High School Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

6th International Scientific Conference – EMAN 2022 – Economics and Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times, Ljubljana, Slovenia, March 24, 2022, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia; ISBN 978-86-80194-57-8, ISSN 2683-4510

 Abstract:

The coronavirus infection originated in Wuhan, China, and soon spread around the world. The declared COVID-19 pandemic has affected al­most all aspects of modern society. This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary education and student achievement in the state graduation exam. Secondary education of the students in Croa­tia has adapted to the new situation with the school closure, online teach­ing and with the adaptation of teaching methods. The purpose of the state graduation exam is to assess and evaluate the achieved knowledge and competences, acquired by education in accordance with general education teaching plans and programmes. For this reason, in this research, an anal­ysis of student performance in the state graduation exam was conducted. The results of the exam of the compulsory part of the state graduation exam in the summer exam period from the school year 2012/2013 until 2020/2021 were observed. In this paper, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sec­ondary education was examined from several different aspects. According to the analyzed indicators, the results showed that there is no significant de­cline in the successful adoption of teaching materials, i.e. there is no reduc­tion in the number of students who successfully passed the state graduation exam. Furthermore, the share of students who passed the state graduation exam within sufficient grades was analyzed, and the results showed that there is no major decline. Lastly, the share of students who passed the state graduation exam and enrolled in some form of higher education was ana­lyzed. The results showed that the number of students who enrolled in some of the study programs of higher education institutions did not decrease.

Keywords:

State graduation exam; Statistical indicators; Secondary education; Republic of Croatia

REFERENCES

Bao, W. (2020). COVID-19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study of Peking University. Hum Behav & Emerg Tech. 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191

Bender, L. (2020). Key Messages and Actions for COVID-19 Prevention and Con­trol in Schools. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/romania/documents/ key-messages-and-actions-covid-19-prevention-and-control-schools

Christakis, E. & Christakis, N.A. (2020). Coronavirus: Closing the Schools Is Not the Only Option. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/ coronavirus-closing-schools-not-only-option/608056/

https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse

https://mzo.gov.hr/istaknute-teme/ser-skolski-e-rudnik-3419/3419

Marinoni, G., van’t Land, H., Jensen, T. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on higher education around the world. International Association of Universities, Global Survey Report.

Onyema, E.M., Eucheria, N.C., Obafemi, F.A. and others (2020). Impact of Coronavirus Pan­demic on Education. Journal of Education and Practice, 11(13), 108-121.

Schleicher, A. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: insights from Education at a Glance 2020. OECD, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-education-insights-education-at-a-glance-2020.pdf

Sintema, E.J. (2020). Effect of COVID-19 on the Performance of Grade 12 Students: Implica­tions for STEM Education. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Ed­ucation, 16(7), em1851. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/7893

Tarkar, P. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on education system. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(9s), 3812-3814.

Toquero, C.M. (2020). Challenges and Opportunities for Higher Education amid the COV­ID-19 Pandemic: The Philippine Context. Pedagogical Research, 5(4), em0063. https:// doi.org/10.29333/pr/7947

World Health Organization. (2020). WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19-11 March 2020. Geneva, Switzerland.

Yan Z. (2020). Unprecedented pandemic, unprecedented shift, and unprecedented opportunity. Hum Behav & Emerg Tech, 2020,1-3. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.192