Photo/Illutration A staff member hands out IC players for an English listening test during the standardized university entrance exam at the University of Tokyo in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward in January. (Pool)

The education ministry said June 17 the standardized university admission exam will be held as scheduled, but the makeup exam will be pushed back for students put at a disadvantage by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry and high school and university organizations agreed at a committee meeting held the same day to maintain the Jan. 16 and 17 dates for the standardized university admission exam.

The date to retake that exam is normally set one week after the initial test. However, the ministry added an extra week before the makeup exam to help high school students who have fallen behind in their studies because of extended school closures caused by the novel coronavirus.

Some educators had called for the entire exam schedule to be delayed. They said schools that reopened earlier than others gave their students a head start on resuming their studies and preparing for the university entrance exams.

The ministry said there will be no changes in the planned schedules for the standardized exam, general entrance exams, which individual universities are due to hold from February, and recommendation-based applications, which universities will start accepting in November.

But there will be some delays.

Universities initially planned to begin accepting applications for exams that measure the students’ abilities and motivation on Sept. 1, but the date will be pushed back by two weeks.

The two-week gap between the standardized university admission exam and the makeup exam was based partly on the incubation period of the novel coronavirus. Usually, the makeup exam is for students who could not take the initial test because of illness and other unavoidable reasons.

For the current academic year, however, high school students lagging behind in their studies because of the prolonged school closures can also apply for the makeup exam.

In Japan, the academic year usually starts in April, but most schools were shut down in spring on the request of the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections.

There used to be only two venues where students could take the makeup exam, but all 47 prefectures will have at least one place for the tests for this academic year.

The ministry will also allow students who cannot sit for the makeup exam due to disease and other reasons to get another chance two weeks later.

Test scores for the standardized university admission exam and its makeup exams will not be adjusted, the ministry said.

In early June, the National Association of Upper Secondary School Principals conducted a survey of its 5,276 members on the schedule of university entrance exams. About 70 percent of respondents said the standardized exam should be held as scheduled, while roughly 30 percent answered it needed to be postponed.

The association had sought a one-month delay in all university entrance exams to ensure fairness, given the varying degrees of disruptions depending on the area.

University organizations as well as private junior high and high school organizations had called for holding the exams as planned.

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