3 years ago, teacher Le Sa - Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities No. 2 was assigned to be the homeroom teacher of class 10D and responsible for teaching English to the classes identified as the school's key classes. Compared to the general level, her class had a slightly higher entrance score. However, with English, the results were not positive because most of the students' entrance scores to grade 10 were only 1 - 3 points, some only 0.5 points. Even in class 10D, a class that focuses on English, the number of students with an average score of over 5 points was less than 30%. "The students' English level at that time was like a blank sheet of paper" - Ms. Le Sa recalled.
With such a low starting point, signing a commitment to ensure quality for English teachers is something that needs to be considered. However, teacher Le Sa sets a minimum goal that students must achieve 5 points; students with better abilities must achieve 7 points or higher to have a chance to be admitted to university. Persisting with this goal, over the past 3 years, teacher Le Sa and many other colleagues at the school have "taught day and night, regardless of effort" to partly supplement the knowledge that students have missed in primary and secondary school; partly continue to teach new knowledge so that students can keep up with the program.
During the teaching process, the class is divided into small groups, from weak, average to good, to teach according to the right subjects, helping to monitor the progress of the students. The teacher closely monitors the scores of each test, each mid-term and final exam. Despite great efforts, by the beginning of grade 12, through the test at the beginning of the school year, the best group in class 12D - Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities No. 2 only had 7/32 students expected to achieve a score of 7 or higher. This number in other classes is even lower. To reach the target, during the 9 months of grade 12, the Foreign Language group of Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities No. 2 had to work hard to both organize review sessions for students and speed up to help them get high scores in the graduation exam as a basis for university admission. Each increased score, each student's progress cannot be counted on the efforts and perseverance of the teachers.
After many efforts, the results of the 2023 High School Graduation Exam made teachers and students of the Ethnic Boarding High School No. 2 burst into joy. In particular, the English score increased from 5.8 points to 6.42 points, ranking 9th in the province (1.42 points higher than the average score of the whole province and 0.6 points higher than the previous commitment). In particular, class 12D, the average foreign language score was 8.23 points, ranking 1st in the whole school and 29th in the whole province. In the class, 4 students were included in the list of students with high scores honored by the province.
Not only class 12D, teachers and students of Ethnic Boarding High School No. 2 have just finished the 2023 High School Graduation Exam with a "perfect" result when the average score ranked 2nd in the province (only behind Phan Boi Chau Specialized High School). In particular, the subjects of Literature, History, Geography continued to lead the province, Physics excelled to 2nd place, Math ranked 4th... The school has 12 students on the list of students with high scores to be honored and is one of the 2 schools with the largest number in the province. These results all exceeded and were higher than the results that teachers signed a commitment to ensure the quality of education.
Previously, following the entire process of the school's students, from the days of entering grade 10 with a modest entrance score, all students were ethnic minority students, many of them were from poor households and witnessing the process of studying, reviewing for exams and racing against time until the last day before the exam, we can see that this result is not a temporary thing but the result of perseverance and relentless efforts. This school also set a record when it organized 6 mock exams before the high school graduation exam and the final scores accurately reflected the real studying - real exams and real results of the school.
In the 2023 high school graduation exam, Nguyen Canh Chan High School (Thanh Chuong) also finished beyond expectations when the school's average score increased by 0.1 points compared to the previous year, including 8/9 subjects with remarkable progress such as Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Civic Education and Foreign Languages. In particular, Chemistry ranked 2nd in the province (average score of 9.05) and Biology (average score of 7.66) ranked first in the province.
According to teacher Le Hai Nam - Vice Principal of Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities No. 2, one of the reasons for this success is that the school has made efforts to implement the commitment to ensure input quality, including the commitment between the school principal and the Director of the Department of Education and Training, the commitment between homeroom teachers, subject teachers and the school board, and the "implicit" commitment of responsibility between teachers and their own students. "Previously, when setting out the tasks for the school year, we still insisted on making efforts, but we really did not know where the destination was. However, when we signed the commitment with specific numbers, with the criteria that the output must be higher than the input, the next year must be higher than the previous year, we had a goal to aim for. Ensuring quality is like a lighthouse that forces all teachers in the whole school to follow it to progress," said teacher Le Hai Nam.
Talking about the implementation process, Nguyen Doan Ngoc - Biology teacher for grade 12 at Nguyen Canh Chan High School (Thanh Chuong) said: When the school first implemented the program, he and many other teachers felt pressure. However, once the commitment was signed, each teacher had to uphold their responsibility: There were times when after the test, looking at the results of the students, I was really worried. But from the pressure, we turned it into motivation to try and the outstanding progress of the students is the happiness of the teachers.
Teacher Nguyen The Hung, a Chemistry teacher at Nguyen Canh Chan High School, added: “The signing of the quality assurance agreement stimulates both teachers and students. Therefore, instead of just teaching to complete the program, we have to worry about each student, looking at each score to have a suitable teaching plan”…
To achieve this final result, teachers at Nguyen Canh Chan High School also volunteered to teach more than 300 extra classes for free. Even at the last minute, teachers had to "fight" for teaching hours. Many extra classes lasted into the evening, and the time could not be calculated...
Nghe An is still known as a land of learning. However, besides the outstanding results of key education, the quality of mass education still has many limitations. In 2017, the average score of the province in the National High School Graduation Exam was 4.84, ranked 40th. From 2018 to 2021, the position has changed but the ranking is still low, not worthy of the province's position with the rankings of 39th, 37th, 36th and 34th in 2021.
In order to improve the quality of comprehensive education and develop learners' capacities and qualities, from the 2021-2022 school year, Nghe An began piloting a model of ensuring educational quality. After more than 1 year of implementation, in October 2022, the Department advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue a plan on implementing quality assurance work in general education institutions for the period 2022-2025, with a vision to 2030 in the province.
According to this model, each school can develop different output standards and commitments, depending on the actual scale, student characteristics, educational and training capacity, etc. The commitment to implementing output standards will create certain pressure, but it is also a motivation for each teacher, principal, and school to strive to improve the quality of comprehensive and substantial education. In addition, it creates a comparison of educational quality between units and localities. From there, mobilize social resources to develop education, while having close monitoring and supervision from parents, society, and local authorities. At the same time, there is support, inspection, and close direction from state management agencies.
Reality also shows that over the past 2 years, the implementation of the education quality assurance model has brought a "new wind" to schools, from pressure to motivation and increased responsibility of teachers. The most obvious manifestation is that in the two recent exams, the province's graduation exam results have changed significantly, increasing 14 levels compared to previous years. The change is also clearly seen in schools when schools that do the real work, give real instructions, study real, take real exams will have real results. On the contrary, if any school is still doing it perfunctorily, coping or not really involved, the results will be clearly seen through the scores of the High School Graduation Exam.
Talking about this, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Head of Secondary Education Department of the Department of Education and Training said: Immediately after the signing of the quality commitment between the principal and the Head of the Department of Education and Training (for schools under the Department of Education and Training); the principal and the Director of the Department of Education and Training (for high school level); the Head of the Department of Education and Training and the Director of the Department of Education and Training, the whole sector has stepped in and directed the profession decisively, such as sending professional staff to directly advise schools, select teaching content, and organize teaching methods to suit the target audience. The sector has also organized review and mock exams for the whole province. In particular, a test bank with more than 20,000 questions in all subjects has been built so that students can take mock exams online completely free of charge.
Immediately after the results of the High School Graduation Exam were released, the Department of Education and Training also carefully analyzed the transcripts and exam scores of each school and each subject, carefully evaluating the ups and downs of the schools so that the schools could compare their quality. Through synthesis, it was found that there were a number of schools that had maintained stable results for many years, such as Phan Boi Chau Specialized High School, Ethnic Boarding High School No. 2, Huynh Thuc Khang High School, Do Luong 1 High School, Do Luong 2 High School, Cua Lo High School, Hoang Mai High School, and Le Viet Thuat High School. Besides, there are some schools with remarkable changes such as Phan Thuc Truc High School (up 24 levels), Pham Hong Thai High School (up 22 levels), Yen Thanh 3 High School (up 19 levels), Quynh Luu 4 High School (up 18 levels), Dien Chau 2 High School (up 21 levels)... However, in this exam, there are still schools whose exam results are not commensurate with the school's position such as Nam Dan 2 High School (down 12 levels), High School 1-5 (down 17 levels), Quynh Luu 2 High School (down 15 levels), Anh Son 1 High School (down 25 levels)...
Analyzing and comparing results in the current context is extremely important. Through this, each school will look at itself to analyze its strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and shortcomings and from there find more effective solutions for the coming school year.
Regarding the implementation of the quality assurance model, Mr. Thai Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Education and Training also affirmed: Building and implementing the quality assurance model in general education institutions will create a breakthrough in innovation in school management. Thereby, it will build a vibrant emulation movement and healthy competition in enrollment, build the reputation and brand of educational institutions, aiming to build a quality culture in the education sector: Real learning - Real exams - Real results.
