Bac exams wrap up in Morocco

06/06/2008

From June 3rd through June 5th, Morocco conducted its annual round of bac exams. Now that it is finally over, students, teachers and parents react to this year's tests.

By Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 06/06/08

[Iman Belhaj] After three days of frayed nerves, students and the parents look back on this year's bac exam.

Three days of baccalaureate exams in Morocco ended on June 5th. More than 300,000 candidates—observed by 47,000 monitors and more than 1,400 supervisors—sat for the tests in approximately 20,000 examination rooms at 1,300 centers across the Kingdom. Officials had to accommodate a greater pool of candidates this year compared to 2007: 4.9% more girls registered for the bac and 6% more students overall. Despite the magnitude of the operation, it all went off without a hitch.

Teachers who monitored exams at Casablanca's Shawki Qualifying High School told Magharebia that the exam went smoothly, no cheating was reported and questions were clear and related to the students' prior coursework.

M. A., a secondary school teacher and bac exam monitor at the Imam Ghazali School in Meknes, said the ambience on the first day of exams was all quite regular. She also said the exams were reasonable and in line with the material taught in required courses—for the students, that is, who had taken the time to prepare.

"Those who revised well managed to answer the questions. Those who did not missed their chance," she said, adding that some students handed in their answer sheets blank.

With girls representing 44.8% of the total number of candidates sitting for the June session of the baccalaureate, Magharebia wanted to learn more about their reactions to the tests.

For Nadia, Samira and Fatiha, whom we met in front the Shawki Qualifying High School after their physics exams, the questions "did not require much time to decipher", as they put it. Shadia and Thoraya, however, said they were unable to answer the questions because they were "tough".

Time ran out before they could finish.

The same variety of reactions was noted among students of the arts section. Latifa and Sarah, who took the Arabic language exam on Tuesday morning, said they managed to answer the questions, whereas Malika and Samira said the test was difficult.

Like students, parents were equally eaten up with worry over their children. One mother said she was as anxious as if she were taking the exam herself. S.S. added that she had been praying all morning for God to assist her daughter in this decisive year that determines her child's future.

According to the Ministry of National Education and Youth, candidates from public schools constituted the largest portion of students sitting for the bac; 92.7%, as compared to 5.6% for technical education students and 1.7% for students of religion. 142,745 test-takers sat for the arts section, 135,995 sat for the science section, 16,806 for the technical section and 5,127 for the religious section.