Posted on 03/15/2005 1:16:36 AM PST by franksolich
Students upset state exam efforts
A group of student activists opposed to international standard testing launched another effort this week to foil a national mathematics examination. They almost succeeded, with the help of the Internet.
The activists got hold of the math exam Monday and put it out on the Internet, thus enabling a sneak peak at what 10th graders were supposed to see for the first time in class on Tuesday.
State officials immediately said the test would be administered anyway.
The student activists tried to foil the examination attempt because they want state authorities to postpone the national math exam until next year. They also don't want to see exam results publicized on a school-by-school or township-by-township basis.
The students also want teachers to receive compensation for correcting the tests, and they want the content of the exam to reflect Norwegian teaching plans, not those of researchers at the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The student activists, calling themselves "Elevakjonistene," tried to upset an earlier national exam as well and the education ministry thinks their efforts are misguided.
"It's difficult to deal with a group that won't enter into a dialogue with us," Eldbjørg Torsøe of the education ministry told news bureau NTB. "The national testing will continue regardless, but we are making changes and improvements.
"The test was to be administered to around 60,000 10th graders on Tuesday. At least 10,000 of them are believed to have seen the test by early Tuesday morning.
One gets the impression students, especially those in high school, in Norway are more "involved" in their education than most; one recalls the story on the Norway ping list a couple of months ago when it was the students who demanded accurate history textbooks, rather than "politically correct" textbooks.
Generally, one dislikes it when students, especially high-school ones, oppose "authority," but in this case, one has to admire their gumption; after all, what is appropriate for one area, one culture, is not necessary appropriate for another area, another culture.
I disagree.
These "activist" students are a symptom of the leftist disease that has infected the Norwegian school system to an increasing degree since the 70's.
Cheers.
I have heard cheating is prevalent in Asia and India because they have it firmly entrenched in their heads that grades are everything. It doesn't help that their schools are extremely selective compared to ours... the same thing might be the case with Europe.
Well, perhaps the Aftenposten story is a Reader's Digest condensed version of the whole story, which I take at face value.
On one hand, sure, we were all once 15 years old, and I can very well see the reluctance of the students to take any examination, and probably even do what they can, to wreck that examination.
That might, or might not, be the real reason--simple teenaged fear at taking a test, and a simple teenaged reaction (publication on the internet)--one recalls the dreaded PSAT and SAT examinations here.
And yes, there is the alleged "cause" for having the teachers being paid to check the examinations--now, really, no 15-year-old is greatly concerned for his teachers, no matter how good or nice a 15-year-old he is.
So that "reason" is obviously fake.
But there seems to be something else going on here, below the surface of the water.
How are the mathematical standards of Norway different from the "international" standards--more difficult, or more easy? More relevant to life in the upper part of the northern hemisphere, or less relevant?
I am almost--not quite, but almost--actually believing that there is a noble motive in such students (I mean, how much can one trust 15-year-olds?); that they sense these "international" standards can do them no good, and would just as soon stick with the tried-and-true, which has served Norway so well the past, well, 2,000 years.
These student activists are IMHO typical scandinavian leftist liberals, who believe any sort of testing and grading is fascism, and that all students are equal.
Though, I suspect the leaders of the student activists probably are a tad more equal than the others.
The reason the government wants to implement these national standards is because, like American students, Norwegian high schoolers have been rapidly declining in international comparisons of math skills. I guess you have had a little of the same debate in the US, where President Bush wanted/wants to introduce national test in various grade levels. As I am in so many cases, I am with Bush here as well. And Thatcher for that matter, who introduced similar reforms in the eighties.
Cheers.
You know, that's an aspect that's been absent in Aftenposten news the seven weeks I've been reading the Aftenposten--I've never been sure if this "equality of outcomes" (someone else can better translate that into better English or Norwegian, than I can--sorry)--where all students get the same grade, or mark--has ever been an issue in Norway.
At least I've never read any of it.
And so assuming it has NOT been an issue (assuming wrongly), I had "interpreted" the news story to mean (a) students are resentful of all examinations anyway and (b) Norwegian students are more interested in mathematics that is relevant to their own time and place, than in mathematics determined by faraway "international" organizations.
There you go. :-)
I'll go and have a red/green/blue beer with a white foamy top.
Cheers.
Have a good beer--one made in Norway, though--and Happy St. Patrick's Day to you.....two days hence.
I agree with you.
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