Furious students add threats to the equation over math test

The national supervisor for a countrywide math exam Tuesday received threatening phone calls from enraged students amid complaints that the test was far too hard.

On Wednesday night Irma Jan, the Education Ministry coordinator for the annual mathematics matriculation exam, received a stream of abusive calls, including some in which callers threatened her.

“We are following you, and looking for you,” one caller said. “We want you to do the right thing.”

Another warned that Jan was “in the sights.”

Angry pupils posted Jan’s phone number on the Internet after taking the exam on Tuesday that many felt was too difficult. The furor over the exam has gained momentum with pupils signing an online petition protesting the exam and parents complaining that, in their opinion, the questions were simply too hard.

Jan, who was not directly involved in writing the exams, informed the Education Ministry of the calls but does not intend to lodge a complaint with the police.

Education Minister Shai Piron condemned the telephone assault on Jan, a former teacher, and called the beleaguered coordinator on Wednesday to offer moral support.

“[The response] is completely out of proportion,” said Piron, who was also targeted by students who vented their anger in a multitude of derogatory messages on his official Facebook page. “This kind of thing needs to be rooted out at the source.”

Peron also spoke to National Student Council chairman Yuval Kahalon and asked the council to strongly condemn the developments, which it did.

“It is important to say that there is no place for this kind of outburst, and she [Jan] is not responsible for the difficulty of the test,” the council said. “We will not support any kind of violence, whether verbal or physical, from anyone.”

The council requested that the Education Ministry review the scheduled make-up tests and ensure that they are comparable in difficulty to exams from previous years.