Entrepreneurs do not support abolishing thresholds for basic school exams

Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has sent a letter to Liina Kersna, Minister of Education, highlighting their deep concern in relation to the plan to abolish thresholds for the final exams of basic schools. Entrepreneurs are emphasising that the quality of education is uneven and therefore, the underlying problems of the education system need to be solved instead of abolishing the exam thresholds.

“It does not seem reasonable to change our education system in the way that its sole aim would be issuing a graduation certificate, even to the graduating young people, but still, this topic is on the table of the highly educated officials. It is clear that eliminating study checks does not support better acquiring of curricula and does not help to improve or maintain the quality of our education,” said Toomas Luman, president of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and pointed out the importance of acquiring the curricula for sciences. It is more than likely that if the exams would be eliminated, the number and quality of those young people taking up engineering and other technical subjects will decrease. “This in turn, has a direct impact on the competitiveness of our economy, companies and people in the future. Moreover, it has an impact on our everyday living environment where there is no building or technological item which has not been created with the contribution from an engineer,” emphasised Luman.

During the past decade, the Chamber has repeatedly drawn the attention of the decision-makers to the age structure of the teachers of sciences and the small number of young people taking up that path. By now, almost every fourth physics and chemistry teacher is over 60 years old, and the same applies to every fifth mathematics, biology or chemistry teacher. The situation is increasingly such that in smaller schools and those further away from the bigger centres, there are no teachers of sciences and in order to ensure acquiring the curriculum at any level, the subjects are taught by teachers who lack the respective training.

Decrease in the exam results is caused by poor crisis management
Comparing the examination results of 2019, prior to the health crisis, with the results of the state exams of 2021, it is clear that the crisis was not managed well.

In 2019, the exam in Estonian was taken by in total 8,756 pupils, of whom approximately 3% received a negative result. In 2021, 9,724 pupils passed the national exam in Estonian, of whom ca 12% failed. In 2021, there were 11,556 pupils who took the exam in mathematics, of them 13% failed. In 2021, the same exam was taken by 12,640 pupils and ca 39% failed.

Mait Palts Director General of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the number of the pupils who have failed the first exam in mathematics and Estonian has increased by almost three times. “The crisis has had an effect of pupils and teachers, but the problem has started from the problems in crisis management. There has been no ability to adapt in the changed situation. Teachers, pupils and schools cannot independently solve strategic bottlenecks – neither during the crisis nor in long-term perspective. The currently proposed amendment will seemingly abolish the problem arising from failing, but creates a situation where pupils do not have to acquire the curricula. That puts in risk the opportunities young people have in their further studies or upon choosing their profession,” said Palts and added: “The increase in the number of pupils who have failed the exams is a clear sign of uneven quality of education and lack of subject teachers. These are the underlying problems that we need to handle without delay, and not focus on abolishing thresholds.”

In the opinion of the Chamber, processing of the draft act for abolishing the examination threshold must be stopped and instead, as a first step, agreements should be mad on how to solve the underlying problems education is facing now. For example, we need to find a solution for ensuring high level of basic education across Estonia, how to ensure new generations of teachers and how to support popularising sciences. Surely, teachers and other groups in the society besides entrepreneurs have various problems to highlight. The Chamber thinks that it is not right to abolish the examination threshold or making other such amendments before agreeing on such solutions, because there is no understanding of if and how they facilitate solving the underlying problems in basic education.