Five measures put in place to make end-of-year exams safer

Last week, pupils from twelve Luxembourgish high schools wrote an open letter to Minister of Education Claude Meisch to question the safety of the current exam schedule, demanding more preparation time at home and isolating for nine days instead of the proposed four.

Five measures have been taken by the Ministry, which were announced on Tuesday, for the final secondary school exam period, which begins on 17 May.

First, to avoid possible infection chains, all final year students will receive an invite to the Large Scale Testing programme. They will also be given a rapid test kit composed of five antigenic self-tests to be carried out at home at any time. These remain optional, and there is no obligation to show a negative result to participate in exams.

Second, examination rooms will be set up in such a way that a distance of two metres is always respected. There shall be no more than 100 students in one hall. By law, face masks are compulsory for the duration of the exams.

Third, should students miss exams by one day due to testing positive for Covid-19, students may take the test on the back-up day set for 3 June 2021. If the absence is longer than one day, the student may take the test in the autumn session.

Fourth, students that are in quarantine will still be allowed to take their exams, but they must make a request to the Sanitary Inspectorate (recourse-covid@ms.etat.lu) to travel to school, and not with public transport. Their exam will take place in a separate room to avoid any contact with other students. Both the student and their supervisors will receive a FFP2 protective mask.

Lastly, teaching will be remote on the last three days of the school year: 10, 11 and 12 May. Oral exams will still take place at school.