The number of complaints related to the statistical treatment of marks in ministerial tests has jumped at the Ministry of Education this year, while the moderation of marks has had the effect of failing students who have obtained good results during the year school.
• Read also: Several other students fail despite good results
In the three years before the pandemic, from 2017 to 2019, no complaints had been received on this subject. However, following the ministerial tests of June 2022 – which resumed this year after two years of health crisis – around thirty complaints were officially lodged with the Ministry of Education, according to data obtained following a request access to information.
Requests for grade reviews have also increased by 75% compared to 2019.
bad surprises
The moderation of the marks carried out by the ministry during these examinations had caused a bad surprise to several young people, reported Le Journal in August.
Amélie Bérubé, a fourth secondary student who had obtained a school mark of 72% in mathematics at the end of the year, had seen this result drop to 43% after failing the ministerial test.
QMI Agency archive photo, Pascal Huot
The shock was great for several students who found themselves in similar situations, especially since the ministerial tests this year only counted for 20% of the student’s final mark, while this weighting amounted to 50 % before the pandemic.
Karine Boulay, Amélie’s mother, requested a grade review, but it was clearly explained to her that this process is aimed at correcting the exam and does not in any way modify the moderation process carried out afterwards, deplores- she.
Her daughter will have to try her luck again during the retake exam scheduled for January.
Fixes?
In August, the former minister of education, Jean-françois Roberge, promised that corrective measures would be taken to put an end to the “perverse effects” caused by this statistical treatment.
Four months later, “reflections are currently underway” on this subject, the Ministry simply indicates.
Karine Boulay is not too hopeful. “I feel like he [le ministre] said that to get rid of this issue as the election campaign approaches”, she drops.
The “moderation” of grades has been carried out since 1974 by the Ministry and aims to make assessment fair for all students in order to avoid candy grades or overly harsh assessments.
For each group, the pupils’ school marks are compared with those obtained in the ministerial test.
If, in the same group, several students obtain exam results that are much lower than the mark given by their teacher, the mark will be revised downwards. The reverse is also true.
However, this statistical treatment is not unanimous in the school network.