Preparing for the 2015 National High School Exam: Intensive review, urgent organization

(Baonghean) - The 2015 National High School Exam is fast approaching. In this “final” stage, in addition to schools paying attention to students’ review, localities have also gradually completed the preparation of facilities and support for the exam season...

Going to Muong Qua High School in late June, I witnessed the spirit of review of teachers and students of grade 12 to prepare for the national high school exam. This year, the school's grade 12 class has only 111 students, of which only 20 students registered to take the exam for university admission, the rest only took the exam to get graduation results. The school organized the review on a voluntary basis, but 100% of grade 12 students still attended school regularly. Many students in the school are children of the Dan Lai ethnic group, whose homes are far away and difficult to travel to, so the school uses the public housing and teachers' housing to create conditions for them to stay at school to conveniently review. Principal Le Thanh An shared: The school has made a list, all 20 students who are capable of going to Vinh to take the university entrance exam will be supported with a portion of their travel and accommodation expenses. The remaining students will take the exam in town. If they don't have relatives, the teachers in the school will help them find free accommodation or let them stay with the teachers' families...

Extra tutoring teacher at Muong Qua High School boarding house. Photo: MH

Since the 2014-2015 school year, all high schools located in the mountainous districts of Nghe An no longer have the ethnic boarding school system and most students have to stay in rented accommodation instead of staying in the school dormitory as before. This greatly affects the learning of children in remote areas and there is always a risk that students will drop out of the national high school exam to go back to the fields or work part-time. Faced with this reality, to ensure the rights of students and to avoid interruptions in their exams, all schools in the mountainous districts have a policy of not having a summer break but organizing concentrated review sessions for 12th graders right after the end of the school year. In addition, schools actively call on teachers in the school to support money and books to help poor students or volunteer to teach extra classes without charging for money so that students can stay at school to review.

It can be said that thanks to the above efforts, up to now, at Ky Son High School, Tuong Duong 1 High School, Quy Hop High School and many other schools, there have been no cases of students dropping out of school. At the province's Ethnic Boarding High School 2, for a whole year now, in addition to regular daily school hours, students have been studying and reviewing intensively all evening. Because of maintaining a regular and scientific study schedule, the learning results of students at the end of the 12th grade are quite high, the rate of students registering to take the exam to get results for university admission is over 90%. At Anh Son 1 High School, teacher Nguyen Canh Tuan - the school's principal said: "We have just organized the final mock exam and the rate of students with average scores is more than 80%, the rate of students with dead points has decreased from 30% to 10%.

To achieve this result, recently, the school has strengthened the organization of classification and review for students and proactively assigned each teacher to practice making questions according to the matrix and program structure, then required teachers to regularly practice questions so that students can approach new learning methods and question making methods. Weak students, in addition to receiving tutoring in class, are also guided by teachers to review after hours, maintaining all study sessions during the week". At Anh Son 1 High School, to ensure that 513 candidates from 4 schools Anh Son 1, Anh Son 2, Anh Son 3 and the Continuing Education Center can participate in the exam smoothly, the school has repaired the rooms, fan system, and electric lights. The medical room has been supplemented with medicine and medical supplies to be able to conveniently take care of students during the exam. In addition, because this year's exam schedule has many disruptions, lasting up to 4 days, the school has asked teachers to collect all the phone numbers of the candidates' parents. Before the exam day, they will text, call, and remind students not to be late for the exam or remember the wrong exam date like the incidents of some candidates in previous years.

These days, despite the hot and humid weather, teachers and students at 8 high schools in Quynh Luu district are very enthusiastic about reviewing. In order to proactively review for students, immediately after receiving the directive from the Department of Education and Training, high schools in Quynh Luu district have deployed the high school graduation exam regulations to all 12th grade students. At Quynh Luu I High School, the school arranged experienced teachers to help students systematize their knowledge and grasp the basic content of the exam subjects. Along with that, they organized mock exams according to the Ministry's exam questions so that students can assess their own abilities and have a timely review plan to supplement their knowledge. In addition, the school organized dialogues with students to answer their questions about this new exam regulation. Quynh Luu 1 School is the main exam site in Quynh Luu district.

Since the beginning of May, the school has planned to prepare accommodation for exam supervisors, facilities, and medical care to ensure the health of candidates during hot days. Along with the preparation of schools, the District People's Committee has also directed the implementation of food safety and hygiene inspections; fully and thoughtfully prepared medicines and medical equipment for first aid and emergency care on site. At the same time, it has stepped up propaganda so that everyone fully understands the requirements for exams and admissions, raising awareness and responsibility in implementing the regulations on graduation exams and admissions at all levels. This is the first year of applying the new exam format, so the district has assigned the responsibility to the departments, offices, and functional agencies to strengthen information and propaganda work so that students and parents have a correct understanding of the exam. Thereby raising awareness and responsibility of each person in implementing the graduation exam regulations, avoiding unnecessary violations. In addition, the district will also organize inspections and sign commitments with photocopying facilities in the area to seriously implement the exam.

Review time for 12th grade students at Muong Qua High School, Con Cuong. Photo: MH

At the Vinh City examination cluster organized by Vinh University, although this year the number of candidates is large, the examination sites must be spread across 5 localities: Vinh City, Nghi Loc, Cua Lo, Hung Nguyen and Nghi Xuan District (Ha Tinh), but the preparation work has been urgently carried out and basically completed. With more than 1,200 examination rooms, the school has mobilized more than 3,300 examination supervisors and started to organize training for supervisors to grasp the regulations and examination procedures. In addition, the school is also preparing to print and copy the exam papers to ensure safety and confidentiality, and establish a volunteer student team to support the exam season.

The school has also surveyed all the exam locations, trying to create the best conditions for candidates during the exam, despite the difficulties, and not letting candidates take the exam in substandard classrooms at Nguyen Du High School (Nghi Xuan). Although there will be 40 exam rooms and this is the first year the school will organize the exam with Vinh University, teacher Tran Van Hung is very confident about the preparation work because the school's facilities have met national standards, the classroom system is spacious and modern... At this time, the school has also mobilized students to rearrange the classrooms and clean them.

Regarding this year's exam, Mr. Thai Huy Vinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, further affirmed: Although this is the first year of organizing the national high school exam, we are very confident in the organization because Vinh University has had more than 10 years of organizing the "3 chung" exam very successfully. The exam clusters in the localities have also prepared carefully, practiced and have gained a lot of experience through the graduation exams in previous years. In addition, we have also determined not to be subjective, negligent and have thoroughly grasped the sense of responsibility of each member of the exam council, ready to handle any situation that may arise with the right authority, responsibility and timeliness. At the same time, the industry has also consulted with the Provincial People's Committee and coordinated with relevant departments, agencies, and police forces... to ensure exam security, fire prevention and fighting, traffic safety and order, environmental sanitation, food safety and hygiene, and strive to create the most favorable conditions for candidates and their families so that all candidates can feel secure when taking the national high school exam.

My Ha - Hong Dien