Page "Matura" Paragraph 5

The official name is ' Matura Shtetërore ' ( State Matura ) which was introduced in 2006 by the Ministry of Education and Science replacing the school based Provimet e Pjekurisë ( Maturity Examination ).

The Matura is the obligatory exam one must pass after finishing the gjimnaz ( secondary school ) to have one's education formally recognized and to become eligible to enroll in universities.

Vocational Schools are part of the Matura with a somehow different exam structure.

The Matura is a centralized affair, conducted by the AVA ( Central Evaluation Agency ) which is in charge of selecting tasks, appointing national examiners, grading the sheets ; the MoES ( Ministry of Education and Science ) does the general administration and logistics of the nationwide exams.

A second Agency ( APRIAL ) modeled after the UK University & Colleges Admissions Service and the German Zentralstelle für die Vergabe von Studienplätzen is in charge for the admission to all Albanian ( public so far ) universities the applicants have applied for.

The two compulsory subjects to complete secondary education are Albanian language and literature and mathematics.

For being admitted in a university students must take two additional exams which they choose themselves out of a list of eight subjects.

The Matura exams take place in three separate days usually in the June / July period.

The two first days are for each of the compulsory subjects ; the third day is for the two additional exams.

The basic marks range from 1 to 10 ; for university admissions though a more complex system called MeP ( Meritë-Preference ) is used.

The State Matura and the MeP replaced an admission system conducted individually by each faculty / university which was seen as abusive.