"Copy, because everyone is copying"

Did we get the 3 lessons from the National Tests?! The results of the Matura Test are expected to be published today, and after a week those of the Achievement Test. Students of pre-university education are subject to these state tests: Matura Test - students who complete the 12th grade, therefore students who complete upper secondary education; and the Achievement Test - students who complete the lower secondary level of education. But there are three lessons to be learned from these tests:

1. Copying

Even the distribution of students of one class in different schools during the holding of both national tests that was practiced this year, did not work. Because, again, it was copied and the tests were again published in social network groups, like in previous years.  The creativity to copy exceeds one's efforts to prevent copying. Because in order to copy, an entire enterprise of people is organized, starting from the family to the officials who work in institutions. They devise all kinds of strategies to "help" their students/families to copy, telling them: "copy, because everyone is copying".  Thus, a number of different trends that have been made over the years, in an attempt to better manage the holding of national tests and to prevent copying, have failed. Basically, copying is reflecting that it has become a social mentality, not an individual or group problem.

The arrows why it was copied are directed by the test administrators, since there were classes where students could not copy even a single letter. However, the opposite happened in quite a few classrooms, where the administrator "closed his eyes" and in the name of "help" tolerated mass copying in the classroom. Completed tests were distributed on social networks, from the first minutes of the start of the Test (the start time was the same throughout the country). Now the question arises, how is it possible for the student to complete the test of 100 questions with the correct answers, within a few minutes. There, a series of impermissible actions had to be done: the student enters the classroom with a phone, then takes out the phone, takes a picture of the test, enters the group, and then sends it. Where were the administrators in these cases?- Or, maybe we should change the tracks of the investigations, and turn to the designers of these tests and the employees of the institutions who could have had the test in hand, before the testing began. Meanwhile, the focus and the greatest energy  of supervision has been poured into Pristina-as the capital, there have been cases over the past years when certain municipalities have come out with significantly higher test scores, prompting speculation about the quality of teaching and learning there compared to Pristina.         

Both Tests are indicators that open doors for admission to further education. Graduates cannot compete in higher education without having scores above the passing threshold. Scores indicate ranking on admissions lists, as do scores on the Achievement Test for students teaching in senior secondary schools.      

2. Orientation 

This year, for the first time, the online application was implemented for students to take the Matura test. The students were tested in four subjects, three of them compulsory: Albanian language, English language and mathematics, as well as an optional subject. They themselves have chosen which one it will be, where they feel better prepared. But, is anyone careful to extract data from these tests that are very valuable indicators, especially for the career orientation of future generations?! These data could be extracted from the application of high school graduates for elective courses. We have not seen any reflection of the Ministry of Education in this regard, just as we have not seen any institutional effort to guide talented high school students to the areas where they have talents and leadership in higher education within the state. Developed countries pour funds to attract cadres who have an inclination for certain professions, where the demand in the market is high. The offers for these fields touch the top of investments, due to the high certainty that these are returnable investments, breaking barriers and opening doors even for foreign students, let alone for local ones.          

3. Innovations 

There is a significant number of students who have not been able to submit to the Eighth Matura at all, for the reason that they did not have the opportunity to apply online, in E-Kosova, or did not know how to do so. This, since the Ministry of Education announced about this innovation just a short time before the test.  Meanwhile, the students were penalized through no fault of their own, so a lesson should be learned from this as well, in order not to apply innovations at such levels, without the community being prepared for them. In this case, the Ministry of Education should announce much earlier, at least at the beginning of the second half of the school year, that students must apply electronically to take the Matura Test. And then, make other appropriate preparations, such as informing the students how to apply. Then, it was necessary to provide access to the school's infrastructure to students who may not have technological equipment. If this were done, it wouldn't happen that students would apply with their parent's ID number, instead of doing it with their personal number. Or, some even remained without applying at all, such as the students of certain communities in Kosovo.