Teachers and pupils in Iraqi secondary schools have been thrown into confusion by a new decision of the Education Ministry to end third-chance exams.
Originally introduced to help pupils affected by conflict and insecurity, the practice has been criticized for lowering educational standards. This is not the first time the ministry has decided to end it, but on previous occasions it changed its mind.
Ahmed Al-Azzawi, a sixth-grade literature student, welcomed the chance to re-sit his mathematics exam after scoring 40 out of 100 on his second attempt.
“I passed all the final exams but mathematics. Should I repeat this year because of 10 marks only?” he asked. That would have delayed his hopes of finishing high school and going to university.
Several times in the past decade, third- and sixth-grade secondary students were allowed to take a third-chance exam. In 2020, the Ministry of Education announced an end to the practice. Al-Azzawi was among those who called on the ministry to reconsider its decision.
“For family reasons, we were forced to move to Diyala, northeast of Baghdad,” he told Al-Fanar Media. “I studied on my own while affiliated to a school. This affects my education.”
On January 19, Al-Azzawi’s hopes were renewed with the ministry’s decision to allow “regular sixth-grade secondary students … who have failed in one or two subjects, for two years or the last year, to re-sit exams.”