Various student-youth groups in Serbia have raised concern over the government’s plan to introduce a state-wide graduation exam for high school students to qualify for higher studies. On Tuesday, April 10, groups such as the Student Front (SF) and the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) protested the introduction of the exam, Državna matura, claiming that it was being introduced only to comply with European Union (EU) standards for higher education.
In the last week of March, a group of high school students, who named themselves I mi se pitamo (We wonder too), organized a demonstration at the Ministry of Education demanding the resolution of uncertainties and confusion regarding the implementation of the new state graduation exam. The group also submitted a petition signed by over 26,000 students raising concerns over its implementation.
Plans to introduce this exam have been in the works since 2017. According to a report in Masina, the exam serves as a new qualification criteria—on top of the existing qualification requirements for high school students to move on to college—and includes a set of three exams: a test in Serbian language and literature, a test in mathematics, and a test of one general educational subject of choice like history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, philosophy and foreign language.
The report adds that “the subject of choice depends on the faculty that one wants to enroll in and certain faculties will ask for passed tests in certain subjects, which automatically means that someone can take six exams, if they are competing at several faculties.”
SKOJ and SF also criticized the introduction of the new qualifying exams on the grounds that it will overburden students who want admission in the faculty of their choice in colleges, and will also undermine the quality of the existing qualification process at university departments. In their joint statement on April 10, the two student groups said that the “ state graduation [exam] for high school students was voted on back in 2017, but its implementation has been postponed to this day. This year, the government decided to introduce a state graduation at all costs, in order to ingratiate itself with bureaucrats from the European Union (EU), which finances this project.”
Luka Babić from I mi se pitamo told the media that while the students were not against the concept of state graduation exams, they are opposing the hasty revamp of the admission process in higher education, which is going to affect their future.
