The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has recently presented three plans for a new national examination slated to begin in 2015, prompting mixed opinions from local educators and students.
At the conference to summarize the academic year of 2013-2014 and discuss plans for the following year held on July 29 in Hanoi, the educational ministry brought up three plans that are under consideration for the new national exam.
The exam is planned to replace the two separate high school graduation and university entrance exams currently in place.
Vietnamese 12th-graders are now required to pass four MoET tests at the end of their school year to graduate from high school in June and sit for a set of three MoET papers, depending on their majors, to gain admission to college in July.
Plan No. 1 requires students to complete four tests in four compulsory subjects – mathematics, literature, a foreign language and one of the following: physics, chemistry, biology, history or geography. The results of the four tests will be used for high school graduation. Students can also take tests in the remaining subjects and use the results for university and college entrance.
Under Plan No. 2, students are tested on five subjects: maths, literature, a foreign language, natural sciences (integrating knowledge from physics, chemistry and biology), and social sciences (integrating history and geography). The results will be used for high school graduation and university and college entrance.
Plan No. 3 gathers 11 subjects – maths, literature, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, a foreign language, informatics, technology and civic education – into four different tests. They are: maths – informatics, natural sciences (integrating physics, chemistry, biology, and technology), social sciences (integrating literature, history, geography and civic education) and a foreign language. The results will be used for high school graduation and university and college entrance.
Time is needed
At the conference, many participants expressed their agreement with plan No. 2 but also warned that the plan would not be able to be launched in 2015 since more time is needed for preparation.
Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper has opened a forum titled “Which plan for the national exam??” to gather opinions of interested readers on the topic. Many educators have also shared their feedback.
Associate Professor – Ph.D. Le Huu Lap, former deputy of the Hanoi-based Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, said the 2015 national exam should not include integrated tests.
“Teachers and students need time to change the way they teach and study for the integrated tests. Also, the format of the new tests has to be publicized several years before the exam takes place,” he stated. “I think we should have a detailed route to follow. Integrated tests should only be applied once our education system comprehensively changes.”
Dr. Tran Dinh Ly from Ho Chi Minh City said he supports the idea of merging the two traditional exams but the new exam must be feasible in terms of time.
Students confusedTuoi Tre‘s forum “Which plan for the national exam?” has also received many opinions from students who will be directly affected once the new plan is launched.
Some expressed their shock over the news that the exam will integrate some subjects because they have studied for the traditional university entrance exam, which allows them to choose three subjects to be tested on.
“I was born in 1997 and will take the exam in 2015. I was shocked to learn about the exam change. In the past, we have studied for the traditional exam,” Dang Thi Ngoc Anh wrote to Tuoi Tre. “Now things are suddenly changing,” she added.
“I tried to study maths, physics and chemistry to take the entrance exam for the Hanoi University of Pharmacy. Now that the educational ministry is deciding to test individual subjects, what am I supposed to do?” a 12th grade student expressed. “How can I study the 11 subjects for the national exam in only one year?”
Meanwhile, M.H., a 12th grade student from Tran Hung Dao High School from Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District, said he would suffer double the pressure with the national exam.
“The high school graduation exam is easy enough for almost all students to pass, while the university entrance exam is more difficult. I wonder how the test will be when the two exams are merged into one. We will have no other chance if we fail it,” he expressed. “I think if we have to take the new exam right away, many students will be shocked by how difficult it is and our results won’t be as good as expected.”
On July 31, polls were released at Nhan Viet private high school in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Phu District to gather students’ opinions on the quality of the school. The poll also included some questions to get students’ opinions on the plans for the national exam.
More than 63 percent of 103 12th-grade students polled said that they do not agree with the merging of the two separate high school graduation and university entrance exams into one national exam.
Almost 79 percent chose Plan No.1, 21.4 percent preferred Plan No.2, and no one chose Plan No.3.
More than 90 percent of the students surveyed answered in the affirmative when asked whether they would find any of the new tests challenging.
Students fear foreign language test
Besides worrying about the pressure the new exam will bring, many students are also concerned about the foreign language test, which is listed as a compulsory subject in all three plans.
Seventy percent of the students surveyed at Nhan Viet private high school said it is unreasonable to make a foreign language a compulsory subject.
Nguyen Thi Minh Giang, director of the Department of Education and Training of the southern province of Kien Giang, expressed her concern because local students mainly come from farming families in remote areas.
The curriculum and tests need to focus on calculations, which would help them the most with their farming careers, Giang said, concluding that the foreign language test would be an obstacle for them.
Responding to the concern that making a foreign language compulsory will cause difficulties for students in disadvantaged localities that offer more limited educations, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam insisted that making foreign languages a compulsory subject is a message from the whole society.
“We have to optimize the education of our younger generations, but making foreign languages a compulsory subject doesn’t mean that students from mountainous regions are required to master the subject as well as students in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City,” the Deputy PM stated.
Interested readers can contribute their opinions on the national exam by sending their thoughts to Tuoi Tre‘s “Which plan for the national exam?” forum at giaoduc@tuoitre.com.vn or Tuoi Tre newspaper, 60A Hoang Van Thu Street in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. The forum will publish readers’ opinions on Tuoi Tre‘s print and online publications. Tuoi Tre will update the forum regularly. Readers can also vote for their favorite of the three plans presented by the Ministry of Education and Training at tuoitre.vn. |
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Đăng ký: VietNam News