Questions in the wrong order, exams in the wrong language: the distribution of secondary 4 science and mathematics ministerial exams experienced hiccups this week.
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 Secondary 4 science and technology test,” we can read in the email obtained by La Presse. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to know which organisms are affected. »
“In order to avoid any 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 on 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.
In the exchange, schools are asked to check student papers and report any anomalies. Teachers are also asked to “pay close attention to students’ responses to these questions” and to report if “answers were missing to the last few questions” in the workbooks.
La Presse 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. »
He also fears the consequences that such a mess could have on student motivation.
“Already, our students, right now, 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 I entered the exam room on Wednesday.
“There are no fans [in 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.
For the president of the Montreal Association of School Directors (AMDES), Kathleen Legault, this situation demonstrates a lack of organization.
“It’s very disappointing that the MEQ isn’t more organized and that we were notified at the last minute, but what’s more important is that they were given instructions 24 hours before [the event],” she says. It is difficult to explain why the person responsible was asked to wait until 5 p.m. the day before [the exam], 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”.
The MEQ confirms that “minor irregularities” in the assembly of student notebooks were noted for the secondary 4 ministerial exams in ST science and CST mathematics.
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.
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 [school service centers], everything does not seem to have had any consequences,” explains the minister’s office. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. »
