On June, 14th the press conference of CN “OPORA” called “The Equator of the testing: hot spots of the EIT-2011” took place. Mykola Kuzin and Olha Ajvazovska took part in the event on behalf of “OPORA”. For already three years OPORA has been organizing the independent monitoring of the EIT, during the monitoring the observers watch the procedures kept by the organizers and the participants, observe the work of admission board and the appealing board, provides free legal consultations via the hotline telephone (044 225 32 81). In 2011 OPORA registered 463 observers covering from 25 to 75% of the testing premises in 12 regions of Ukraine. The organization works in the testing centers chosen by the random method and attentively watches the most popular testing subjects.
The monitoring of the first half of the testing proved the high efficiency of the EIT organization. But, some system bugs were still noticed by the observers. The testing results are not pure statistics; they can profoundly change the consequences of the admission campaign for some graduates. The notes of the observers cover the following:
- Absence of the full-scale information campaign involving the media, - the campaign should be aimed at the testing participants and cover the novelties of the year 2011 – it is about the list of the required documents, particularly the EIT certificate that was sent with the help of Ukrposhta this year. Not all the graduates knew that the certificate is the separate document, confused it with the invitation and weren’t allowed to enter the testing centers.
- Not perfectly thought over and the resourceful campaign of the distribution of certificates to the graduates in the Ukrposhta departments. Some graduates (according to the UCEQE information, 566) didn’t receive the certificates.
- Occasional facts of using the cell phones in the testing premises by the instructors and the graduates that can lead to the leak of the information about the tasks before the end of testing.
Coordinator of education programs in CN “OPORA” Mykola Kuzin told that “our fears about possible information leak of the testing tasks and the selling of right variants of answers were not confirmed. At least during the testing there was not a single case of breaking the seal with the testing papers or the correspondence of the Internet-proposed answers to the real ones. Besides, 9 committes started work in the regional departments of UCEQE. They are to decide if the participant gets the right to pass testing in the extra session in case of absence on the main session. Each year the most popular problem in the applications of the participants wanting to pass tests in the extra session is the health. OPORA recommends to include the delegate from the Ministry of Health in the commissions so that he could check the medical certificates”.
The Head of the Management Board of CN OPORA, Olha Ajvazovska, added that “any new issues need wide media support aimed at the carrying the information about the changes to the target audience that is the graduates. This year’s innovations led to the cases of non-receiving the certificates. These graduates still don’t understand the possible consequences. Unfortunately, in the best case they will be able to participate in the extra session and in the worse one – they will have to delay their admission till the next year. We are also worried that the UCEQE doesn’t actively explain the rumors on the testing. We understand that it’s all fantasies but they lead to the loss of trust to the EIT in future. Such situation occurred around the language and literature tests used on June, 2 and 3".
Reference: The observation is kept as the part of national campaign of the EIT monitoring supported by the Alliance of the Program of Promoting the independent testing in Ukraine (USETI Legacy Alliance).