EIS system fails again at Estonian language pilot examination
The EIS examinations information system, which recently failed to record data during the Tallinn and Harju County state high schools' joint entry test, became sluggish during the digital Estonian language pilot exam, causing the Education and Youth Board to extend the time schools were given for the test.
Schools have been conducting test examinations since March to check their preparedness for the switch to digital basic school final exams next year. The latest Estonian language pilot exam was held Tuesday during which problems cropped up in the EIS IT system.
Tiina Nõmm, communications specialist for the Education and Youth Board (Harno) in charge of digital test exams, said that the system did not go down but became very sluggish between 9:30 and 9:50 a.m. The agency extended the test deadline.
Whether the problem hit all schools or whether some institutions managed to avoid issues Nõmm could not say, adding that the causes and extent of the problem are still being determined.
EIS last failed on April 6 when several thousand students were taking the joint entry test of Tallinn's state high schools and the testing had to be suspended as a result.
Harno Director General Jaak Raie said that the exact cause of the disruptions is being investigated.
"Digital pilot exams are a good way to determine potential problems that may plague e-examinations in the future. Today's incident helps us be even better prepared for next spring," Raie said.
The Harno director said in a press release Monday that e-exams have been thoroughly tested at the English and Estonian as a second language pilot e-exams in March. Earlier pilot examinations and tests handled in EIS have gone ahead without problems.
"In preparation for the transition to e-exams, EIS has recently been optimized for performing high-load tests, and the solution has been thoroughly tested, enabling the conduct of test e-exams this spring with a large number of users. The tasks for the pilot exams have been created according to Harno's practice and considering the system's peculiarities," said Raie.
He added that according to the EIS team of the Ministry of Education's technology management department, the technology aspect of Tuesday's trial is proceeding smoothly, as the pilot exam will be conducted in a thoroughly tested environment.
Nearly 7,000 students from around 300 schools were registered for Tuesday's Estonian language pilot exam.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
