The Special State Prosecutor's Office is investigating whether and who in the Ministry of Education, the State Commission for the Matriculation Examination, as well as among the test administrators, coordinators and principals of secondary schools acted illegally in the case of copying on the external testing in the Montenegrin-Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian (CSBH) subject. language and literature.
SDT told "Vijesta" that a criminal case has been opened and that the investigation is ongoing.
"On June 20 of this year, the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office submitted to the SDT a submission from the Association 'Educational Community and Parents', in which doubts were expressed about the legal actions of the officials of the Ministry of Education, the State Commission for the Matriculation Examination, test administrators, coordinators and directors secondary schools, in the process of evaluating the matriculation/professional exams, organized in 2022/2023, according to which a criminal case was formed and assigned to the work of a special prosecutor. The investigation is in progress", writes in the reply of the special prosecutor, spokesperson of SDT Vukas Radonjić.
In the letter of the association, which is the subject of special prosecutors' attention, it is written that, immediately after taking the test for CHBS language and literature, "evidence of copying within the Viber group called 'Druženje'" appeared in the public, and that the representatives were immediately informed about it. administration of the Examination Center and the Ministry of Education.
"Apart from them, the director of the Junior High School 'Danilo Kiš' from Budva, Krsto Vuković he also submitted this information and evidence (screenshots from the group) to the media, who then informed the public about it. During the evaluation of the tests, the members of the Evaluation Commission determined that hundreds of high school graduates had answers that indicated rewriting, on the basis of which they requested additional instructions from the State Matriculation Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Examination Center on how to act in this case. They claim that after several unsuccessful attempts to request instructions via e-mail, they received an answer at a meeting attended by the chief evaluator to mark the tests of those students separately, that is, to record what they observed on each one. They submitted that information to the Matriculation/Professional Examination Commission," the memo reads.
In the letter, the associations remind that, according to the regulations on the method, procedure and time of taking matriculation and vocational exams, any use of illegal means leads to disqualification, about which the students were informed orally before the start of the exam, as well as with a written warning on the initial pages of the test.
After the graduates found out that they had received zero points, they protested with their parents in front of the Ministry and the Examination Center.
High school graduates who received zero points on the CSBH and literature test due to rewriting protested in front of the Ministry and the Examination Center. After the minister's conversation Miomir Vojinović with their representatives, it was agreed that the tests would be reviewed again, which the members of the Evaluation Commission refused, after which the Government dismissed the leadership of the Examination Center.
The new committee re-examined the papers, and most of the students passed the exam, some even with high grades.
"According to media reports, which was confirmed by the mother of one of the students who primarily got a zero, the graduates were satisfied with the new grades... Commission members, i.e. the evaluators who initially found irregularities indicate that the Examination Center did not comply with the legal procedures and that new evaluators were hired who were not trained for that job," the letter reads.
At the same time, as they claim, the preliminary results of the English test were also published, for which "there was also evidence of copying, but none of the students were disqualified."
The Supreme State Prosecutor's Office previously explained that the letter was sent to the special prosecutors because it "expresses doubts about the lawful behavior of officials who have the capacity of public officials", as well as other officials in the process of evaluating the matriculation exams, especially for the CSBH language and literature.
Bonus video:
