Failure in upper secondary education, high dropout rates, especially in vocational education and training, and other phenomena endangering youth education and life pathways success, draw the attention of researchers worldwide (Battin-Pearson et al., 2000; Bowers & Sprott, 2012). Contemporary research on the role of various risk factors, including typically family background, personal resources, and school experience, provides us with robust knowledge of the power of multiple risk factors and their interconnectedness. Focused on the school experience, when trying to refine this knowledge further, researchers come across weak evidence on various structural aspects of school organisation (conf. Alexander, Entwistle & Kabbani, 2001). In quantitative research, the search for a suitable construct representing the school experience and considering not only individual but also collective experience continues. For example, the construct of the culture of academic futility seems promising (see Straková, Simonová & Soukup, 2021). There is considerable scope to interpret the school experience of struggling students in qualitative research. Students’ narratives can bring valuable insights into the operation of the schools. Their perspective has rarely been used to interpret the complex phenomena of failure at the organisational level.
The objectives
The paper aims to identify students’ reflections on the school experience that uncover organisational processes that amplify or even generate risk factors of failure in the Matura exam. Such reflections may provide insights into school processes that have the potential to inform school and policy development initiatives.
The context
Failure to upper-secondary education graduation exam is a growing problem in the Czech Republic. The introduction of the common part of the Matura exam in 2013 deepened the problem. Since then, the net failure rate in examination has oscillated around one-fifth for the first attempt and more than one-half for corrective attempts (CZVV, 2020). The unsuccessful examinee can repeat the part of the graduation exam in which s/he failed at most twice within five years from the first attempt. However, unsuccessful graduates lose nearly all institutional support, and all responsibility for preparation for further attempts is past on to them.
The Matura exam in the Czech Republic now includes the common and the specific school parts. The school part developed on the tradition of decentralised Matura. It is rooted mainly in an outcomes-based paradigm (conf. Baird and Opposs, 2018). On the other hand, the common part tends to follow the psychometric paradigm and measures generic competencies. Therefore, when a student considers how to prepare for the graduation exam, s/he receives a mixed signal from the system; s/he should be proven competent by teachers (school part) and by uniform testing instruments (common part). If the examinee does not pass the Matura, s/he does not obtain a degree and has no proof of finishing secondary education. It means that after four years of study plus repeated attempts to succeed in the exam, s/he formally remains at the initial (basic) level of education without any vocational or professional certificate. It indicates an obstacle in his/her future life path and limits the possibilities of further employment, education or training.
For these reasons - and many others – the Matura exam is the subject of constant, mainly political discussions. A need for school-based intervention is growing in the Czech Republic (Czech school inspectorate, 2022) and globally (Larsen, 2021).

The paper derives from an analysis of about 110 transcripts of individual interviews with about 35 informants. Informants were repeatedly unsuccessful examinees who failed the first plus corrective term for the Matura exam in any part (a common or a specific) of it. Informants studied and subsequently approached the school-leaving examination at various types of secondary schools (grammar schools, lyceums, secondary vocational schools) in the Czech Republic. The number of subsequent interviews differed depending on the cohort. Examinees of 2018 were interviewed once, those of 2019 and 2021 twice, and those of 2020, the primary cohort, up to four times). The informant’s narration was the basis of the interview, followed by internal narrative questions and, subsequently, external pre-defined questions to supplement the unmentioned areas. The initial interview was led by principles of biographical interview (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Follow-up interviews were held between further attempts to pass the exam and after the last attempt. Narrative interviews lasted 40-120 minutes. First, a categorical analysis of the content of the narrative was performed, and then a holistic content approach of narrative analysis was applied (Lieblich, 1998). This paper is part of a broader research project called "Life pathways of unsuccessful graduates" (CZ.02.3.68/0.0/0.0/19_076/0016377), supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The project aims to analyse students’ life and education trajectories before, during and after Matura from the perspective of failing examinees.

The analysis identified forms of organisational behaviour that condition the failure in the Matura exam. The broad scope of forms includes: failing to ensure the organisational and pedagogical continuity in teaching; misinforming (sometimes probably even intentionally) students about the organisational aspects of the exam; providing contradictory instructions to students based on internal clashes of interests of various groups of actors; etc. The actions of the school affect students on many levels. They lack awareness of the nature, demands and organisation of the Matura exam. They make wrong or problematic decisions that threaten their success in the exam. Their self-efficacy is not fully coherent with their competences. More generally, while highlighting the organisational elements, the school becomes the place where the effects of the risk factors intersect. School plays a problematic role in the students’ narratives. Non-supportive behaviour of educational professionals, regular standard operation of a school, and school routines amplify and even generate some risk factors. As a result, failure in the Matura exam represents a risk to people’s future economic status, health and well-being. The preliminary results of the analysis show that the questioned aspects of the school’s actions concerning the Matura exam can be associated with the main characteristics of the school as an organisation, institution and community: vision and mission, school culture, internal communication, reduction of conflicts of interest, and pedagogical leadership (Novotný et al., 2014; Pol et al., 2013). Specific impulses then aim at ways of preventing failure in the study, defining an approach to supporting students to succeed in the Matura exam and harmonising the attitude towards the role of the Matura exam in the study path of high school graduates. The final results of the analysis will be presented in the paper.

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