A new evaluation policy has been implemented in order to minimise the number of student failures at government schools, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced.

The changes will begin from the current academic year 2022–2023, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced.

The changes, expected to begin from the current academic year 2022–2023, were launched to decrease failures by helping students who have trouble learning, Khalid Abdullah Al Harqan, Assistant Undersecretary for Evaluation Affairs at the Ministry confirmed.

Al Harqan said this is only one of various steps taken by the ministry to assist pupils with support programmes in classrooms in a bid to boost their performance in challenging areas.

With the latest evaluation policy, “a student of grade 12 (day, adult education, parallel) who is absent (with an acceptable excuse) from the first-semester exam in one or more subjects is allowed to apply for the supplementary exam,” Al Harqan detailed.

“A student of grade 12 who is absent (with an acceptable excuse) from the exam of the first semester and supplement in one or more subjects is not allowed to take the exam at the end of the second semester in these subjects, and he is allowed to appear in the exam of the second round,” he noted.

Students in grades one through 12 who take the first round of exams and face a failing grade in one or more topics will now be able to apply for the second round of exams in those subjects, the official added.

He stated that a student in grade 12 who passes the first-round exam and wants to raise his overall grade to point average, improve his mark in one or more subjects, or both, is permitted to apply for the second-round exam in the same academic year in which he passed.

“The student who fails in one subject will be promoted if he needs not more than ten marks for passing. The student who fails in two subjects is promoted if he needs not more than 12 marks for passing,” said Al Harqan.

“They are distributed over the two subjects according to the student’s status for passing.”

The evaluation policy has been changed so as to have no impact whatsoever on students’ academic performance or the nation’s educational outcomes, the Head of the Examination Affairs Department Ibrahim Al Mohannadi confirmed.