Minimum requirement for centralized exams for 9th graders might not be raised this year

RIGA - The Education and Science Ministry has decided not to increase the minimum requirement for passing the centralized exams of 9th grades this year and to keep it at 10 percent, according to the amendments to the regulations on the state standard of basic education and models of basic education programs, which have been submitted for re-approval.

Some time ago, even a 5 percent were enough to pass the centralized exams, so the minimum pass mark threshold was to be gradually raised to 20 percent by the 2024/2025 school year.

Already when the threshold was raised to 10 percent, the number of pupils failing the exams rose significantly, so plans were changed and last year the state postponed for a year the raising of the minimum threshold to 15 percent. Now, the plan is to postpone the increase to 15 percent again.

This year, shortly before the exams, the Education and Science Ministry proposes to keep the bar at the current level of 10 percent, based on the results of the last exam session. The ministry is concerned that raising the minimum score requirement could increase the number of Grade 9 pupils failing the exams, consequently creating a larger pool of people without basic education.

This academic year, 696 pupils who failed a national test in the previous session are retaking the 9th grade exams.

The ministry now promises to raise the minimum grade threshold to 15 percent from the 2025/2026 school year.

If the minimum threshold for the 2023/2024 school year had been set at 15 percent, another 970 more elementary school pupils would have failed the mathematics exam, bringing the number of dropouts to 1,563, or 8.29 percent of the total number of passers.

A total of 498 pupils, or 2.7 percent, would have failed the English language exam, and 239 pupils, or 1.29 percent, would have failed the Latvian language exam.

The threshold for the centralized examinations in the Grade 12 of the secondary education stage is 20 percent this academic year, as it has been planned earlier.