No compulsory testing, no compulsory wearing of masks: This year the Abitur exams will again take place under much more relaxed framework conditions.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
She is already quite irritated, says Fabia Klein. In the past two years, the Nuremberg high school graduate has experienced pretty much all the highs and lows of an educational system on a roller coaster ride. Homeschooling, exchange classes, quarantine. Now the grand finale of the nerve-wracking high school career is approaching. Next Wednesday, like 35,000 others in Bavaria, the 20-year-old will start her Abitur, starting with German. “Actually, I hardly have the strength to study anymore,” she says.
As in sports, the psyche also plays a decisive role in the Abitur, the matriculation examination is a test of nerves. You can reach high and fall low, after all, the exams make up a third of the entire degree. This year, every dramaturg would have particular pleasure in the material. There is a class that has spent the entire upper school in a state of emergency. School closures in Q10, alternating classes in Q11, quarantine in Q12. An irritated and insecure student body about to jump into the matriculation examination. Can that be something?
If you speak to Klein, who is also spokeswoman for the Bavarian State Student Council (LSR), it sounds as if many of them were already running on reserve batteries. “Many can no longer and have gone on vacation,” she says. She herself stayed at home and tried to limit her contacts as much as possible so as not to get infected beforehand. She has read Faust, Woyzek and the Sandman, and practiced discussions – it all sounds as if not much could go wrong next Wednesday.
During the Easter holidays there were opportunities to practice
Her focus is on May 3rd, the day of the Bavarian-wide math high school diploma. Students need to be able to calculate area, understand the logarithmic function, and know what the binomial coefficient is. Because in the Free State, math is a compulsory Abitur subject. Which is a headache for many. Klein’s math teacher has therefore set up a kind of digital Easter holiday buffalo camp. If you want, you can solve exercises and ask questions in the morning. Many, says Klein, still have gaps from homeschooling. She herself also had a digital math course given to her for her birthday. Material for catching up, “not everyone can afford it now,” Klein complains.
This year, the Ministry has also thought about how to compensate for the disadvantages of the past few years. A tightrope walk: If the average drops significantly, there is a risk of fairness comparisons with previous years, who were able to look forward to far-reaching simplifications. If you make it too easy and bring in the next record result, education researchers complain that the value of the Abitur is falling.
Accordingly, a middle ground was chosen. This year, the high school graduates don’t get two more weeks to study, as the Greens and SPD would have liked – after all, the graduating students recently had face-to-face classes, so the argument goes. But this year’s high school graduates will get more time, although the argument for it – wearing a mask – is now obsolete. In addition, here and there material on the syllabus was deleted.
The students can give themselves a lesson in evolutionary spurts after mass extinction (biology), analysis of factual texts (German), sine and cosine functions (math) and the problem of individual and collective historical memory of the GDR (history). They also benefit from simplifications in Q11, which they bring into the race. The state student council around Fabia Klein would have liked even more accommodation.
“We all didn’t fall on our heads, we’ll manage.”
But even the high school teachers wave it away. “Nobody wants to get a high school diploma for free,” says Michael Schwägerl, chairman of the Bavarian Association of Philologists. He sounds quite optimistic when it comes to the chances of the Abitur class. He doesn’t assume that it will be a bad year, but he also hopes that a record above the 2.14 from last year will not be set again. “It should be so demanding that it becomes a fair high school diploma,” says Schwägerl.
Last but not least, there is also sophisticated logistics behind this. Especially this year, when some students will be vaccinated, others unvaccinated, some with a mask and some without. Headmasters can make divisions as they see fit. Students do not need to be pre-tested to participate. High school graduates are even allowed to interrupt their corona quarantine in April, provided they are not positive. Infected but fit teachers are allowed to hold the oral exams digitally in May – a high school diploma in relaxed mode.
Fabia Klein will find out next Monday what will happen to her at the Peter Vischer School in Nuremberg. The tension is now mixed with some anticipation that the home stretch is now in sight. “None of us fell flat on our heads, we’ll manage,” she says. Gather your last strength. “Then we can pat ourselves on the back for getting through it well.”