For around 35,000 students in Bavaria, the Abitur exams begin this Wednesday – and according to the current status without technical glitches: While in North Rhine-Westphalia server problems made it impossible for schools to download the questions that the Abitur was postponed by two days had to, everything should go smoothly in Bavaria.
However, this is not due to the fact that the Free State is further advanced in digitization – but that people in this country prefer to rely on analogue distribution mechanisms as before. Because in Bavaria, Abi exams are “transmitted in paper form and opened in the schools on the morning of the respective exam day,” according to the Ministry of Education. The reason: digital transmission paths are endangered “not only in schools”. Any changes would initially be “always carefully prepared and tested” in the case of digital distribution.
The ministry does not want to give any more details about how exactly and by whom the Abitur exams are brought to the schools, so as not to jeopardize the processes. Attempts, such as in 2020 at a high school in Bamberg, to steal Abitur exams by breaking open the safe at night ended with suspended sentences – and did not bring any other advantages either, since prepared substitute tasks were used.
The Bavarian Association of Philologists confirmed via Twitter that there are no downloads for the Bavarian Abi, with the exception of the “audio documents for the listening comprehension tests” in the foreign languages. However, their exam is not scheduled for April 28, in French even for May 5; German will start on Wednesday. Well then good luck!