SDS member of Parliament Renata Deskoska, who has been nominated as Education Minister by Zoran Zaev, said that she will propose three new laws before the Parliament on Thursday that would abolish the external testing program for elementary and high schools.
“As we promised, we are working in the interest of the citizens. Our first step in education will be to put before the Parliament the laws that will abolish external testing. We will do all we can to put the laws through as fast as possible”, said Deskoska, adding that this year’s testing begins on Monday and she would like to have it cancelled.
SDS has long pushed against the testing program, which it claims causes unduly stress among students, and has often supported or pushed student protests against it. The testing evaluates whether the grades which students have received are inflated or deflated. Teachers whose students are statistically shown to have given too high, or too low grades, are fined financially, and those whose grades match the results of the testing, receive higher salaries. Results from the testing also affects the final grade of the student.
The testing was introduced as a result of hundreds of well connected students failing high schools, but somehow receiving excellent grades at the end of the year. Even worse, some students with political ties simply purchased their university degrees without attending school.
A perfect example, and lets name names here… Vane Cvetanov, an individual who failed 11 out of 13 classes in high school, was kicked out from the school, only to be recruited by the SDS and overnight given a Bachelor diploma in Economics.
He was later put in charge by the SDS as a Director of the Agency for Money Laundering and arrested two years later for… you guessed it, money laundering.
This is what the external testing was introduced to prevent.
