The education system in Algeria required that fifth-grade students take an exam in one day and test it in 3 subjects, and based on its results, these students can move to the preparatory stage, and the results achieved by students in previous years are also calculated in the process.
In addition to ending one of the causes of concern for students and their families, the decision will have positive repercussions on the Ministry of Education, which will dedicate its available resources to the preparatory and secondary exams.
The Algerian Minister of Education, Abdelhakim Belabed, announced the cancellation decision, Thursday, according to the official Algerian news agency.
He added that the decision, which will enter into force in the current academic year, came after an “in-depth and extensive study of the pedagogical, educational and assessment feasibility” of the exam.
Students who are expected to obtain this certificate will breathe a “sigh of relief” starting from the current year, as the points of previous classes will be relied upon to move to the intermediate stage, according to the new decision.
old project
The trend towards canceling the primary education exam was a project on the table of the Algerian Ministry of Education for several years within the framework of “educational system reform”. The project was only implemented this year.
And the demand to cancel the “sankyam” came back to the fore due to the Corona pandemic, as measures designed to confront the new epidemic imposed the cancellation of this exam for the 2019-2020 school year, and it was decided to determine the transition from one level to another in it by calculating the rate of the first and second semesters and reducing the acceptance rate.
frequent demands
The head of the National Organization for Parents of Students, Ali bin Zina, commented, in a call he collected to “Sky News Arabia” on the Ministry of Education’s decision, saying that it was “surprising”, although he confirmed that, as an educational organization, “four years ago they had demanded to cancel this exam, but it was not taken.” respond to them at that time.
According to Ali Ben Zina, their demand to cancel this exam comes from a “purely economic vision”, as canceling the exam will bring financial benefits to the ministry.
Ben Zina believes that the step of canceling “the sankyam must be followed by other steps for the benefit of the students, including organizing a catch-up exam for unsuccessful candidates.”
“good decision”
According to the educational activist, Kamal Nawari, the implementation by the Ministry of National Education of the demand to cancel the end-of-primary education exam is a “good decision”, due to several objective reasons that specialists have reached for years of evaluation.
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, the educational activity considered that “from now on, the student will move to the intermediate stage according to his annual effort, in addition to taking all school subjects into account, and not for one day in which he was tested through only three subjects.”
The speaker believes that this situation, which he described as “unusual”, “created, according to his vision, an “objective assessment of the students’ efforts, in addition to the tension and psychological pressure that this exam was causing on the students and their parents.”
On the other hand, Kamal Nawari stresses that the most important thing about this decision is to “reduce the material costs that were spent from the state budget in conducting the exam, such as saving papers, teachers’ dues, food requirements, and others.”
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