Majority of final-year students take Estonian language state exam
Most final-year students in Estonia decided to sign up and take the Estonian language state examination regardless of national exams not being a prerequisite for graduation from high school this year.
8 percent of students were absent from the Estonian language state exam on April 19 and 19 percent decided not to take the exam of Estonian as a second language.
"The past year has been difficult for final-year students as they largely had to prepare for the exams through distance learning. For that reason, we've made the prerequisites for graduation as flexible as possible - the state exams are not mandatory and additional exam dates have been made available to make sure that no one who wants to take the exam should be prevented from doing so because of illness of the requirement to self-isolate," Minister of Education and Research Liina Kersna (Reform) said.
Altogether 7,161 final-year students in high schools and vocational schools signed up for the Estonian language state exam held on April 19, of whom 8 percent, or 570 students, did not take the exam.
Students were absent from the exam for a variety of reasons, including exams not being important for some of them in terms of their future education while others could not take the examination for health reasons. The latter students will be able to take the exam on either May 17 or June 7. 120 students have currently signed up for the additional exam.
Students who signed up for the exam of Estonian as a second language held on April 21 numbered 2,745 and 19 percent of them, or 523 students, were absent from the exam. Additional dates provided for the latter exam are May 18-19 and June 8-9.
Passing national examinations is not a prerequisite for graduating from high school this spring and taking the exams is voluntary. Final-year students can take the Estonian language state examination or the exam of Estonian as a second language, the examination in mathematics and either the national exam in English or an internationally recognized foreign language exam.
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Editor: Helen Wright