NÚCEM :: About Us

Information

National Institute for Certified Educational Measurements

National Institute for Certified Educational Measurements is a state budget organization with a legal personality, founded by the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. It was established on 1st September 2008 as a part of changes in the educational system introduced by the new Education Act in the Slovak Republic.

The basic mission of NUCEM includes:

providing external part and written form of internal part of school leaving examination assigned by the Ministry of Education,
providing external testing of pupils at primary schools Testing 9,
preparation of international measurements in accordance with programmes where the Slovak Republic participates according to their rules.

Information

Before, for a period about 9 year long, the NUCEM’s staff had had intense experience with the evaluation in Slovak educational system, as a part of National Institute of Education.

The main aim of our work is:

implementation of certified educational measurements at national level,
preparation of international measurements in accordance with programmes where the Slovak Republic participates and fully complies with the rules of individual programmes,
research and development in the area of measurements and evaluation of the quality of education,
continuous monitoring of the results of education, conditions and development of education at national level as well as their international comparison,
evaluation of the quality of education at primary and secondary schools at the level of national educational programmes.

Contacts

NUCEM
Žehrianska 9
Bratislava 5
851 07

Tel: 00421-2-68 26 02 02 (secretariat of director)
Fax: 00421-2-68 26 02 42

E-mail: info@nucem.sk

Information related to the Act 211/2000

National Institute for Certified Educational Measurements as a mandatory institution communicates with public via the Department of Economic Administration by providing information according to the legislative act no. 211/2000 about free access to information. On the basis of the law everybody has the right for information, which is available for mandatory institutions. Information is provided without declaring the reason or interest, for which the information is needed.

A short historical overview

In 2000, there was implemented the first MONITOR in Slovakia, a national test for students graduating from the higher secondary education (nowadays - ISCED 3); at that time Mathematics was the only subject tested. In the course of following years, there were also other subjects and foreign languages tested. The testing was voluntary with most of the schools involved. Since 2005 the new secondary school leaving exam (Maturita) has been approved by legislative changes as obligatory.

In 2003, Slovakia started in addition the monitoring of education quality for students graduating from lower secondary schools (ISCED 2) involving Slovak language and Mathematics. Since 2007 this testing has been compulsory for all students except students with special needs.

Actual Status of Educational Evaluation in Slovakia

In 2008, there was the new Education Act adopted defining national educational evaluation and bringing some changes into curriculum administrative.

The Maturita exam consists of two parts - external and internal. The external part of Maturita exam includes tests prepared and evaluated externally. It is NUCEM wherein these tests are being prepared. NUCEM does so for 10 subjects including mother languages (Slovak, Hungarian), Slovak language for schools with the Hungarian language of instructions, Mathematics, and foreign languages in two levels B1 and B2 of the European Reference Framework for Languages (English, German, French, Russian, Spanish and Italian). Furthermore, there are special adapted tests for students with special needs prepared.

The internal part consists of an essay to be written in mother and/or foreign language, and an oral exam processed by individual schools. The essay themes are announced by NUCEM. Both parts are obligatory for all students.

The whole external part is organized and prepared by NUCEM, and it is considered as a crucial instrument for the national educational evaluation. Not only do the final outcomes provide data for each individual student and school but also for the whole population. In addition, each student and school is getting an individual percentile in the testing to monitor the corresponding position in the population for the particular test. Regrettably, only a small number of universities accept results of the secondary school leaving exam in the entrance process.

NUCEM also runs pilot project of computer based tests in Mathematics and foreign languages.

The evaluation of the lower secondary education is implemented as the primary school leaving exam. It consists of two parts – a certified test in Mathematics and Slovak language which is compulsory for every student, and a testing of competencies in these two subjects, realised only with a representative sample. The first testing is considered as a secondary school entrance exam. All secondary schools accept the results in their entrance process.

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