ORANJESTAD, St. Eustatius – Following deliberations with DUO (Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs), the Ministery of OCW (Education, Culture and Science), CITO and CVtE (College voor Toetsen en Examens), the Dutch Inspectorate of Education decided that the Spanish vmbo exams, sat on May 22nd 2019 will remain valid for St. Eustatius.
At one of the secondary schools in St. Maarten, the final vsbo exam Spanish
had been administered on May 21st , one day earlier than planned. At the other secondary schools on St. Maarten and in the Caribbean Netherlands the vsbo and vmbo (equivalent of vsbo) pupils sat the exam on the correct day, on May the 22nd. The Inspectorate of St. Maarten subsequently declared the vsbo final exam Spanish invalid. This means that all vsbo exam candidates on St. Maarten will have to re-sit the examination concerned, during the first re-sit period in June.
The Inspectorate of Education conducted an investigation in cooperation with DUO to find out whether the exam candidates on St. Eustatius had prior knowledge of the contents of this exam. The analyses, carried out by DUO, showed that there is no reason to assume that the students on St. Eustatius had any prior knowledge of the exam. There were no patterns in their answers to the assignments pointing in that direction.
As a result the Inspectorate of Education decided not to declare the vmbo
final exam Spanish at the Gwendoline van Putten School in St. Eustatius
invalid. The secondary schools in the Caribbean Netherlands and the
examination authorities of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten were informed
about this decision by the College voor Toetsen en Examens (CvTE).
