Macedonia Students Mull More Exam Protests

The Macedonian students organization, the Students Plenum, has announced new actions against government plans to introduce "external testing" for graduates after it became apparent that the government would not abandon the plan.

"The ministry keeps ignoring our arguments. By doing so, they force us to take non-institutional measures. We are thinking of boycotting classes or fresh protests," Hristijan Davidovic, one of the organizers of the student movement, told BIRN.

The plenum had called on President Gjorge Ivanov to support their demands, especially because of the fact that he was a university professor. However, Ivanov has remained silent.

Last week, over 12,000 students opposed to the external exams took part in what looked like the biggest student protest to take place in Macedonia in decades.

The students, mainly from the state-run Sts Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, said that planned changes were unconstitutional and posed a threat to university autonomy.

The government of Nikola Gruevski, however, says the new system of external exams for graduates will improve the quality of education and will not undermine the autonomy of universities.

Minsters have also claimed that the opposition Social Democrats are the force behind the street protests.

Meanwhile, the number of universities and faculties whose governing bodies have formally rejected the government plan has risen.

The Skopje Law Faculty, the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Pedagogy as well as the private FON University are just some of the higher educational bodies that have rejected state-run tests, arguing that they will not benefit student education, as the authorities claim.