The text of the letter was published on Facebook by the chairman of the council, Mykyta Andreev.
The Civic Council under the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine is deeply concerned about the situation regarding the conduct of the DPA in the form of external examinations for 11th graders under quarantine restrictions.
Quarantine has been extended in Ukraine until June 22, 2020. According to the government's forecasts, it will not be removed even after this date. Therefore, the ZNO/DPA will be held under quarantine conditions. From the documents published by the Ministry of Education and Culture, it can be concluded that the only means of safety for the participants of the ZNO/DPA will be masks, which the graduates will be wearing for many hours. However, the distance between the participants of the test will be much smaller than it is in accordance with safety standards, and the number of participants will be 15 in one audience, and not 10, as it is recommended by doctors.
It should be noted that the external examination is a voluntary procedure, the main purpose of which is admission to a higher education institution, the state final certification is a mandatory procedure necessary to obtain a document on education. The legislation provides that in the event of an epidemic, students of education are exempted from passing DPA, in particular, paragraph 6 of Section IV of the Procedure for State Final Attestation provides that students of education who live in the zone of emergency of natural and man-made origin are exempted from attestation by decision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine requests that 11th grade graduates be exempted from passing the DPA, i.e. in June, children will be issued certificates of complete general secondary education, and for those who plan to enter higher education institutions, of course, to conduct an external examination.
The adoption of this decision will allow to reduce almost by half the number of participants of the ZNO. and this will reduce the risks of contracting the disease from COVID-19 for all participants in the educational process, as well as avoid a whole series of legal issues regarding the graduation of students (conducting legitimate pedrads in the months of July and August, or having two parallel 11th grades at the beginning of the academic year, provided that the the main session of the ZNO in August), and will reduce tension among children, their parents and teachers.
