RIYADH — The Ministry of Education announced on Sunday that the final examinations for the first semester of 1442 will be conducted remotely. The examinations will be held through either the Madrasati platform for public and private schools that benefit from it or other educational platforms used by private and international schools. The ministry said that the ongoing online educational process would continue during the examination period to provide educational enrichment to students and address classes that have lost to them earlier. The ministry approved a mechanism for the first semester final examinations for students of public education and the distribution of grades for the year's activities. This follows the recent approval accorded by the highest authorities to continue online education for the remainder of the first semester of the current academic year. It emphasized the importance of evaluating the outcome of learning, and working to improve them continuously and that is in compatible with the e-learning and distance education app. The ministry decided to distribute grades for the activities of the year and the final exams for each academic subject, with 40 marks for the elementary and intermediate phases toward the activities of the year, including short tests, performance assignments, class attendance, and homework, and 10 marks for the final examination. The grades for the secondary phase of the semester will be decided in accordance with the schedule. The ministry emphasized that teachers should continue measure and monitor learning outcome for the activities of the year and formative evaluation on a weekly basis, according to the nature of the subject as well as the phase and the class. "The school head and the educational supervisor must follow up on this on a weekly basis at the level of each teacher, and submit reports to the education office about it, and the director of education must follow up reports of ach education office and its affiliated schools," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry decided to conduct periodic tests for the activities of the year remotely for the first semester, through the Madrasati platform for public and private schools or other educational platforms for private and international schools, in line with the nature of the subject, the phase and the class according to the options of short written exams, oral tests and home exams. The ministry indicated that it is possible to conduct tests for the activities of the year and final exams of the first semester with the physical presence of students. For this, the ministry said, there must be an approval from the director of education and the student's guardian. It is also to be ensured that the school will be prepared to make the arrangements for physical distance between each student and apply all precautionary measures and preventive protocols necessary to hold the exams in schools. The ministry also decided to assign students, who pursue their classes through various other educational alternatives such as Ain satellite channel transmission or through the lessons of Ain channels on YouTube, to sit for tests, carry out assignments and homework that are delivered to them from the school on a weekly basis, and that will be revised and corrected to achieve the targeted educational outcome.
