School Minister Yvonne Gebauer has rejected complaints about difficult math tasks in this year's Abitur exams in North Rhine-Westphalia. The tasks were "appropriate and in line with the curriculum", "solvable" and not flawed, said the FDP politician on Wednesday in the school committee of the Düsseldorf state parliament.
The original article requires translation.
"The central Abitur in North Rhine-Westphalia comprises 39 subjects," said Gebauer, only in mathematics has there been critical feedback - and only within a "very manageable framework".
You see no need for action, and under review law have no option to act. The math tasks set by a commission of specialist teachers had been examined by the district governments and by university professors, and teachers from grammar schools and comprehensive schools had subjected them to a practical test under real exam conditions. In two Internet petitions against the Abitur exams in maths, students had complained that the tasks were "outrageously difficult". You had requested an adapted assessment or new exams.
According to the Greens, the petitions have around 15,000 signatures. According to Gebauer, however, it can be assumed that not all of the signatories are current high school graduates. On the urgent question of the SPD about possible deviations in the Abitur grades compared to the previous grades, the minister said the results were not yet known.
According to the minister, there is nothing to suggest that the average grade in mathematics - around 45,000 high school graduates had math in the basic or advanced course - this time will be well below the average grade of recent years. The ministry also pointed out several times with a view to the difficulties of the pandemic that there was room for judgment in the grading. She is sure that teachers have also used it.
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