Chisinau pupils’ marks dropped

The average marks of pupils from the schools in Chisinau have dropped and teachers blame several things, including the overloaded curriculum. A solution would be to reform the school program. The issue was discussed on Friday, August 24, at the municipal conference of teachers, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Evaluations show that this year we witnessed a drop in everything- quality, success, average marks”, declared head of the general division for education, youth and sport (DGETS) Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb. 114 out of 7,000 pupils didn’t pass the middle school graduation exams. The average marks dropped from “7” last year to “6.76” this year. The average baccalaureate result in the city was “6.81” compared to “7.13” in 2011. 3,000 out of 12,500 BAC candidates, including some from the colleges and universities in the capital, failed the exams. Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb said that the drop is caused by the insufficient preparation of pupils, also influenced by parents leaving to work abroad. Parents must supervise their children while they do their homework and here is the gap in the education process, according to the DGETS head. Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb spoke about the need to reduce the number of subjects in the curriculum and the pupils should have more flexibility in choosing them. Other topics discussed at the conference were the necessity to implement information technologies in education institutions, the diversification of teaching methods and the development of a new way of thinking and behavior for pupils. As regarding the school enrollment rate, the situation has improved. In May 2012, 6 minors were not enrolled in schools, compared to 26 in September 2011. There are 156 pre-university education institutions in Chisinau, with a total of about 78,000 students.