Over 46% of 8th-grade pupils in rural areas who took the National Evaluation this year got less than 5 out of 10 in the Maths test, compared to only 20% in urban areas, according to an analysis of the National Students' Council, Hotnews.ro reported.

When it comes to the average grade computed for the two tests (Romanian language and Maths), the discrepancy remains wide: over 30% of the pupils in rural areas failed to get a score over 5, compared to 15% in the urban areas.

The problems posed by the online learning in the second part of the year was not the critical driver for the wide discrepancy, the Council argued.

"These discrepancies cannot be overlooked, as they highlight the qualitative difference between rural and urban education. The data highlighted should be a concern for the Ministry of Education and Research and, at the same time, a need to accelerate measures by which all students will be able to get to school and will be able to recover the lost courses," the representatives of the National Students' Council stated in a press release.

The president of Council, Antonia-Laura Pup, said that the passing rate of the National Evaluation exam - 76.1% - is misleading and should not be used politically. The difficulty of the tests was the lowest in four years. She also requested a thorough analysis of the reasons that resulted in high dropout rates.

editor@romania-insider.com

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