Minister of Education takes responsibility for shortcomings in the first round of admissions

On the afternoon of August 21, the Minister of Education and Training took responsibility for the shortcomings in the first round of university entrance exams that caused inconvenience and expense to the people, and at the same time announced directions to overcome them in the second round of admission exams.

During a working session to review experiences in university and college admissions in 2015 with Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, the Central Propaganda Department, and the Ministry of Information and Communications on the afternoon of August 21, Minister Pham Vu Luan admitted that the recent admissions period had revealed shortcomings.

Allowing candidates to register for up to 4 majors in one school and change their preferences within 20 days is unreasonable, creating stress for candidates and parents. The report shows that nearly 43,000 candidates nationwide have changed their preferences, concentrated in about 30 universities. Many people have to travel and wait at universities, causing expense and inconvenience.

"There are many reasons for the above situation, including the Ministry of Education's major responsibility for not fully considering the complexity and adverse effects of the solutions. On behalf of the Ministry, I would like to take responsibility for this," Minister Luan said, while announcing corrective instructions for the second round of admissions.

Accordingly, in the second round, there will be no adjustment to the registration for admission wishes. Candidates will register using online forms and send them to the university through the high schools where they study or the Department of Education. The Ministry also requires universities to quickly announce the benchmark scores and remaining quotas for the second round. Immediately after the schools finish the second round of admission, they will announce the admission results, without waiting for the 20-day deadline like in the first round.

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan announced a number of solutions to overcome shortcomings in the first round of university admissions. Photo: Dinh Nam.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam acknowledged the efforts of the Ministry, the contributions of the people and authorities at all levels in organizing the national high school exam, which basically achieved the goals as directed by the Prime Minister. However, the use of exam results has not been good. The initial goal was to create convenience and fairness for candidates, but it still left many people and candidates struggling.

"Through the assessment of the Ministry of Education, opinions of functional agencies and people, the Ministry must seriously learn from experience, closely follow the situation in a receptive spirit, listen to experts' and public opinions to immediately have appropriate, clear, easy-to-understand and feasible solutions," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Ms. Lam Phuong Thanh, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, said that units of the Propaganda Department conducted a public opinion survey on the 2015 national high school exam. The majority highly appreciated that the exam basically achieved two major goals: saving time and costs for society and reducing exam pressure for parents and students.

"This is a great effort by the Ministry of Education. However, the initial implementation was very good, but the use of results in university and college admissions has not been done well," said Ms. Lam Phuong Thanh.

The leader of the Central Propaganda Department suggested that the Ministry of Education should listen to the opinions of scientists, schools, students, and parents, and from there find solutions to make the second round of admission better and better in the following years.

After 13 years of organizing 3 common admissions (common questions, common sessions, and final exam results), in 2015, for the first time, the Ministry of Education and Training organized the national high school exam with two purposes: graduation and university and college admission. The exam, which took place on July 1-4, was considered to be quite smooth, but the admission process to universities was chaotic, especially on the last day of the first session (August 20).

According to VNE