Reduce pressure on students and schools

(Baonghean) - Not being able to survey student quality at the beginning of the school year is one of the important contents that the Ministry of Education and Training has directed all schools nationwide in the 2015-2016 school year; the goal is to reduce stress in exams, avoid the race to get into selective classes and gradually continue to implement the goal of comprehensive fundamental innovation in education and training in the spirit of Resolution No. 29 of the Politburo.

Not organizing a survey on student quality at the beginning of the year and not organizing entrance exams for grade 6 are two contents that have received attention in the direction of tasks for the new school year that the Ministry of Education and Training has just put forth. This can also be seen as a new step in the Ministry's innovation process to reduce the exam burden for students and expand it to junior high and high school levels, instead of just elementary school as in previous years.

In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training also noted that although exams and assessments are still organized during the teaching and learning process and final assessments at the end of the school year, the setting of questions must be based on the level of development of students' abilities in each semester and each grade. Teachers and schools must determine the proportion of questions and exercises according to the 4 levels of requirements in the tests on the principle of ensuring suitability for the students, and gradually increase the proportion of questions and exercises at the level of high application requirements. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on regular assessment for all students; assessment through classroom activities, assessment through learning records, notebooks; assessment through students reporting the results of implementing a learning project, scientific and technical research, reporting the results of practice; assessment through presentations... Get more assessments, comments and feedback from students, parents and the community.

Class hours of students at Quang Trung Secondary School (Vinh City).

In Nghe An, in fact, this policy is not new and has been implemented synchronously in many schools in the past few years. In the past, at the high school level, after passing the entrance exam to grade 10, schools organized a preliminary exam to place students in classes. However, currently, class arrangement is based entirely on the entrance exam results. For example, at Huynh Thuc Khang High School, in the 2015-2016 school year, the school had 520 students enrolled in 14 classes of grade 10. To facilitate students, the school allowed them to register their wishes so that they could choose the program and study according to the block that they were capable of; in addition, based on the entrance exam scores and the academic results. The school's Board of Directors also determined that if the quality of students is not surveyed, assessing the quality of teachers' input will be more difficult, but this requires teachers to closely follow students during the teaching process, grasp their strengths and weaknesses in order to have appropriate training plans.

At Quy Hop 3 High School, teacher Nguyen Minh Dat, the school's principal, said: The school's admission scores are often very low, the average score of 3 subjects is only 4 - 6 points, so the school is very worried about the quality of students. Previously, the school often organized a survey at the beginning of the school year to have a plan to classify and tutor students right at the beginning of the school year. Currently, the organization of extra classes is only relative, and we have to wait until the end of the first semester, after completing the survey of 8 final exam subjects, then the school will start to organize classification and tutoring for weak students.

For secondary school, the lack of an early-year survey is carried out at the same time as the lack of an entrance exam for grade 6. This is a new feature and causes many difficulties for many schools in the area, especially key schools that have long held entrance exams such as Hung Phuc Secondary School (Vinh City), Ly Nhat Quang Secondary School (Do Luong), Ho Xuan Huong Secondary School (Quynh Luu). However, before the new school year, schools have had appropriate admission options such as reviewing academic records, adding priority points, and aptitude points. The remaining schools accept students for grade 6 according to regulations, that is, students who have completed the primary school program.

According to the schools' feedback, not organizing a quality survey at the beginning of the year has caused certain difficulties, because up to now, the results of the survey at the beginning of the year have been the basis for schools to re-evaluate the quality of input. From there, schools classify and have plans to train students, assigning quality to each teacher. Teacher Nguyen Duc Vuong, Principal of Quang Trung Secondary School (Vinh City) said: Previously, primary school students had semester exams at the end of the year, and were ranked at the end of the school year, so even if we didn't take the exam, we could still use that as a basis to evaluate students. But now, primary schools have changed the way they evaluate, so it is very difficult for us to check the quality and it is very difficult to stream students...

Also for these reasons, in the first semester, 6th grade students were previously divided into classes according to their abilities to receive additional tutoring in the afternoon. But now, they still have to study en masse and have to wait at least until the final exam of the first semester to have a basis for re-ranking each student's academic performance. Students at the beginning of the year may not have to take a test at the beginning of the year, but for final students, this is indispensable. For that reason, Quang Trung Secondary School is currently developing a plan to conduct a test at the beginning of the year with 8th and 9th grade students. The purpose is to select the provincial excellent student competition team, and secondly, to stream students, so that classes can develop a tutoring plan to prepare for the final exam and admission to grade 10.

"If we do not accurately survey and evaluate each subject, students will not know their abilities and will not have the will to improve in their studies. As for good students, this is an opportunity for them to compete fairly in the training team to have a place to participate in the provincial excellent student competition," Mr. Vuong shared his opinion.

English class at Quang Trung Secondary School (Vinh City).

Ms. Ngo Thi Nguyet, Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh City also said: A few years ago, some schools in the city organized surveys at the beginning of the year to verify and hand over quality to teachers. This has positive aspects because primary school students and secondary school students have different ways of assessment and teachers' understanding of the students' level will be the basis for having appropriate teaching plans. But this is also a pressure for students and many students are confused and worried so the results are not high. Currently, implementing the policy of the Education sector, schools have seriously implemented and have alternative measures to re-evaluate the quality of students; in which much attention is paid to the learning outcomes of students in primary school years.

Currently, the Department of Education and Training is continuing to require schools to strictly implement the policy of not organizing entrance exams for 6th grade students, not organizing student surveys at the beginning of the school year; and properly implementing regulations on student assessment and classification. Mr. Thai Huy Vinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, affirmed that for the past 5 years, schools in Nghe An have not organized quality surveys at the beginning of the school year. The implementation of this policy has initially had certain results. The most obvious is in the admission of students to the first grade of the level and most schools now only base on entrance exam scores to place classes and do not organize an additional exam as before, avoiding negativity in competing to enter selective classes. Primary school students also no longer have to compete with extra classes to take entrance exams to key schools...

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