On Tuesday this week, the Tallinn English College held graduation ceremonies for primary school students, and on Wednesday, they will hold the high school graduation ceremony. As of Tuesday afternoon, the results of the national high school exams had not yet been received. However, Principal Toomas Kruusimägi was not worried. Since the passing threshold for high school exams is only one point, all students have always managed to meet this requirement, giving the school confidence to proceed with the ceremony even if the results had not arrived by that time.

"In the first years, we tested whether anything would happen if we held the ceremony earlier, and indeed there were instances where students did not meet the state-imposed threshold. However, since such cases have not occurred, we are confident and will continue in the same manner until perhaps the first instance arises. What we present at the ceremony – we have our own school certificate stating they have completed the high school curriculum. They also receive a class certificate showing all their school grades," Kruusimägi explained.

This time, all systems held up, and the exam results started coming in through the exam information system to the graduates after 2 p.m. These results were expected to reach the schools via the education information system by Tuesday evening.

"Right now, the results of this year's national exams are reaching the students, and all schools that have planned their ceremonies for tomorrow or later can conduct these ceremonies with peace of mind. The national exam results are in," confirmed Aimi Püüa, head of the assessment department at the Education and Youth Board (Harno).

The national exams were held in April, so the exams have been graded, and the graduates have been waiting for their results for two months. Schools would like this waiting period to be shorter.

"Perhaps it is possible to organize them in such a way that while the exams are held at the same time, the results can be obtained more quickly. Because for those subjects in which exams are held, the academic work ends for the students, and there is an interim period, an empty time, which from the young person's perspective might not be reasonable, as they are technically still in school but not really," said Kruusimägi.

Püüa acknowledged that there could be a longer period between the announcement of exam results and the ceremonies. "Of course. It's not a completely normal process to have the results immediately follow pressing the 'Send' button."

There are no plans to move the exams even earlier. Faster results could only come with the introduction of electronic exams.

"If we eventually have electronic exams, then the process of sending, grading and entering exam papers will be eliminated. Then we might be able to shorten the two-month gap between the exam and the results," said Püüa.

This year's national exam results have reached pre-pandemic levels.

"We have achieved stability; schools are doing excellent work, as shown by all international studies, indicating that the Estonian school is very good. Our exam results have remained within a range of 2-3 percentage points from year to year," said Püüa.

Only the broad mathematics exam, whose average result decreased by 6 percentage points, stands out negatively. Harno is still investigating the reasons for this.

However, the number of students who achieved maximum points in at least one of the three national exams was encouragingly high.

"We have 91 exam takers, out of over 10,000, who scored 100 points in one subject, and out of these 91 exam takers, 80 scored maximum points in mathematics. The remaining 11 exam takers scored 100 points in Estonian, English or Estonian as a second language," said Püüa.

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