Worrying before the new school year

(Baonghean) - The 10th grade high school admission season has just ended with many concerns about the quality of admissions in mountainous schools. This is also the reason leading to the situation of students dropping out of school, getting married early, affecting the quality of the workforce later.

Low input quality

The refrain of waiting for students seems to have become familiar to the staff and teachers of Ky Son High School every time the 10th grade admission season begins. The same is true for the 2015-2016 school year. Although classes have begun to gather and prepare for military training, the school has not yet recruited enough students to meet the target of 600/750 candidates registered for the exam. To mobilize students to come to school, the school has sent teachers directly to the communes to announce the list of successful candidates, using the commune's public address system to notify the villages so that parents and students can know and visit each family to learn about their thoughts and aspirations. But what Mr. Le Duc Cat, Principal of Ky Son High School, is concerned about is the quality of the input. In the first round this year, the school set the standard score at 5.5 points/5 subjects (Literature and Math have a coefficient of 2), but only 500 students registered to enter the school; In the second round, the school lowered the benchmark score to 3.5 points but still could not meet the enrollment target. Due to low input quality, Ky Son High School had to work very hard in teaching and learning to ensure output quality.

Students of Quy Hop 3 High School borrow old textbooks from the library to prepare for the new school year.

Discussing the quality of 10th grade admission in mountainous districts, teacher Vo Van Son, Principal of Quy Hop 3 High School, frankly said: The school's average annual admission score ranges from 4.75 to 5 points. Of which, the average score of 5 subjects is very low, only from 4 to 10 points. Due to the low quality of input, at the beginning of the year, the quality survey showed that over 60% of students had poor results. If this situation continues, and teachers and schools do not care, students will become discouraged, not want to study, and will only study for 1 to 2 semesters before dropping out. Last school year, at Quy Hop High School, 30 students dropped out; 7 students asked to leave midway because they got married. The school had to mobilize and ask the communes to intervene to get 5 students back to school.

At Que Phong High School, to be admitted to a public school, the "necessary and sufficient" condition is to not have any "failing" subjects. Although the school has currently recruited more than 80% of its target, up to 50% have scores ranging from 0.25 to 0.5 points in 3 subjects. Poor academic performance is also the reason why students often lack motivation after entering school and many often drop out. In the 2014-2015 school year alone, Que Phong High School had more than 90 students drop out.

Difficulty maintaining attendance

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, from the 2011-2012 school year to now, each year in the province there are nearly 2,000 students dropping out of school. The majority of these are in mountainous districts and mainly students at secondary and high school levels. One of the main reasons why many students in mountainous areas drop out of school is because they are poor students, have gaps in their knowledge, and are bored with studying. In addition, the mountainous terrain is difficult and travel conditions are difficult, so many students are reluctant to go to school; some parents in mountainous areas have limited awareness of their children's education;... To overcome the above situation, the most important solution is still to improve the quality of education. Teacher Vo Van Son, Principal of Quy Hop 3 High School, said: The reason why the school conducts a quality survey at the beginning of each school year is to understand the current level and knowledge of students. Based on that, the school will arrange classes to avoid the situation of "students sitting in the wrong class" and have appropriate teaching methods to fill in the "gaps" in knowledge for the subjects. Thanks to this method, although the school's input is low, in the recent high school graduation exam, more than 98% of the school's students passed the high school graduation exam and more than 50 students met the threshold score for admission to universities and colleges.

At Muong Qua High School (Ky Son), the solution to maintain student numbers and prevent students from dropping out of school is to propagate and mobilize to raise awareness for parents. Every month, the school sends teachers to students' homes to discuss and resolve difficulties with their families. The school has established a Fund "For students with few opportunities", on the basis of which teachers will deduct a portion of their monthly salary to help students in difficult circumstances, support tuition fees, give gifts, clothes, scholarships for students on the occasion of the new school year, Lunar New Year...

Discussing this situation, teacher Vo Van Mai, Head of Secondary Education Department, Department of Education and Training said: A reality of high schools in mountainous areas is the difficulty in enrollment (not enough enrollment quota, prolonged enrollment, low enrollment quality) and maintaining student numbers. To overcome this, in my opinion, we need to first promote propaganda work: we need to make parents and students aware of the meaning and benefits of studying. To do so, there must be the participation of many forces such as authorities at all levels, village elders, village chiefs, agencies, organizations and schools need to play a proactive role in advising and proposing coordination. In enrollment work, it is necessary to build a good plan, provide timely and complete enrollment information, and have open solutions so that parents can see how to overcome difficulties. Build a healthy educational environment, attract, care for, support, encourage and help weak students and ensure timely support policies from the State...

Song Hoang