Problems to download exams Abitur exams in NRW on Wednesday will not take place
Bonn · Abitur exams in biology, physics, chemistry, computer science and technology and nutrition were to be written in NRW on Wednesday. But the technical problems with the download of the exams cannot be solved in time. Here’s what happens now.
The Abitur exams on Wednesday morning cannot take place, according to GA information. This was confirmed by Andreas Bartsch, President of the North Rhine-Westphalian Teachers' Association. According to the Ministry for Schools and Education of North Rhine-Westphalia, a last attempt to fix the technical problems with the download of the Abitur exams failed. According to Bartsch, the exams in biology, physics, chemistry, computer science and technology and nutrition will now be postponed until next Friday.
Some schools had been able to download the exams completely in advance, said Sabine Mistler, chairwoman of the NRW Philologists' Association, some not, others only in certain subjects. Grammar schools and comprehensive schools were affected, including the advanced and basic courses in biology, chemistry, nutrition, computer science, physics and technology.
New authentication procedure had been tried out
Andreas Bartsch explained that there had been a tried and tested system for downloading papers for 14 years. Now, "completely abruptly and without announcement", a new procedure had been tried out today. "An authentication procedure has been carried out. Then the schools received a code with which they were supposed to open the homepage, and that didn't work," Bartsch explained. He had phoned several school headmasters, who were all "pissed off". They had no understanding for the fact that the new procedure was introduced with such a short lead time. According to Bartsch, it could have been tested on Monday or during the holidays.
The fact that the schools were not initially informed about the problems by the Ministry of Education by circular email also caused displeasure. Bartsch reports that the server company announced in the course of the day that the system should be up and running again at 5.30 pm. But even then there were still problems.
Abitur exams to be postponed
According to GA information, there have been problems with the download of the Abitur exams since Tuesday noon. Schools in NRW usually download them from a state server the day before the exam. But access to this server was not possible during the day.
The Ministry of Education normally makes the papers available centrally - but so far the schools in NRW have not been able to access them. Normally, the download should have been completed by now, it was supposed to start at 12 o’clock.
Teachers were still uninformed on Tuesday afternoon
"As a school, we expect the Ministry to send a circular to all schools so that we know what is going on and what we should do now. But the ministry has not done that yet," a teacher told the GA early Tuesday afternoon. He said the service phones were all busy. The ministry has so far left a GA query unanswered.
According to Bartsch, the schools only found out about the changes in the system at 12 o'clock, when the download was supposed to start. "That stressed everyone out a lot. Rightly so, in my opinion," says Bartsch. There was also a lot of uncertainty among parents and pupils. Since the new system did not work, Bartsch could imagine that it will not be used again, but that the old system will be reverted to. "I hope that the licences of the old system have not been sold yet. That would be a disaster," says the federation president.
Original text: Marie Schneider and Jörg Isringhaus
Translation: Mareike Graepel
