On February 20, 2015, it will be a deadline for Ukrainian pupils to register for the External Independent Testing (EIT). However, the country’s Ministry of Education has decided to extend the registration period for the high-school graduates from the temporarily occupied territories and conduct the testing itself for the IDPs as separate examination.
Terms and conditions
The Ministry extended the deadline for the EIT registration for high-school graduates from Crimea and the ATO area. Now pupils can submit the online application to pass the testing until April 20, and the test itself will be held for them as a separate testing session from the 3rd till the 26th of June. The Ministry of Education explains such a decision with the difficult situation in the East of the country and problems with the departure from Crimea.
However, it is reported in the Ministry that those pupils, who have already registered for the EIT, will pass it on the same basis within a set timeframe as all Ukrainians.
If for some reason a high-school graduate doesn’t arrive for the testing within a fixed timeframe up to and including June 26, he can pass the tests later on June 27. The testing won’t be held after this date.
The Ministry of Education and Science said that as of today, there are about 18 thousand high-school graduates in the Donetsk region and 5 thousand of them on the territory controlled by the rebels. There are about 9.5 thousand high-school graduates in the Lugansk region. Three thousand of them are on the territory of the so called LNR.
Benefits
There will be no special benefits for the high-school graduates from Crimea and the ATO area. The deputy minister of education of Ukraine Pavel Polyanskiy announced that at the briefing in Kiev today.
“The high-school graduates from occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk regions will take the external independent testing on equal terms with other secondary school students. There will be no special preferences for them. It would not be fair,” Pavel Polyanskiy said.
However, the deputy minister also said that the State Final Examination (SFE) is simplified as much as possible for internally displaced secondary school students this year. Thus, unlike the previous years, the SFE will be held as a usual test work.
Those pupils, who want to get a Ukrainian high school graduation certificate, should register for the distance learning in schools of Ukraine. The Ministry of Education published a list of such schools on its website. It contains about two thousand educational institutions but the Ministry claimed that it is possible to study remotely at any of 16 thousand schools of Ukraine, the most convenient ones for IDPs were just specified in the list.
Problems
However, the Ministry still can’t answer some problematic issues from the pupils’ parents.
Thus, the deputy minister of education hasn’t heard yet about the pass entry system introduced in Donbass, so the pupils from the east of Ukraine may face with problems when leaving the territory.
“My son is a tenth grade student and we are going to enter the university now but it is almost impossible for us to get the pass ticket from the ATO area. There is a waiting list at the border entry point already for the next month,” a mother of a Donetsk pupil says.
The Ministry promises to deal with the problems in the pass entry system but now is not ready to offer any options.
Also there is a problem with temporary accommodation of pupils, who will come for the testing. Now there is no reception stations with accommodation and meals organized for the high-school graduates for the duration of the EIT. But the Ministry of Education discusses this and also promises to find a solution.
Another stumbling point recognized by the Ministry of Education and Science is poor knowledge of children for the 11th year of studying at school, when they either didn’t study at all (as with the situation in the shelled Donbass villages) or were forced to study both on the Russian and Ukrainian standards at the same time. However, there will be no simplified testing for such high-school graduates.
