Deplorable Results of Teacher Certification Examination

Teacher Certification Examination resulted in deplorable fact. Only the third of teachers could cross the minimal threshold of competence. Consequently, the rest won’t be able to get the certificates. Teachers feared that the exams won’t show good results even before the exams. The conducting of examination was considered to be a hastened step in the beginning.

“This is nothing new and surprising. The Ministry of Education reaped what it sowed. The sad thing is that it damaged us, the teachers. Neither I’m crying over that 75 lari that reportedly will be given to certified teachers, nor doubting my professionalism. Simply, it’s sad that the public began to speak about incompetence and the low level of teachers’ education. People are not asking the details. People want to know the results… This is what Ministry did. This result is not ours, but the Ministry of Education’s merit,” – states Lali Giorgadze, a teacher from Kutaisi.

The idea that the certification examination was conducted in a hastened way, in the intensified situation of public schools, is confirmed by the majority of teachers. According to them, the exams were being conducted right when all the public schools in Georgia were going through staff reduction.

“This is the case when you don’t know what to do and when to do it. You go through examination to avoid oppression that you are less qualified than others. But, if they need it, they won’t even take into account your qualification and you will be fired without problem. The sad thing is not that we go through the examination, but that they don’t know why they are doing this. If they still do whatever they want, they should let go whoever they want at first, and then conduct examination for the rest. There are teachers with few hours whose job issue is not determined yet. We’ll see what happens,” – stated teachers before the certification examination.

The fact that the examination showed undesirable result, is explained differently by experts. According to them, it was the first time this kind of examination was conducted and a lot of things were not foreseen. The insufficient preparation of teachers was mentioned confirmed by teachers themselves.

“These people were not prepared. They didn’t have neither sufficient material, nor time. Besides, we should consider the fact that they had stressful pre-examination period. They didn’t know and still don’t know who stays and who leaves school. So, it should not be surprising considering that these are the results of examination of insulted, scared teachers,” – states Kamelia Mindadze, the teacher of Kutaisi #37 public school.

She talks about the incompetence of the examiners: “Despite the fact that our school doesn’t have a bad result, people are still dissatisfied, generally by the examination, pre-examination period and examination itself. There are nuances that raise suspicion on the professionalism of the test evaluators. For example, for the same answer, one teacher got one point, another one – zero. What does it mean? That one was rendered correct, and another one was not? This is a serious problem. This is the case of the fate and prestige of teachers and I think more responsibility is needed.”

The qualification of test evaluators was discussed right when the examination results were published. Several test questions were discussed while talking with the Human Rights Center: “There was a question from professional capacities section: does teacher have a right to search a student? Of course not and every teacher knows this well. This information (along with information about other rights) is located in every classroom of every school. One teacher received one point for this answer, another one – zero. There are a lot of other similar examples, and by the way, all of them from the section of professional capacities.”

Teachers are protesting the examination results. They already filled in the application form and are awaiting the response in the next days.