Tawjihi exam procedures evoke mixed reactions

AMMAN — As hundreds of thousands of Jordanian students on Wednesday sat for the mathematics exam, the first of the 2020 General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) session, the Kingdom’s school leaving exam amid the pandemic crisis has drawn mixed reactions from students, parents and teachers.

“The time was adequate, exam observers were kind and cooperative and the questions were objective and from the textbook,” Seren Al Alami, a 12th grade Jordanian student in the literary stream, told The Jordan Times over the  phone on Thursday.

“I always heard people say that Tawjihi is difficult, but after I finished my first exam yesterday, this nerve-racking loop I was in for so long was over,” Alami said.

Expressing her satisfaction with the preparatory arrangements for this year’s session, she noted that both teachers and students adhered to physical distancing. Temperature readings were taken at the entrance and all students were provided with gloves and face masks, she added.

Suad Fadda, the mother of Alami, said that she was “very glad” to see her daughter calm and happy after finishing her first exam on Wednesday.

“Like any mother, the moment she sat in the car, I started asking her questions waiting for her to answer, nod her head or just give me this faint smile that everything is OK,” Fadda said. 

Meanwhile, Mohammad M., who is retaking Tawjihi for the second time after several years, told The Jordan Times that all students had to be present at the examination centre at 9am and that before the distribution of questions papers, exam rules and instructions were explained.

“Everything went smoothly, the observers kept notifying us about the remaining time for the exam. And even when students finished their exam they were not allowed to leave the exam room,” Mohammad said.

However, all were not that impressed and the Education Ministry’s Facebook page drew flak over the exam process.

Commenting on a video posted on the ministry’s Facebook page, Batool Alwaked said: “Everything appears to be perfect on television, but during the exam when we asked the observers how to deal with the test papers and where to write our names, their answer was that they do not know, well, who knows.”

Heba Jarrar commented: “The time is not enough. And I wonder how did they set the exam’s time without baring in mind that there could be delay in distributing the papers given having three exam forms, especially that this is the first exam of this year’s session.”