State matura

The Matura is a very significant part of the process of education in many countries in the world. The State Matura is a set of several external and internal exams through which students’ knowledge, skills and abilities, acquired during the four-year secondary education, are tested and evaluated.

The results from students’ achievements represent basis for determining the benefits, as well as the challenges of the education systems worldwide.   The reports from the results can be used by the creators of the education policies as a guide when planning strategies and undertaking activities towards quality education improvement.

Between 1999 and 2007 several significant and complex preparations were made in order to introduce the State Matura and the Final exams, as a completion of secondary education in the Republic of Macedonia. The preparation meant promulgation of the entire necessary legislation, designing documents and materials, as we as conducting a certain number of pilot tests. The purpose of the pilot testings was to gain information on the quality of the measuring instruments (the tests), to review procedures for administering state matura and to test the IT support system  for the entire process of exam administration.

The Conception for the Matura and Final exams in the secondary education in the Republic of Macedonia has been adopted by the Minister of education and science. In the decree, issued by the Minister , it is stated that the State Matura consists of three parts:

• compulsory exam (Macedonian language and literature/Albanian language and literature/Turkish language and literature);
• lective exams;
• Project Work.

In the first phase of the implementation of the State Matura Conception, each candidate takes:

• a compulsory exam (mother tongue) – as an external exam;
• an elective exam (a foreign language or Math/Philosophy/Esthetics-as an external exam;
• two subjects elected from a list set in the Conception.

The National Examinations Centre prepares, organizes and administers the external exams from the State Matura, whereas the internal exams are carried out by the schools. The Matura exams are organized in two exam sessions, in June and August. The August session is for the candidates who did not pass one or more of the total number of the Matura exams, or have a genuine reason they could not sit the exams in the June session. The State Matura was successfully administered for the first time in the school year 2007/2008.The objectives of each Matura exam are determined by subject syllabi for the Matura , whose scope and level of achievement are in compliance with the curricula of the individual subjects.  A pass in the Matura is a general admission requirement for University.