The head teachers of Polish schools in Lithuania about the final matura exam on Lithuanian

“The results of the exam reflect the final school grades,” this is how the results of the state exam on Lithuanian language in high schools were commented for the online portal zw.lt by Czesław Dawidowicz, the head teacher of Vilnius Adam Mickiewicz Gymnasium.

This year the state exam on Lithuanian language and literature was passed by 89.04 % of graduates. 94.36 % of graduates passed the exam on maths.

In schools where Lithuanian is the language of instruction, the state exam on Lithuanian was passed by 89.5% of students, in national minorities schools the exam was passed by 80.74% of graduates.

There were 5 classes graduating from Vilnius Adam Mickiewicz Gymnasium this year. From 109 students, 24 people were taking the exam on school level and 85 on state level. “The results of exams met the expectations of the teachers and essentially, they are in line with the school grades”, emphasized Mr Dawidowicz. There was only one person among this year graduates who got 100 points from the exam. 10 students got over 90 points. Several people failed to pass the state exam and they will have the possibility to retake it on the following Friday.

As it was in the previous years, the average number of people taking the state exam is higher than the national average, although quite a significant number of people is going to study abroad and in principle they do not need a state matura exam from the Lithuanian language.

At John Paul II Gymnasium, 74 out of 89 students took the state exam from the Lithuanian language. “I always repeat that the result could have been better. We do not have the students who had for 100 points this year, but the exam was passed by 90.5 percent of graduates, which means that we have a better result than the average result in Lithuanian schools (…). Maybe the fact that about 20 students know that they will study abroad had an impact on the results as there was no pressure to have good results,” Adam Błaszkiewicz told zw.lt.

The head teacher of John Paul II Gymnasium thinks that this year’s results show that the introduction of a standardised exam on the Lithuanian language a few years ago does not work. In 2016 the state exam in national minorities schools was passed by 87.87 % of students, and this year it was passed by 80.74 %. “So, 7 % less. That means that the promised facilitations do not work. This means that the system fails,” emphasized the head teacher of John Paul II Gymnasium.

At both the state and the primary level, the graduates had to do one task – writing a work on one of four topics. The topics for the essay were: “What does the peace give to a person?” (the students had to refer to: Antanas Baranauskas, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Jonas Aistis) or “Why is the background important for a person?” (the students had to refer to: Jonas Radvanas, Czesław Miłosz, Šatrijos Ragana). The topics of literary essays were: “The treating of a person from social borderline in Lithuanian literature” (authors: Jonas Biliūnas, Jurgis Savickis, Marcelijus Martinaitis) or “Vilnius in Lithuanian literature” (authors: Judita Vaičiūnaitė, Maironis, Jurgis Kunčinas).