Changing wishes to enter grade 10: A 'test' to evaluate student quality?

The "competition" ratio is not "inversely" proportional to the quality.

Four hours before the Department of Education and Training announced the results of the 10th grade entrance exam, teacher Luu Cong Linh - Principal of Thai Hoa High School sent his congratulations to the students and parents who registered for the exam. This was quite a surprise, as it was predicted that the number of candidates would increase, the competition would be high and the exam would be more difficult than previous years.

In the recent 10th grade entrance exam, after 5 days of changing wishes, the number of incoming and outgoing applications at Thai Hoa High School had many fluctuations: from 511 initial applications, by the last minute the school only had 481 applications left.

According to teacher Luu Cong Linh, although the admission rate can be up to 90%, the school's quality is still guaranteed: After the scores are announced, it is predicted that about 15-20 students will fail and the standard score will range from 15.9 to 16 points. This score is about 1 point lower than last year but still ensures the right quality and reflects this year's exam. Most of the students who stay and do not change their wishes are confident in themselves.

At Thanh Chuong 1 High School, before the 10th grade exam took place, the school had 643 applications for the exam. With an enrollment target of 495 students, the initial admission rate was 76%. However, after changing the wishes, the school now has only 514 applications left and the admission rate is over 96%.

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"Although the number of students registering has decreased, the admission score has still increased, expected to be 16.75 points, an increase of more than 2 points compared to previous years. In my opinion, this is normal, because the students who stay are those with real ability and they deserve to be admitted. In the future, if there are students transferring to specialized schools, the admission score is expected to decrease, but not much.

The school's view is that even though the admission rate is high, the benchmark score must still ensure quality. If any student scores too low, they can have many other options.

Teacher Nguyen Thanh Tien - Principal of Thanh Chuong 1 High School

The public school gate is "narrow" for many candidates

The Department of Education and Training's permission for 10th grade candidates to change their wishes has received much attention from parents and students.

After changing their wishes, many surprises occurred when the number of candidates registering for schools considered to be top in the localities decreased significantly, and many schools were even at risk of not meeting their quota.

On the contrary, schools far from the center and schools with low admission scores in the past have seen a sharp increase in the number of students transferring back.

Currently, there is no official benchmark, but after the Department of Education and Training announced the 10th grade exam results, many parents in Nam Dan district were really worried.

The risk of failing the public school entrance exam to grade 10 is entirely possible, especially for students applying to Nam Dan 2 High School and Kim Lien High School.

Previously, in previous exam seasons, admission to these schools was quite easy when the admission score only fluctuated from 10 to 13 points. Part of the reason was because these schools had few students, and in some years, the admission rate was over 90%.

Right before this year's exam season, when the application submission deadline was only 2 days away, the Principal of Kim Lien High School posted on the school's information page the number of applications to the school and hoped to recruit more candidates.

Teacher Duong Son - Principal of Kim Lien High School, said: "When the number of applications increases rapidly, it will certainly make the chance of admission for candidates more difficult. The expected benchmark score for our school this year is 16.5, nearly 3 points higher than previous years, even though this year's exam is more difficult."

The same situation is happening at Nam Dan 2 High School. The disadvantage of this school is even higher for local students because the school's enrollment area has long been mainly in Nam Kim, Trung Phuc Cuong and Khanh Son communes; the average student population here is often lower than the entire district. Previously, with the benchmark score fluctuating below 12 points/3 subjects, the public school admission rate here was very high. However, this reality is unlikely to happen this school year.

At Trung Phuc Cuong 1 Secondary School, after knowing the exam scores, teacher Nguyen Van Tan - Principal of the school, said: "This year the school has 83 students registered to take the 10th grade entrance exam, mainly from Nam Dan 2 High School. With the current scores, we are concerned that about 20 students will fail to enter public schools."

Looking at the current results, teacher Nguyen Van Tan also admitted that the 2009 students in the 5 South region of Nam Dan are really facing difficulties. However, in addition to objective reasons, schools also need to change, parents and students also need to accept the reality to move forward.

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For a long time, many people have said that the 5 South region is a low-lying area, the quality of education is not high, so the benchmark is low. This is also the reason why students from other regions transfer here, competing with students in the region.

Therefore, after this year's exam season, we have to look back at ourselves, analyze the causes and need to change the way of teaching, learning, and evaluate learning based on quality. Once the quality of students in the region is improved, students in other regions will also be hesitant to come to our area to take the exam.

Teacher Nguyen Van Tan - Principal of Trung Phuc Cuong 1 Secondary School

From the reality of Nam Dan district and some neighboring localities of Vinh city, many opinions also expressed concern when the Department of Education and Training allowed candidates to adjust their wishes, leading to unpredictable fluctuations in enrollment. Regarding this issue, to evaluate objectively, it is necessary to analyze, evaluate, and draw lessons.

However, through this change, a fairly comprehensive picture of the quality of candidates and the quality of teaching and learning has been seen quite clearly. And when the admission is no longer regionally advantageous, the registration for the exam is no longer limited, secondary schools also need to change their teaching and learning methods, student assessment methods and move towards practical teaching and ensuring output. Only then will the competition for grade 10 be truly fair and the quality of students in the whole province will be improved./.