Because the central exams were canceled this year due to the corona crisis, more students passed secondary education than last year. In 2019, an average of 92 percent of all high school students passed, this year it was 98.7 percent, the Ministry of Education reports Tuesday.
Rather than taking central exam, students graduated from school exams and tests to improve results. The final figures are roughly at the same level as in previous years.
According to the ministry, there are several reasons why the average success rate is higher this year. For example, the rules for compensating with school exams are more flexible than for final exams. Pupils also had more time to prepare. In addition, they knew better what they were doing, because the weighty results of the final exams this year have no influence on the averages of the school exams, which were already set for about 90 percent.
Minister Arie Slob (Education) says that these students have obtained a “full diploma”. “We would have liked to have given students a central exam, but unfortunately that was not possible last school year.”
He wants the exams to take place next year, “but I also realize that this raises questions and concerns about the feasibility of this,” he wrote to the Lower House.
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