.
Do you think you will have to postpone the baccalaureate?
– Probably not, but I wonder if there will be any problem, for example with ensuring the appropriate number of people for supervisory teams, examination teams.
Read without limits
Access this article and other special content. Free