Ministry of Education has rolled out a new evaluation policy to reduce the failures of students in government schools

Starting with the current academic year 2022–2023, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has implemented a new evaluation strategy to lower student failure rates in government institutions.

The declaration was made during a news conference that the Ministry held yesterday at its offices.

Khalid Abdullah Al Harqan, Assistant Undersecretary for Evaluation Affairs at the Ministry, gave a statement during the press conference stating that changes had been made to the evaluation policy to lessen student failure.

He explained that this is only one of many steps the Ministry has done to assist weak pupils who have trouble studying with assistance packages in classrooms to boost their performance in challenging courses.

As per Al Harqan, a student of grade 12 (day, adult education, parallel) who is absent (with an acceptable excuse) from the first-semester exam in one or more subjects is allowed to apply for the supplementary exam, according to the new evaluation policy.

He added that a student of grade 12 who is absent (with an acceptable excuse) from the exam of the first semester and supplement in one or more subjects is not allowed to take the exam at the end of the second semester in these subjects, and he is allowed to appear in the exam of the second round. He said students from grades 1 to 12 (parallel adult education day) who appeared in the first-round exam and failed in one or more subjects are allowed to apply for the second-round exam in the subjects in which they failed.

According to him, the student from grade 1 to 12 who failed in the first-round exam and if he passed in the second round exam, the marks he gets in the subject will be counted as part of the total marks of the student in the second round. A student in grade 12 who passed the first-round exam, and wants to improve his mark in one or more subjects, or wants to adjust the general average, is allowed to apply for the second-round exam in the same academic year in which he passed. Also, a student who fails in any of the subjects that required minimum marks, will be promoted if he needs not more than three marks for passing.

Harqan also mentioned that the student who fails in one subject will be promoted if he needs not more than ten marks for passing. The student who fails in two subjects is promoted if he needs not more than 12 marks for passing. They are distributed over the two subjects according to the student’s status for passing.

Head of the Examination Affairs Department Ibrahim Al Mohannadi said that the evaluation policy has been amended in a way to not affect the academic achievement of students and the educational outcome of the country at all.

The press conference was also attended by Director of the Public Relations and Communication Maryam Abdullah Al Muhannadi and Department and Director of Student Evaluation Department Khalifa Al Derham.