Changes in choosing schools and careers

(Baonghean) -There seems to have been a positive change in the perception of students in the 2013-2014 university and college entrance exams as the number of applications submitted to universities decreased by more than 20,000 sets compared to the previous school year. Instead, more and more candidates are choosing to study at colleges, intermediate schools or vocational schools to easily find jobs...

Department of Education and Training officials review candidates' files before sending them to universities.

Ms. Tran Thi Hong Ngan - Vice Principal of the school said: "This result is not surprising" because this is what the school had predicted after more than a year of promoting career guidance for students. The reason for doing so is that the school's Board of Directors understands better than anyone else the abilities of the students in the school. This is a non-public school, most of the students have low input, so even if they really try hard in the learning process, compared to the general quality of students in the city, the school's students are still at the bottom. In fact, in the university entrance exams of previous years, the number of students who met the minimum score was only about 30%.

Because the competition for university entrance is difficult for students at the school, in order to avoid wasting time and money of students and parents in reviewing for exams, submitting documents or spending money on travel and exams, the school directs students to vocational training. The most important thing is to choose a career that you really love, have talent for and have many job opportunities. The school has also created opportunities for students to attend admissions consultations and invited some prestigious vocational schools to directly consult at the school. Especially at the flag-raising ceremony every Monday, there is almost always at least 10 minutes to talk about career guidance. The school also encourages students to find information in newspapers and electronic information pages to learn about training professions as well as job opportunities.

Thanks to the “slow and steady wins the race”, students are no longer confused when applying for university entrance exams, many of them have known their abilities and found suitable schools to apply to. Even though this year there are many universities that only consider admission, because of concerns about finding a job after graduation, even though they have enough points to get in, they do not apply. The whole school only has one application for the Fisheries major (consideration) of Vinh University. Student Le Thi Viet, class 12A3 shared: “To get a university degree, a family must spend at least 150 - 200 million VND for 4 years, but not everyone can find a job after graduation. I just want to choose a school that is capable, easy to find a job and not too expensive. So vocational training is probably the most suitable.”

Looking at the total number of applications registered by high schools in the province, especially in non-public schools, the number of applications submitted to universities and colleges is much lower than the number of students in the school. For example, in Vinh City, VTC High School has 152 12th graders but only 118 applications for university entrance exams; Nguyen Hue High School is 58/127. In Do Luong, Duy Tan High School is 188/291, Van Trang High School is 35/105; Dinh Bat Tuy High School (Hung Nguyen) is 54/125, Nghi Loc 5 School is 323/355, Nguyen Thuc Tu High School (Nghi Loc) is 83/194, Mai Hac De High School (Nam Dan) is 39/115, Dang Thai Mai High School is 533/765; Thanh Chuong 3 High School is 506/689;...

Up to 10/17 continuing education centers have no students applying for university or college entrance exams. Believing that this situation is an inevitable trend, Mr. Nguyen Danh Thuan, Principal of Van Trang High School (private Do Luong 1), one of the schools with the lowest number of applications in the province, added: “Currently, there are too many university and master's graduates who still do not have jobs. Even at our school, teachers have good degrees, but jobs are still unstable, so students are no longer interested in universities. We also determined that the school's students are mainly "scavenger" students. In previous years, even if we tried hard, only 7-8 students passed the university entrance exam each year. Therefore, this year, we only encourage good students to review for the university entrance exam, while the rest of the school and the parents' association advocate vocational training."

With 52,133 applications for university and college entrance exams, this year the number of candidates in Nghe An decreased compared to the 2012-2013 school year by 21,159 applications. According to Mr. Vu The Hai, Deputy Head of the Vocational Education Department, Department of Education and Training, the decrease in the number of applications is due to the following reasons: first, the number of high school students this year decreased by more than 4,000 students compared to last year; second, because the exam fee this year is high, students should consider carefully when submitting their applications. In addition, perhaps the most profound impact is the information that more than 72,000 bachelors and masters graduates are unemployed, which the Ministry of Education and Training has just announced, which has greatly affected the thinking of many students and many families.

In addition, the promotion of career guidance in schools and the media has also had a positive impact on students, many students have known their strengths to choose the right school and career. Regarding subjective thoughts, Mr. Hai also added: "I am happy because this year the number of applications has decreased, so after 4-5 years, new graduates will have less pressure when competing for jobs, students will save money on exam expenses, and colleges and vocational schools will have more opportunities to recruit students, especially now that more and more universities are "relaxing" their admission requirements."

Looking at the total number of applications submitted also shows many trends in choosing schools and careers today. For example, a few years ago, economic and financial sectors were always the top choices, but this year, many candidates applied to technical schools. The schools with the most applications are Hanoi University of Industry (1,392 applications), University of Transport (914 applications), University of Construction (610 applications), and University of Science and Technology (621 applications). In the universities in the province, the most are still Vinh University, University of Technical Education, University of Economics, and Pedagogical College. Regarding the exam groups, the most candidates are still group A (21,701 applications), followed by group B (15,807). Group D had quite a lot of candidates a few years ago, but this year the whole province has less than 6,000 applications. For block C alone, although the percentage of students choosing the Epic subject for graduation is low, there are still more than 3,700 application files to enter block C schools, the largest of which are the University of Culture and the University of Law.

A fairly positive sign is that this year the number of applications for university education programs has "increased", for example, Huynh Thuc Khang High School has 22 students applying to Hanoi University of Education and all taking the A block exam. According to Mr. Cao Thanh Bao, Principal of Huynh Thuc Khang High School: Students are becoming more and more "wise" and practical when choosing a school. Schools with many job opportunities will be chosen by many students. On the school side, students will be guided by the results of the survey tests. On that basis, homeroom teachers will base on students' scores and guide students to choose schools that match their abilities and academic performance...

This year, most students only submitted 1-2 sets of documents (the general rate is 1.46% - 52,133 applications/36,346 candidates (not including independent candidates), so it can be affirmed that the number of fake applications this year will certainly not be as high as in previous years. There are a few students who submitted 5-10 sets, but in the opinion of many teachers, students who submit many applications often have low academic performance and are still "vague" in choosing a school and career. In addition, if we only base on the application to evaluate the competition rate, it will not be accurate, because in reality, there are many schools with low competition rates but high entrance scores. The most important thing is still the actual ability of the students and the university entrance exam results as well as the "brand" of the schools.

Currently, the Nghe An Department of Education and Training has stopped accepting applications from candidates. Students who want to continue submitting their applications can submit them directly to the schools. Students also do not need to worry if they discover errors in their application documents, because all will be checked and corrected by the Department of Education and Training if the information is incomplete or incorrect.

My Ha