The Parliamentary Education and Youth Committee called for increasing the time scheduled for the mathematics exam for the General Secondary Certificate (Tawjihi), to three hours, while the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Muhammad Abu Qadis, promised to increase the time limit to two and a half hours for each paper. If necessary, the time will be increased to 3 hours.

This came during a meeting held by the committee, today, Sunday, headed by Representative Dr. Bilal Al-Momani, in the presence of a large parliamentarian, in which the merits of the (Tawjihi) exam were discussed, especially the issue of physics questions, students’ complaints about its difficulty, and the short time of the exam.

While the “Parliamentary Education” called for a review of the type of questions to suit the conditions experienced by students and their families, it clarified that it had received many complaints, from students and their families, stressing “the difficulty of the questions in the high school exam subjects, and the insufficient time allocated for the examination.”

MP Moumni demanded that exceptional supplementary exams be held, immediately after the results of the “Tawjihi” exam appear, and before the results of the unified admission to universities, in order to give an opportunity to students who were not fortunate enough to succeed, and those who wish to adjust their grades, to pass the exam and raise their rates.

He said that the committee also stressed the need to review all procedures followed in the process of setting questions, as well as to hold the committee concerned with developing the exam questions for the current session accountable, pointing out that these questions did not take into account the exceptional circumstances that students and their families lived through as a result of the Corona virus pandemic, and their interruption from face-to-face education.

Al-Momani stressed that the high school exam is an important national equation, in which a balance must be taken between the student’s interest and the prestige of the exam, saying that due to the Corona crisis, and the accompanying transition from face-to-face education to “distance” e-learning, the first was the application of procedures and decision-making. , such as the nature and quality of the questions, to facilitate the students.

He added that the students, due to the closures and bans due to the Corona pandemic, were unable to benefit from the cultural centers, which help them obtain educational services, in addition to the difficult economic conditions that prevented many of them from being able to use a private tutor.

Momani also called for the importance of relying on the type of analytical questions instead of objectivity, especially in mathematics and physics, in addition to the need to take into account individual differences among students, in order to achieve the principle of justice among all.

In turn, the attendees stressed the importance of taking into account the psychological aspect of the student and his family, and not being overburdened in the process of developing exam questions, demanding that the student have enough time to take the exam, especially in scientific subjects.

Representatives stressed the importance of not comparing the results of the current year with previous years, and excluding the results of the previous year from the comparison, calling on the Ministry of Education to adopt clear foundations in the comparison process, and not to place the student at the center of experiment and evaluation every year.

While some deputies stressed the need for the “Education” to develop proactive solutions to the problems facing the (Tawjihi) exam, and to break the traditional pattern of the exam, in order to reduce the psychological problems experienced by the student and his family.

For his part, Abu Qadis affirmed that there is no intention or thought in the ministry to set exams with the aim of lowering the grades level on the basis of correcting the previous years’ level course and at the students’ expense.

He pointed out that there are committees to set exams that the minister does not interfere with, but that there were directives to those committees to take into account the current conditions that students are going through, and take into account the distance education system.

With regard to the physics exam, Abu Qadis stated that reactions were monitored about it, as the decision was made to correct the exam immediately to find out the observations received on it, adding that the initial data showed success rates close to those in the last ten years, with the exception of the last year.

Abu Qadis indicated that a meeting was held with 9 experts specialized in physics, where the students’ answers were reviewed, and the results were that 35 percent of the students answered the most difficult question, and that there are questions of high difficulty, and there are other questions that cannot be objective.

He explained that the Ministry of Education will take solutions and measures through a mathematical method to address the imbalances.

Abu Qadis confirmed that after analyzing the results of the physics exam, the success rate was within the levels of success in previous years, indicating that the student who takes the high school exam for the purpose of raising the rate will not compete with regular students for university admissions.

And he indicated that there is a serious study to establish a national examination center similar to the National Curriculum Center, to get out of the traditional pattern of the Tawjihi exam, and the intention is that the exam will be for more than one year.

Abu Qadis called on the deputies to provide him with any information or leaks of exam questions and not to give in to rumors that would mislead public opinion.