In Baden-Württemberg, for example, the Abitur started without any problems.Image: dpa / Silas Stein
Politics
Wednesday, April 19, 2023: Thousands of schoolchildren in North Rhine-Westphalia should actually be sitting in gyms or classrooms today and writing their written Abitur exams. But nothing came of it. As the Ministry of Education announced at short notice on Tuesday evening, the start of the Abi exams must be postponed to Friday.
A “massive technical problem” was given as the reason for this. Apparently, the centrally set tasks could not be downloaded everywhere by the teachers.
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“The disruption and short-term postponement of the Abitur exams is extremely annoying”, said NRW School Minister Dorothee Feller (CDU) on Tuesday evening. The high school graduates had prepared intensively for their exams. However, the disruption prevented the exam tasks from being downloaded, so that the schools could not get the tasks on time. The examination subjects biology, chemistry, nutrition, computer science, physics and technology are affected.
Feller made another statement on Wednesday morning – and explained the background to the breakdown.
Minister of Education Feller has to take criticism because of the breakdown
The nationwide download for schools was opened by the ministry at 12 noon on Tuesday. Sabine Mistler, state chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia Association of Philologists, said that many schools could not have downloaded the exams, or only partially. Many teachers had waited until the evening for the download to be cancelled. “Some of the students and teachers are really angry,” said Mistler. It must now be checked very thoroughly what caused it, because on Wednesday the download for the regular exams on Thursday will start again.
“We expect reliable and fast communication from the ministry instead of having the teachers wait in the schools until well after 7 p.m.,” said a spokesman for the GEW union. Many teachers are worried.
And there was also sharp criticism of the procedure from the opposition in North Rhine-Westphalia. The minister informed about the postponement of the exam far too late, said SPD MP Dilek Engin. She stated:
“This is really catastrophic communication behavior on the part of Ms. Feller. The teachers and the high school graduates, especially the Muslim students who celebrate the Sugar Festival on Friday, now have to pay for it.”
Die SPD has requested a special school board meeting for Wednesday.
That’s what it should look like in NRW on Wednesday.Image: dpa / Felix Kästle
Dorothee Feller takes a stand on the Abi mishap
On Wednesday morning, the Minister of Education then went before the press to apologize for the glitch: “Unfortunately, we had to make a decision yesterday that we would rather not have made,” she said.
The schools were informed by e-mail around 3.30 p.m. that the service provider company was confident of finding a solution. “We informed the schools in five emails and said again and again that we were working on a solution,” said Feller. And further: “We were informed here in the house around 2:10 p.m. for the first time that there were difficulties with the download.” However, this was not the case in all schools. The download would have worked for around 300 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The ministry was working on a solution that gave confidence. Then, however, “another error” happened, explained Feller, which is why the solution developed in-house was “no longer viable”.
Feller also rejected the accusation that the systems had not been tested beforehand. Because this is not the case: “We tested everything with 300 schools in the fall. Everything went smoothly with 300 schools.” The difficulties only arose after the official launch.
Education Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dorothee Feller, tries to explain the breakdown.Image: dpa / Malte Krudewig
So far, there are apparently only guesses as to what could have been the reason for the breakdown, and a hacker attack is also being examined. The only new thing this year was that two-factor authentication was introduced: “Because we wanted to make sure we weren’t hacked. That could be a reason, but we don’t know for sure.”said the minister.
It was also said that a video that was part of one of the tasks was the cause. Feller doesn’t think so, “but a more detailed analysis is needed there too. If that’s the cause, we have the option of exchanging this exam.”
One criticism of the new date for the exam is that it falls on Friday on the Sugar Festival, the highest Muslim holiday: “If students are unable to take part, they will receive a certificate to make up and do not necessarily have to take part,” said Feller. In addition, a train strike is planned for Friday: “Basically, the pupils have to see how they get to school. The Abitur doesn’t start until 9 a.m. And not that many come by train either.”said the minister.
Panne in the Panne: test tasks can be downloaded publicly
Particularly curious: On Tuesday, links appeared on the social media platform Twitter, under which the Abi tasks were apparently available for everyone to download. Software developer and IT security expert Lilith Wittmann shared several links and instructions on how to download suspect test tasks.
However, Wittmann explained to the WDR that these were not the original tasks. The corresponding production system is currently offline. “It’s just the test system, but it says something about the security of the production system.”
(With material from the dpa)
