Primary vs. grammar schools: Which pupils scored better in testing?

Pupils are slightly better in maths than Slovak language, tests showed.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: Sme/Ján Krošlák)

Ninth-graders and their peers from eight-year grammar schools are slightly better in maths than in the Slovak language. This stems from the results of the Testing 9 they underwent in April.

While the average success rate in Slovak was 62.3 percent, in maths it was 63.1 percent.

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Students of eight-year grammar schools posted better results in both cases, according to the National Institute for Certified Educational Measurements (NÚCEM).

Better in Maths

The math test was taken by 40,452 pupils. In primary schools, they were taken by 37,296 students with a success rate of 61.7 percent, while at eight-year grammar schools they were taken by 2,956 pupils with a success rate of 80.8 percent, said Education Minister Martina Lubyová, as reported by the TASR newswire.

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Read also: Why should companies and NGOs help schools? Read more 

The gap between the results posted by pupils at eight-year grammar schools and their primary school peers is as high as 19 percentage points. This means that children successfully completed six tasks on average more than their peers in primary schools.

About 38,058 pupils took the Slovak language and literature test. The average success rate of the tests taken by 34,999 primary school pupils was 61.1 percent, while that of their 2,858 peers from eight-year grammar schools was 77.4 percent, Lubyová said.

The difference was 16 percentage points, which means that grammar school students successfully completed five tasks more on average than those of primary schools.

Secondary school without entrance exams

At the same time, some pupils also took Hungarian and Ukrainian language tests.

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Pupils of the Bratislava I district were the most successful in both maths and the Slovak language. With an average success rate of 78.8 percent, their results were significantly better than the Slovak average, TASR reported.

Read also: Should English remain compulsory in Slovak schools? Read more 

On the other hand, there were significantly worse results in the districts of Gelnica (44.7 percent), Revúca (46.7 percent) and Rožňava (47.4 percent).

The differences between regions are not significant, said Lubyová.

The nation-wide testing took place at 1,569 schools, of which 1,446 were primary schools, 113 were eight-year grammar schools, and 10 were sport eight-year grammar schools.

Pupils who gained at least 90 percent in both maths and Slovak language will not have to take an entrance exam for secondary schools.

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