ZAGREB, July 13, 2020 - The results of the graduation exams which secondary school leavers took recently are better than the results of those exams last year, the head of the National Centre for the External Evaluation of Education (NCVVO), said on Monday.

The 11th season of exit exams for secondary school leavers in Croatia lasted from 8 June to 2 July, with some 31,000 students from more than 360 schools sitting for the exams in the circumstances marked by the COVID-19 epidemic and consequences of the 22 March earthquake that hit Zagreb and its environs.

The NCVVO head, Ivana Katavic, who presented the results today, said that there were 105 tests completed with a 100% score in this generation.

Also, four exam takers solved two of their tests completely accurately.

Katavic said that more and more secondary school-leavers were showing interest in STEM areas from year to year.

Students are supposed to pass the school-leaving exams in the Croatian language, Mathematics and a foreign language in order to be awarded a graduation certificate. There are compulsory and elective subjects at the state graduation exam and they are equal for all students and are taken at the same time. The compulsory state graduation exams can be taken at two levels: the higher level (A) and the basic level (B).

The total number of students who failed to pass some of those compulsory tests fell by 60% this year in comparison to last year when more than 1,000 students failed.

ZAGREB, June 6, 2020 - The 11th season of exit exams for secondary school leavers in Croatia starts on Monday, 8 June, with 32,114 students from 369 schools taking those exams in the circumstances marked by the COVID-19 epidemic.

The first matriculation tests will be for the Croatian language on Monday, and the season lasts until 3 July.

A total of 7,000 teachers are engaged in supervising and controlling the implementation of the process of taking the tests.

The National Centre for the External Evaluation of Education (NCVVO), which organises state graduation exams, has reported that 110 authors have prepared the tests.

Students are supposed to pass the school-leaving exams in the Croatian language, Mathematics, and a foreign language in order to be given certificates on their graduation from high school.

There are compulsory and elective subjects at the state graduation exam and they are equal for all students and are taken at the same time.

The students taught in the language and script of the ethnic minority can take an exam in the minority language as a compulsory together with Croatian, and they can opt between mathematics and a foreign language as a third compulsory subject.

The compulsory state graduation exams can be taken at two levels: the higher level (A) and the basic level (B).

Apart from the COVID-19 epidemic that has made schools introduce stricter epidemiological measures in the classrooms where school-leaving exams are taken, the 22 March strong quake that damaged thousands of buildings in Zagreb and its environs, including some of the high schools, has additionally complicated the organisation of the process of taking the exit exams.

May the 23rd, 2020 - Another mistake in the educational system showing that only gymnasium students are valuable to our society. What about vocational students?

In the official document for all highschools in Varaždin County, only gymnasium graduate students will have co-financed or fully financed tickets for bus and train transport for all of their obligatory matura exams.

In other words, graduate students from vocational schools will have to pay for a ticket if they want to take the most important exams in high school. They will only have co-financed or financed tickets for their practical lectures and defending their dissertation.

TCN received a message from one graduate student of the Medical High School in Varaždin, saying he would like to stay anonymous, but he wants his voice to be heard by many.

"The school year 2019/2020"

The main sentence in all elections is: "We take care of education, the most important thing for us is our children, students, the world stays with the young." What are we talking about today? We are graduates of the most turbulent years of schooling, from the strike itself to the coronavirus pandemic, because we didn't see our friends for months, we couldn't study normally, nor could we live normally. You're talking about psychological help for our parents and us, but we're not entitled to free transportation for our matura exams because we're studying for a vocational profession? Are we less valuable, then? Are you talking about having the right to normal schooling?

If schooling is normal, then we're talking about going to school from Monday to Saturday, with 1001 assignments, learning about things we will never need. We're students of a medical school, and we have state matura subjects in the programme for the 1st and 2nd year, and we go to school for five years and then to be able to enroll in college, we need Croatian, mathematics and a foreign language that we don't have at the same college later on?

We're obliged to come to the matura exams, but we don't have equal rights like everyone else? How exactly do gymnasium students differ from vocational students? Have you never been taught that the rules apply to everyone or to no one? We learn about justice and fairness, and in real life, you're showing us more and more that that is worth nothing. Thank you to all politicians and the entire education system of the Republic of Croatia for never forgetting to take their large monthly salaries (the main thanks for that goes to Minister Divjak). Still, they do NOT provide us students with our formal education. Thank you to everyone who once again showed us how wonderful it is to live in the Republic of Croatia, where everything is perfect. Thank you!"

This is a letter full of emotion from one graduate high school student, who is, at this very moment, one voice among thousands. We live in a crazy time, that's for sure. But should this really affect students this much who are in maybe the biggest panic in their life?

For more on education in Croatia, as well as the struggles of vocational students, follow our lifestyle page.