Unified National Test: this year it’s better
Kazakhstan, Politics and SocietyOne Comment
Translation of Zara’s post
In June 01-10 all school graduates in Kazakhstan were undergoing a Unified National Test (UNT) - the first and one of the most important tests in their lives. Lately the Minister of Education has announced its results.
The average test result has been 74.9 points, which is 7 points higher than the same for the last year. The number of “Altyn Belgi” (”golden medal”, the best pupils) nominees, who confirmed their knowledge, has increased from 36% to 54.5%. The number of graduates that did not succeed in meeting the threshold of 45 points, decreased twice comparing to 2008 results and made up 14%. There was 10.6% of the graduates, who passed the test and scored over 100 points.
Additionally, while summarizing the results of UNT-2009 Minister Zhanseit Tuimebayev has noted that the number of submitted appeals reduced by 94%, which may indicate an overall improve of the test.
At the same time, violations still have been taking place there, which unfortunately became traditional: graduates using mobile telephones and cheat sheets, swindlers selling the test keys, teachers helping some of the graduates. Also there was one incident registered, when a man tried to pass UNT under the different person’s name.
Nevertheless, the entire situation with UNT results is more optimistic comparing to the previous years. Graduates from the northern regions demonstrated the best results in the country: the average result for Kostanai and North Kazakhstan oblasts was, respectively, 82.9 and 81.5.
Only eight graduates had the highest score of 125 points. Zhadyra Essenayeva, a graduate from rural school in Essil village (Northern Kazakhstan), is one of them. The girl, an “Altyn Belgi” nominee, notes that her success became possible due to systematic preparation for the test, which she started two years before her graduation.
Despite the numerous disputes concerning adequacy of the tests, reprsentatives of the Ministry of Education state that they are very resolute to keep on using UNT, improve its content and technical aspects. Hopefully, these efforts will further minimize the number of violations and corruption practices in high schools and universities.




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