Pupils can use Google in exams

How do you translate “there is no cow on the ice” from Danish into English? What are the main themes in Hemingway’s key works? And when did Tycho Brahe die?

Soon pupils at the upper secondary stage (16-plus) will be able to use the internet to help them answer questions of this sort. Danish pupils are already the only ones in the world allowed to access the internet in written examinations in six subjects. This will now to be expanded to eleven subjects, reports metroXpress.

Reflects real life
Starting in 2014, pupils at the upper secondary stage in mainstream school, at commercial school and in the Higher Technical Examination Programme, among others, will be able to enlist the help of Google during written exams in English at the top “a-niveau” level, the Ministry of Education has announced.

“At work people can look up information on the internet. So it’s important that pupils are tested in ways of working which reflect reality, because the internet and Google are here to stay,” Education Minister Christine Antorini (SocDem) told metroXpress.

This is the first time permission has been given for internet access in a foreign language exam. It will also lead to changes in the English exam itself: the traditional Danish to English translation will be dropped.

There would be no point in this as pupils could simply use Google Translate.