Vocational schools want to scrap practical exams over Covid delays

Secondary vocational schools want to scrap the central practical exam in April. According to the schools, pupils in the pre-vocational secondary courses missed about 13 weeks of practical lessons before the summer holiday due to the Covid-19 lockdown, and most of the material was not covered. The schools cannot guarantee that the pupils will be ready to complete their practical subjects on time, the foundation for vocational secondary schools SPV said to newspaper AD.

This involves over 90 thousand pupils in the upper years of VMBO Basic and Framework. Schools could teach pupils the theory subjects via distance learning, but practical lessons were mostly impossible. "Half of the teaching time is for practical classes. If we have to take central practical exams in April, we can't catch up," Jan van Nierop of SPV said to the newspaper. The schools want the practical exams to be canceled, so that they can continue teaching the practical subjects after the written exam on theory subjects.

The council for secondary education VO-Raad thinks that a slimmed-down central practical exam is an option that can be considered. "It is important to us that we can give the students as many skills as possible. The time available should be spent to learn as much as possible," VO-Raad chairman Paul Rosenmoller said to the newspaper. The schools are currently charting how far behind the coronavirus left their pupils, and exams should be adjusted according to that, he said.

According to Rosenmoller, this is a "difficult" topic to discuss with the Ministry of Education. "The Ministry is afraid that if they give one finger, there will be a dent in the rest of the central exam But if you look purely at the consequences of corona, these VMBO students have really had fewer lessons. Soon they will have to take the same exam with fewer lessons."

As far as the Ministry is concerned, the central practical exam can happen as usual. Schools are given extra time to get these exams taken, a spokesperson said to AD. "We understand that given the current circumstances it can be difficult for schools to organize preparations or the practical exams and to make up for any backlogs," the spokesperson said. But the Ministry believes this is possible.