One of the most difficult things in Haitian education is passing the Rheto, (Grade 12), exam. Each year many students go to the school that has been chosen for them and they are required to write three hour exams on each subject in Rheto. This includes subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English, Algebra, Literature, Geometry, Trignometry, Biology, Social Sciences, and Geology. You might be thinking this is similar to what we do in our school. However the difference is that their final mark is based on this exam and this exam alone. The total of all these exams are added up and if they get they get over 700, which is 50% then they pass.
Not only does this put a lot of pressure on the students but there are other complications that arise that make it difficult for the students to pass their exams. A lot of times the faciliator is late for the exam and the students are given less time to write their exams. Sometimes the faciliator leaves early because it is getting dark thus giving less time for the students to write. Other times the exams don’t show up on time or are not even printed for the students to write them.
After the exams are written they are sent downtown to be marked by select teachers from Port au Prince. This year, again, there was problems during the marking. When the marking started the Prime Minister released the Minister of Education, which caused a lot of disorder and created complications during the marking. Some of our students received exactly the same mark on 3 of their exams. Some marks from exams that we passed the year before and shouldn’t have been affected were changed. When the results came out only 29% of all those that wrote the Rheto exam passed. Only 60% in Philo passed their exams.
This is something that is not new to this year. These percentages are the same from year to year. The way the exams are written, this happens from year to year. This is the way of life for a Rheto student. It is not uncommon for a student to redo the Rheto exam at least two times in his/her life, if not more. They cannot go on in their education until the Rheto exam has been passed. The only postive thing that comes out of it that they only have to rewrite the exams that they failed the year before.
This year, two of our students passed their Rheto exam. Congratulations goes out to Yder Benoit and Brisson Colas. A job well done!
