Education – More attempts at central high school in Corona years

In the first two Corona years, 2020 and 2021, there were not only higher success rates for the central Matura – significantly more students were also allowed to compete than before. This is shown by the answer to a parliamentary question from NEOS by Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP). This is mainly due to the AHS, where the number of enrollments grew by around 1,500 between 2019 (last year before Corona) and 2021 (excluding external students).

In total, there were 17,680 attempts at the AHS in the 2018/19 graduation year. In the following year there were 18,150, in 2020/21 already 19,148. The number of pupils at the AHS upper levels is also increasing, but to a much lesser extent.

There could be several reasons for this development: On the one hand, many teachers may have admitted students to the Matura due to the long distance learning in the two school years. In addition, the looser sit-down rules in the 2019/20 school year could have led to more students being able to move up to the eighth grade and then be allowed to graduate in May/June 2021.

In view of these circumstances, lower success rates would actually have been expected for the Matura. However, the opposite was the case: in both years, significantly more candidates passed the Matura.

The picture is different at the higher vocational schools (BHS): there the increase in the number of people taking their Matura exams was significantly lower – between 2018/19 (20,714) and 2019/20 (20,286) the number even fell, and then in 2020/21 to 21,124 to rise

NEOS education spokeswoman Martina Künsberg Sarre was pleased with the increase in the number of high school graduates, but questioned whether the effort for the central high school diploma was worthwhile. “51 different variants, i.e. 51 different examination books per appointment, are not only expensive to produce, but they also counteract the point of a central final examination, namely the comparability.” She advocates either reducing the central Matura to the common core of all school types and checking everything else independently, “or even discussing the big wheels of a real educational turnaround instead of turning small screws every year”.

In the meantime, the Ministry is promising new possibilities for the digital processing of the matriculation and diploma examinations with digital end devices in the query response. Schools have been supported by the ministry since 2017. 30 schools are currently taking part in the project, and other schools are completing one of the three exams digitally. After piloting, interested schools will be offered “a new implementation system” from 2023/24.

As soon as a “digital Matura” is realized, new forms of correcting the central Matura exams are “basically conceivable” for Polaschek. Although the information is currently being created centrally, the corrections are made by the class teacher and not externally. (apa)

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