– It shouldn’t be like that. It’s not okay. That’s what Simon Sønstabø Stavland, who is studying electrical engineering at Bømlo upper secondary school, says. On Friday, the students had their exam in automation, and the preparations must have been anything but optimal. Halfway through the preparation time of 48 hours, the preparation material was changed. 150 pages of an appendix of a total of 218 pages had then been changed, and some pages removed. This is not the first time this week that there has been a lot of trouble in connection with exams for secondary school students across the country. Photo: Skjermbilde / Udir.no The Norwegian Directorate of Education informs news that there are 499 registered students in the current automation subject. Didn’t get a message For Stavland and the other students, it felt like losing half of the preparation time. – We found out late on Wednesday, but couldn’t practice any of it without the help of our teacher. Actually, it was halved from 48 to 24 hours, which is not what we were promised, he believes. The Directorate of Education (Udir) updated its own pages on Wednesday at 15.30 with the information that some of the pages in the appendix to the subject were incorrect. But Udir did not inform the teachers about this until the next day, Thursday at 09.00. The problem applies to all students throughout the country who are going to sit the exam in automation. Photo: Arne Kristian Gansmo – We were very confused. Then we really had to start all over again, says Stavland. The problem concerned all students in the country who were supposed to take the automation exam. – Serious mistake – There has been a great deal of focus on the problems with the exam in Norwegian majors, but I think that this is much more serious. That’s according to acting principal at Bømlo upper secondary school, Rebecca Hildebrandt-Paulin. She justifies this with the large amount of preparation material. – It is a serious mistake, so you have to expect them to go in and try to find where things have failed and learn from it, says Hildebrandt-Paulin. Rebecca Hildebrandt-Paulin is acting principal at Bømlo secondary school. She believes that the exam should have been moved to another day. Photo: Norsk skolefoto The school has focused heavily on reassuring the students and keeping the atmosphere among the students as calm as possible in advance. They have also made sure to have extra teachers who have contributed with the preparations. – It would not have been so demanding to move the exam to another day. That they had solved it by letting them have an extra day of preparation, she believes. Udir: – Censor takes into account Udir has not had the opportunity to be interviewed by news about this case, but has replied via e-mail. – We sent out a message to the schools that the appendix to the preparation material in automation was missing pages. We then updated the material. The examiners take this into account in their assessment of the answers, they write. In the curriculum, 48 hours are set aside for preparation. – We do not necessarily consider this a violation, writes Udir, however. NOT A BREACH: Udir does not consider what has happened to be a breach. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB Udir has informed the examiners that they should assess the exam as if the students had only had 24 hours to prepare for it. – During the exam period, with almost 900 different exams, we receive feedback about errors and shortcomings in some exam tasks. Among other things, there may be mistakes in numbering, clarifications or mistakes in concepts, they write further. Submitting a complaint Hildebrandt-Paulin believes that the error in this case is greater than minor errors. – Here, large parts of the material are wrong. It is far more extensive than just a bad proofread, she says. The headmaster thinks it is good that the examiners should take this into account, but that it is still not enough to reassure the students. She states that they intend to lodge a complaint with Udir. – The head of department and the examiner have collected a number of points. We have also heard that a number of other counties have already submitted complaints, she says.
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Udir changed the preparation material for the secondary school exam – almost a day passed before they gave notice – news Vestland
