Questions in the wrong order, exams in the wrong language: the distribution of ministerial science and mathematics exams of 4e secondary experienced some hiccups this week.
Posted at 1:53 a.m.
Updated at 5:00 a.m.
In an email sent Monday, two days before the science test, the Quebec Ministry of Education (MEQ) asked all school service centers to check the envelopes they received, but to wait the day before the test to do so.
“We have been informed that student notebooks in the English version could be found in the boxes for the 4 science and technology teste secondary,” we can read in the email obtained by The Press. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to know which organisms are affected. »
“In order to avoid surprises on the morning of taking this test, we suggest that you open the envelopes exceptionally the day before the test, that is to say June 18, 2024 at 5 p.m. and check the contents of the envelopes,” adds the Ministry.
Normally, ministerial exams are sent to the different schools in sealed envelopes placed in a locked room to which only one person designated per school can access. The objective is to preserve the confidentiality of the examination.
A few hours after the end of Wednesday’s science exam, a second email from the Ministry was sent to the school service centers, but this time, it is about assembling the exam booklets.
Some notebooks in section A of science test 055-410 were incorrectly assembled by our printer, meaning that questions 6 to 15 were not in the correct order.
Extract from an email consulted by The Press
In the exchange, schools are asked to check students’ copies and report any anomalies. Teachers are also asked to “pay particular attention to students’ responses to these questions” and to report if “answers were missing to the last questions” in the workbooks.
“We’ve been preparing the students for a year”
The Press was able to speak with a science teacher responsible for monitoring the science and technology test in a secondary school in Lanaudière. He prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
According to him, there will be no resumption of the exam in the event that it is canceled. A reality that would be hard to digest for this teacher, considering the months that were necessary to prepare the students for the exam.
“It’s annoying because we’ve been preparing students for this exam for a year,” he said. We’ve been doing revisions and training them for this exam for three weeks, a month. »
We did our job well, but someone above us did it badly and it will cancel our year.
A teacher from a secondary school in Lanaudière
He also fears the consequences that such a mess could have on student motivation.
“Already, our students, at the moment, are disinterested in school. If we also make them cancel exams, I have difficulty believing that we can keep them stuck to school and that it is important if we also make mistakes in their exams,” says he.
The science teacher also highlights the conditions in which the exams took place. The thermostat read 28 degrees when he entered the exam room on Wednesday.
“There are no fans [dans les classes]we force them to study, they come to school in the middle of a heatwave and we are going to tell them that their exam is not going to be counted, because we made mistakes in the copies,” laments the teacher.
“It’s very disappointing”
For the president of the Montreal Association of School Directors (AMDES), Kathleen Legault, this situation demonstrates a lack of organization.
“It is very disappointing that the MEQ is not more organized and that we are warned at the last minute, but what is more important than that is the directives 24 hours in advance. [l’épreuve], she says. It is difficult to explain why the person responsible was asked to wait until the day before [de l’examen] at 5 p.m., even though the email was sent the day before. »
Kathleen Legault says she is worried that problems with assembling the notebooks could cause “doubt about the validity of the test” and thus “penalize students”.
“Minor irregularities” noted by the Ministry
The MEQ confirms that “minor irregularities” in the assembly of student notebooks were noted for the ministerial exams of 4e secondary science ST and mathematics CST.
Among the irregularities, assembly errors affecting the ordering of questions in the science test were noted and document assembly errors were also found in the notebooks for the mathematics test which took place on Thursday.
The Ministry also confirms that certain mailings intended for French-speaking educational organizations contained copies of tests in English.
Overall, the Ministry assures that there was no breach of confidentiality when the sealed envelopes were opened and that “according to current information, there would be no impact on students”.
Despite this, the MEQ affirms that “the administration of the ministerial tests went well”.
Discussions are underway with Revenu Québec, which was responsible for printing and assembling the proofs, in order to identify the causes of this incident.
For its part, the office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, also claims to have been informed of these incidents.
“According to current information collected by the CSS [centres de services scolaires], everything does not seem to have had any consequences, explains the minister’s office. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. »
