Complaint about assessment

As a pupil you have the right to file a complaint about

• overall achievement grades
• decisions not to award overall achievement grades
• examination grades

As an external candidate you have the right to complain about examination grades.

You can appeal yourself or give someone else a written power of attorney to file an appeal on your behalf. If you are under age your parents or guardians have an independent right to file a complaint. A complaint must be made in writing and must be signed. You should always give grounds for your complaint, unless it concerns a written examination.

The decision on the complaint may result in the grade staying the same or in it being altered, in your favour or your disfavour. That is to say that you may be awarded a higher or lower grade. Grounds for the decision must be given, but it is final and cannot be appealed.

If a grade has been changed as the result of a complaint a new Certificate of Upper Secondary Education or certificate of competence is to be issued. The previous certificate must be handed in.

Information about your right to complain, deadlines, what must be included in a complaint, where it is to be sent, who is to deal with it, etc, is to be supplied by your school.

Please note that you are not entitled to complain about half-year assessments with grades, nor can they be changed after having been decided.

Deadlines for complaints

The deadline for lodging a complaint is 10 days for decisions concerning final assessment grades and examination grades. The deadline is counted from the date you have received notification of the grade, or when you should have made yourself acquainted with it.

Within this deadline you can also demand an explanation for an assessment grade or for why such a grade has not been given. This does not apply to written examinations. If you demand an explanation, the deadline is suspended. It starts running again when an explanation has been provided.

Complaint about overall achievement grade

Complaints about overall achievement grades in subjects or decisions not to award an overall achievement grades, are to be sent to the school but will be dealt with by a complaints body empowered by the County Council. This complaints body can only evaluate whether the prevailing guidelines for assessments have been observed. With your complaint you should enclose a statement from your subject teacher giving an account of how the grade has been determined or why a grade has not been awarded, plus a statement from the head teacher about how the school has dealt with the complaint. You are to receive a copy of these statements.

If the complaints body does not agree with you, the decision is final. If it does agree with you, the complaints body will point out which rules it believes to be violated or might possibly have been violated, and send the case back to the school. You will be informed of this. After this your subject teacher and the head teacher must make a new assessement. The head teacher then determines the final assessment grade. You cannot complain about the new decision.

Complaints about a poorer overall achievement grade in orderliness and in behaviour must also be sent to the school. Before it is forwarded to the complaints body your contact teacher and the head teacher must make a statement about among other things earlier grades, the reasons for giving you a poorer grade, which measures the school has implemented to correct the situation and a decription of how the school has dealt with the situation. You are to have a copy of the school–s statement. The complaints body is to decide if the grade is to be changed, in your favour or your disfavour. You cannot complain about this decision.

Complaint about written examination grade

You cannot demand an explanation for the grade awarded in a written examination. However, you do have the right to get a copy of your answer paper if you so ask. You may also get to know the guidelines the examiners have been given to help them in their assessment.

If you decide to complain, your answer paper is sent to a complaints committee. The members of this committee are told which grade your paper received during the ordinary assessment, but they are not told the grounds for your complaint. If the complaints committee finds that your grade is unreasonable with respect to your examination answer, a new and final grade is awarded. The grounds for the new grade are to be given, and the decision may be in your favour or your disfavour.

Complaint about oral examination grade

In the case of oral examinations, you may within the deadline demand an explanation for the awarded grade, but you cannot demand to have the grade changed. You can only complain about formal mistakes that may have affected the result of the examination. Your head teacher gathers statements from the examiner and the external examiner, and sends these with your complaint and his/her own statement to a county complaints body. You are to have a copy of these statements.

If the complaints body agrees with you that there have been formal mistakes, the examination grade will be rendered null and void. You may then choose if you wish to have a new oral examination. In this case you will have another external examiner. If you complained about an examination which you were drawn out in ("trekkfag"), there will be a new draw of subjects.

Complaints concerning results of other examinations

In the case of other non-written examinations than oral examinations, where there is no documentation that can be assessed by a complaints board, you can only complain about formal mistakes that may have influenced the examination result. In such cases you must follow the same procedure as for complaints about oral examinations.

If an examination of this sort results in documentation that may be professionally assessed by a complaints board, you must follow the same procedure as for complaints about written examinations.