The first piloting of the state matura, which is carried out with the support of the State matura project, will include third-grade students from 101 high schools and will check the quality of the exam tasks and parts of procedures
What the "big" matura will look like will soon have the opportunity to be seen and tested by third-grade students from 101 high schools in which, from October 27 to 30, 2020, the first piloting of the state graduation exam will be organized. Despite the Covid-19 outbreak, preparations within the State Matura Project are going according to plan, so the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development has decided to hold the first pilot in the specified period.
- As a society and a nation, we have long been soothed by good grades, high achievements, frequent Vuk diplomas, hyperproduction of false success. The chasing diploma continued in higher education. Thanks to the state graduation, we will now have a measurement of quality in the pre-university part. All educational models exist for the sake of pupils and students, and this is, above all, excellent service to them. Teachers also benefit by being able to objectively check what they have been doing. With the existing and a new strategy, the whole country is profitable because, in this way, the spotlights are turned on, everything will be seen, what needs to be fixed, there will be no more stories about the poor quality of education - said Mladen Šarčević, Minister of Education, Science and technological development, at a conference dedicated to the first piloting of the state matura.
The European Union supports the first piloting of the state matura through a project whose implementation it finances with four million euros, the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Ambassador Sam Fabrizi, reminded in the introductory part of the conference.
- The introduction of the Matura has three essential elements, the first of which concerns raising the quality of education, the second raising the standards of the educational system that will provide equal criteria for taking exams. At the same time, the third refers to improving the credibility of the system. Education is one of the most critical investments because quality education strengthens society as a whole. That is why it is necessary to constantly invest in it - said Fabrizi, emphasizing that the EU has donated more than 100 million euros since 2003 to improve the education system in Serbia.
The first piloting of the state matura will be organized in 50 high schools, 48 secondary vocational schools and three secondary art schools. The final exam and all three types of matura will be piloted - general, professional and artistic, and the quality of the exam tasks and part of the procedures carried out in schools during the matura will be checked. Only the obligatory part of the exam will be piloted. Still, students will not have the opportunity to choose the third subject from the List of General Education Subjects (as they will be at the real matura) but will take a subject that will be pre-determined for their school.
The goal of piloting is to spot and eliminate possible omissions and shortcomings in time and get students used to testing this type and exam tasks.
The October piloting is an opportunity to "rehearse" the final exam at the end of a three-year secondary vocational education because these students will be the first to take the real final exam. The final exam will be tested in ten schools for 22 educational profiles and taken by a maximum of ten students from each class.
FIRST PILOTING OF THE STATE MATURA
- Curricula from the first and second grades will be examined through specific tasks
- The obligatory part of the Matura is piloted - Serbian language, Mathematics and subjects from the List of general education subjects (due to the sample of schools involved in piloting, not all foreign languages will be piloted). Students will work on three tests, but the subject, which they will be able to choose from the list of general education subjects at the real matura within the obligatory part of the matura exam, will be determined in advance at the school level (only for the purposes of this piloting)
- The
tests will have 20 tasks each, except for the professional exam for students in
secondary vocational schools, which will have up to 25 tasks
- The time for the test will be 90 minutes
- Completed tests will be reviewed by external assessors - teachers who review the tests will not review the tests of students from their school
- As in the first pilot, in October 2020, not the whole generation will be tested, but only individual classes in pilot schools, the first pilot will include members of several national minorities (tests will be translated into mother tongues). Testing will be conducted in Hungarian and Bosnian
- The selected sample will also include students with disabilities and developmental disabilities, for whom the conditions for taking the exam will be adjusted on piloting and on the real matura
- For more information on the first piloting of the state matura, see the Brochure on the first piloting of the state matura
The second piloting of the matura should be similar to the real matura and, in addition to the tasks, all procedures in the implementation of the state matura will be checked.