Only 19% of students pass second session of end-of-highschool exam in Romania

Only 17 to 19 percent of the highschool students who took the second session of the Baccalaureate exam in Romania passed it, although the final results will be announced on September 7, according to Mediafax, quoting sources in the Education Ministry. This is an even worse result that the one after the first session, when only 44 percent of the candidates passed. The rest of the students after the first session, around 100,000 candidates, had to attend this second exam. The highest rate so far was in Suceava county, with 36.3 percent, which had a high rate at the first session too – 66.2 percent. Commentators said the high rate in this county could have been caused by the lack of cameras in the exam rooms, which would have allowed students to cheat. The Bacalaureat exam this year ended with the worst results in the last 20 years in Romania. Romanian students who finish high school must take the Bacalaureat exam (BAC) in order to graduate and to be able to go to college. In 2010, 67.4 percent of the students who took the exam managed to pass and in 2009 the rate was almost 80 percent. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)