Serbian minister says finals, entrance exams will go ahead

N1

University entrance exams and finals for elementary school pupils will not be cancelled but will be postponed, Serbian Education Minister Mladen Sarcevic told N1 on Tuesday.

Classes for elementary school pupils started on Tuesday with the state TV (RTS) broadcasting classes while high school students have been informed that they will have on-line classes via the RTS Planeta platform.

University entrance exams and school year finals will be postponed depending on how long the state of emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic lasts, he said. “We will have the elementary school finals in some form depending on how long the situation lasts. If we say that there will be no finals, everyone will stop studying. Those final exams are not an end unto themselves, they show how well they know what we worked on,” the minister said.  

He said final grades would be given once the children go back to school and are tested, adding that electronic textbooks will also account for part of those grades. “You have digital textbooks with questions and answers for every lesson. The child can answer and the parent can check if the answer is correct,” Sarcevic said.  

Grades will also depend on auxiliary materials which parents will send back to the schools in digital form via grading platforms. He said the public would be informed about those materials later. “The second model for grades include projects and exercises which we will send them. If they grade themselves better than they deserve, they are deceiving themselves,” the minister said.