Students ‘in torment’ after minister says exams are still on

Tunisia’s Education Minister Mohamed El Hamdi has insisted that the baccalauréat examinations will take place as scheduled, in spite of the closure of schools due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.

El Hamdi made the announcement following the decision in France – on whose education system Tunisia’s is modelled – to cancel the bac this year and base students’ results on continuous assessment instead of written exams.

The school-leaving bac is a big educational landmark as it gives successful candidates the right to higher education.

“Even with a bit of delay, the bac examinations will take place. All possible scenarios are being studied to guarantee a successful school year,” La Presse of Tunis reported El Hamdi as saying.

The situation had thrown final-year lycée students into turmoil, reported La Presse. The delay and the potential exam dates the minister talked about would fall in the summer, which the unions, teachers and the affected students had already refused.

A source told the paper that holding the bac in July, or even September, was not a good solution because the risk of contamination would still be there and all concerned would be exposed to danger. “The government must not persist and give its green light for the bac to go ahead despite the risks to which all the participants would be exposed, especially to more than 130,000 bac candidates,” said the source.

A number of teachers and students in Tunisia and abroad were providing online revision courses on social media, but bac candidates were “in torment”, reported La Presse.

“I spend whole nights revising, but I can’t concentrate as I need to. The bad news broadcast all day long about the spreading of coronavirus in the country worries me and makes me depressed. So I wonder what’s the point of these revision courses if the fate of these bac exams still isn’t known,” a student told the paper.

Omar Ouelbani, director of examinations at the education ministry, said the decision to cancel the sports baccalauréat during the period of confinement that started on 5 April did not affect the written exams, and that “the dates of the national written examinations are being maintained, depending on the situation in the country”. – Compiled by Jane Marshall

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.