Middle and high school students will have many tests reduced.

These are the new points shared by Dr. Sai Cong Hong, Deputy Director of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training) about the adjustments in the draft Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on assessment and classification of secondary and high school students.

Mr. Hong said that for students studying under the current General Education Program, testing and evaluation according to Circular No. 58 will still be carried out until the end of the 2023-2024 school year.

A class at Nguyen Sy Sach High School (Thanh Chuong). Photo courtesy of My Ha

Implementing Resolution 29/NQ-TW on fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training, in recent years, teaching and learning in localities have been adjusted. Therefore, testing and assessment activities also need to be innovated to match the above orientation.

Combine reviews with comments but not general ones

Mr. Hong said that the new point of the draft Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on assessment and classification of secondary and high school students is to increase the combination of qualitative and quantitative assessment, that is, combining assessment by comments and assessment by scores. This is implemented in most subjects, except for Fine Arts, Music, and Physical Education.

“This assessment by comments is not general but is assessed by specific manifestations of students' attitudes, behaviors, and learning outcomes associated with each lesson, according to the orientation of developing students' qualities and abilities.

The test by score changes the way questions are given in the direction that instead of testing students' knowledge retention, students are assessed on their use of knowledge to solve a specific learning task.

The second new point of this draft, according to Mr. Hong, is to diversify the forms of inspection and evaluation.

Class of 9th grade students - Ton Quang Phiet Secondary School (Thanh Chuong). Photo courtesy of My Ha

When diversifying the forms of assessment, the draft circular attaches solutions to organizing the implementation of the types of assessment, to ensure publicity, fairness, transparency, and objectivity. Accordingly, when applying each form of assessment, teachers must have specific instructions and publicly announce to students before implementation.

Diversifying these forms of testing and assessment aims to innovate the teaching and assessment process of teachers in current teaching practice. The number of times regular assessment forms are used is not limited by the number of times scores are taken.

No more 1-period test scores

Third, the draft unifies the number of regular and periodic assessment scores for each subject, in the direction of reducing the number of scores compared to current regulations.

Specifically, in the periodic test, a semester will be limited to only 1 mid-term test and 1 final test, no longer 1-period test. The time regulations for mid-term and final tests will also be adjusted, depending on each subject. For subjects with less than 70 periods/school year, the mid-term test will be less than 45 minutes, the final test will not exceed 60 minutes. For subjects with more periods, the mid-term test will not exceed 60 minutes and the final test will not exceed 90 minutes.

Grade 9 students review before the transfer exam. Photo courtesy of My Ha

Thus, the total number of regular and periodic assessment test scores per school year of a subject is at most 6, much lower than at present.

Regular assessment scores are calculated with a coefficient of 1, mid-term assessment scores are calculated with a coefficient of 2, and final assessment scores are calculated with a coefficient of 3; in calculating the final score at the end of the school year.

The fourth new point in the draft Circular is to strengthen the role of Foreign Language in considering the title of excellent students; to expand the subjects of rewards.

Mr. Hong said that the amendment and supplementation of some articles in Circular 58 is a stepping stone to gradually approach the new General Education Program. At the same time, this adjustment helps teachers and managers gradually shift from teaching, testing and evaluating based on content (knowledge, skills) to the orientation of forming and developing learners' qualities and abilities. When applying the new general education program, teachers will not be surprised but will have experience to effectively implement this testing and evaluation activity.

The draft amendment and supplement to Circular 58 is being posted on the electronic information portal of the Ministry of Education and Training to solicit comments for completion and timely promulgation for application in the 2020-2021 school year.