Over 80% of Public Schools Will Participate in National Academic Achievement Test (in Japanese)
Sankei News (8 March 2012)
The Education Ministry announced that 81.2% of public schools in Japan expressed interest in participating in the nation-wide academic achievement test. The test will be administered to 6th and 9th graders on April 17. The national academic achievement test had not been administered for 43 years, from 1966 to 2008. However, since its reintroduction in 2009, the participation rate has been gradually increasing.
Debate about the comparability of school leaving examinations (in German)
Spiegel Online (6 March 2012)
German education ministers are debating students’ school leaving exams. Until now, every state has had its own tests depending on each state’s formal curriculum. Some ministers now want to make school leaving examinations comparable for all states. Other ministers charge that this would result in great changes and problems (e.g. all pupils having exams on the same day). All ministers agree, however, that there have to be comparable educational standards. The first results of this policy debate may be decided at the conference of the ministers happening in the near future.
