It sounds like a schoolboy prank – or like a particularly pointed satire on the German school system: around 30,000 schoolchildren in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) should have written their Abitur exams on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening they find out that nothing will come of it. Because of technical problems.
The technical platform for the Abitur exam has been provided by an external IT service provider for several years. Schools should be able to download the tasks on the day before the exam. This time it only works in 300 out of 900 schools. There was no test run.
You would have had to authenticate yourself twice, then enter a code, “to get to the homepage, that was new,” explains Andreas Bartsch, President of the North Rhine-Westphalian Teachers’ Association, the unfortunate chain.
30,000
Students couldn’t write their high school exams on Wednesday.
A deadline was set for 4:30 p.m. to get the matter under control, and a second until 7:30 p.m., only then did the ministry capitulate: no graduation on Wednesday.
Exams are postponed to Friday
An affected teacher told the Tagesspiegel that she was only informed of the failure by e-mail at 9 p.m. She thinks it is unlikely that this information would have reached all the examinees. The Ministry of Education found out about the complications at noon, and a little later the press was also in the picture.
Teachers, students and parents hung in the air for many hours – while the ministry remained silent. “Communication was poor,” says Bartsch. “The ministry should have set up a hotline, and some schools called their fingers sore without success.”
The exams have now been postponed to Friday, but according to Andreas Bartsch, not all ambiguities have been resolved. “The exams are in the world, it is questionable whether the tasks can still be set at all.”
School Minister Dorothee Feller is particularly criticized for the IT glitch. That should never have happened, said the minister at a press conference on Wednesday.
School Minister Dorothee Feller apologizes
She apologized to teachers and students, calling the process “annoying.” Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst also apologized to all those affected via Twitter.
Not picking up the phone for five hours and going to the diving station is not just a communication failure. This is also management failure. Ms. Feller and her state secretary are responsible for this.
Dilek Engin, school policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia.
That’s not enough for the opposition. Leaving everyone involved out in the rain should not happen, said Dilek Engin, spokeswoman for school policy for the SPD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Tagesspiegel.
“Five hours without picking up the phone and going to the diving station is not just a communication failure. This is also management failure. Ms. Feller and her state secretary are responsible for this.”
The alternative date on Friday also causes irritation, on the one hand because the railways have announced large-scale strikes, on the other hand because Muslims celebrate the Sugar Festival, the end of Lent, on this day. The state government has not yet properly recognized the problem, says Dilek Engin.
“Dear MP Wüst: please correct your decision in the spirit of respect, mindfulness and consideration,” demands Aiman Mazyek, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, on Twitter: “We have almost half a million Muslim schoolgirls in NRW, making many thousands currently high school.”
The case of the Abi chaos in NRW is making waves nationwide – because it is an example of failures throughout Germany. Nina Stahr, spokeswoman for education and research for the Greens parliamentary group, describes the postponement of the exams as an impertinence.
The process shows again the sleepy digitization in Germany, she told the daily mirror. “It is annoying that this is at the expense of the younger generation. All political levels must not only invest more in the digital education of students, but also in the IT structures and skills of public administrations.”
