National Exam 2015: Innovation in the education sector

(Baonghean) -ExamThe "2 in 1" plan for high school graduation exams and university and college admissions from 2015 that the Ministry of Education and Training has just announced is receiving attention from the public and all schools for both its "advantages".and those"limit"...

Students of Huynh Thuc Khang High School (Vinh City) discuss the national exam plan. The Ministry of Education and Training has just announced.

The decision of the Ministry of Education and Training was officially announced, attracting special attention from students of class 12 A1, Huynh Thuc Khang High School. Therefore, although it was recess time, not many people were as noisy as before, but instead, students focused on the content of the new exam that they had just downloaded from the internet. The general feeling was anxiety, because students had not yet anticipated the exam method and the admission method of the schools. Besides, according to this new method, there will be many "differences" compared to previous exams, that is, this school year, candidates will not have to register for admission to training majors and schools before the exam takes place, but after the exam results are available, candidates will base on the requirements of the schools, training majors (announced on the school's website) and their exam scores to register for admission to appropriate universities and colleges. Second, for a long time, most of the 12th grade A1 students have been studying in group A, taking the 3 subjects Math, Physics, and Chemistry. Many students have also planned which universities they will take the exams for this year. However, with this new method, each university will certainly have its own exam plan. So, how will the entrance exams of the schools be? Will the scores of the subjects in groups A, B, C still be considered as before or will there be additional exam subjects...?

Although planning to take the entrance exam to the National University and in grade 11 won first prize in Chemistry in the Provincial Excellent Student Competition, Nguyen Huy Hoang still said: I was a bit surprised by the new plan proposed by the Ministry of Education and Training, because since grade 10 we have determined to focus on block A for the university entrance exam. Now, according to the new plan, we do not have much time to review thoroughly, especially in the two subjects of Literature and English. I also think this is the optimal plan, with many benefits for students, but it will be better to apply it after two or three years, because by then students will have had a preparation process from the beginning of grade 10.

According to the plan for high school graduation exams and university and college entrance exams from 2015 that the Ministry of Education and Training has just issued in Decision 3538/QD - BGDĐT, there are 8 new points in the 2015 national exam. Accordingly, starting from 2015, instead of organizing two exams (high school graduation exam and university entrance exam) to carry out two separate purposes as before, it will be combined into one exam (called the national exam) and the results will be used to consider graduation recognition, at the same time providing data for higher education institutions to use as a basis for university and college admission. Each candidate must take 4 subjects (called minimum subjects) including: 3 compulsory subjects: Math, Literature, Foreign Language and 1 subject chosen by the candidate from the following subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History and Geography. The results of the minimum 4 exams are used to consider graduation recognition and are also used to register for admission to universities and colleges with exams suitable for the training major. In addition to the 4 exams mentioned above, candidates have the right to register for the remaining exams of the exam to use for university and college admission registration according to the requirements of the training majors as prescribed by each university and college in the school's enrollment plan. In addition, the exam work continues to be innovated in the direction of assessing learners' capacity, gradually increasing the number of questions at the application level, open questions; the content of the exam questions will ensure all 4 levels of recognition, understanding, application, high application, both basic to meet the needs of most candidates and advanced to differentiate students' levels to serve the enrollment work in universities and colleges.

To implement this plan, before January 1st every year, universities and colleges must announce the level and method of using exam results for admission. Candidates will not have to register for admission to training programs and schools before the exam takes place, but will register after the exam results are available. The exam supervision and grading work will have the participation of staff and lecturers of universities and colleges along with teachers of high schools.

Following the entire process of collecting opinions and discussions at school, at the Department of Education and Training as well as researching on the mass media over the past several months, teacher Cao Thanh Bao - Principal of Huynh Thuc Khang High School said: The Ministry of Education and Training choosing option 1 out of 3 options to collect opinions is something that I and the teachers in the school have anticipated and believe that this is the most feasible option at this time and that will avoid disruption in teaching and learning and in grading exams (according to the "integrated" exam format of 11, 12 subjects of options 2, 3). He also said that because this is a new option, public opinion and students are very worried. But in reality, it is favorable for students. The reason is that in the past, students had to take two exams continuously in 2 months (6 and 7), which was extremely stressful. Now, with only one exam, the burden will be much less. Because now, even if taking the A, B, C... exams, each student only has to take at least 5 subjects, instead of 7 or 8 subjects like before. The only thing that schools and students are most concerned about now is the admission method of universities, because according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, universities will not announce their admission plans until January. If the entrance subjects are still as simple as before, there will be no difficulty, but if it is different and announced late, students will be "passive". Moreover, we are also worried about the organization of the exam, whether it is fair and objective or not when some localities do it seriously, others do not. Therefore, it is very necessary for the Ministry of Education and Training to closely monitor.

This school year, Anh Son 1 High School has nearly 550 12th grade students who will take the first national exam according to the plan of the Ministry of Education and Training. Teacher Nguyen Canh Tuan, Principal of the school, said that the "2 in 1" plan has many advantages and benefits for students. That is, it ensures the focus of the exam, the compulsory subjects require students to study seriously to acquire all the knowledge and later it will be useful for them to apply in life. Continuing to take elective subjects will be convenient for students, students will definitely choose subjects that suit their abilities. Third, this is also an opportunity to combine graduation exam review and university entrance exam review.

However, with the characteristics of mountainous schools, this exam will also cause a lot of "disruption". Specifically, currently the input of mountainous schools is very low, even at Anh Son 1 High School (one of the schools in the most difficult area with the best input), the average input score is only 3 points/subject. Now, combining the common exam, the exam will certainly be more difficult, the differentiation is high, the structure and time for doing the exam will also increase compared to before and students will be "tighter" in the process of doing the exam, the competition will increase. Therefore, predicting low graduation results in mountainous schools is something that will be predicted. Furthermore, with English being the compulsory subject, the number of qualified high school teachers (with C1 certificate) in high schools in Nghe An is currently only about 70% (for example, Anh Son 1 High School has 11 English teachers, but only 3 teachers have B2 certificate - equal to the standard for middle school teachers), so the English quality of students in the schools will not be high. Therefore, students will have difficulty in this subject. In addition, next school year, the organization of the national exam will be held in clusters and regions. Most of the students in mountainous areas have difficult circumstances, long distance travel, difficulties in traveling and accommodation will make many students "discouraged". Therefore, the situation of students dropping out of the high school graduation exam may be higher than in previous years. According to Meritorious Teacher Pham Huy Duc, former Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training: The most important thing of a national exam is seriousness and honesty. If the Ministry of Education and Training and localities are unanimous in wanting to do it “for real”, this will truly be an exam with many advantages. Implementing a common exam to get university entrance exam results will make the exam more serious. Students themselves will also identify this as a competition for university entrance, and there will certainly be no situation of exchanging, showing papers, and lack of seriousness like in some previous exam councils.

During the consultation period to synthesize comments for the Ministry of Education and Training, Nghe An had 99.28% of units agreeing on organizing the national high school exam according to option 1 proposed by the Ministry of Education and Training. That also confirmed that this is the most optimal option in the current period and shows that the innovation of the Ministry of Education and Training in exams according to the viewpoint of Resolution No. 29 on "fundamental and comprehensive education innovation" has received the response of schools. Anticipating this change, many schools have also planned to build plans for teaching, learning, and exams in the new form since the beginning of the new school year. Therefore, according to the Principal of Huynh Thuc Khang High School, "the organization of teaching and learning at the school has not been disrupted much". Even the school still orients to arrange classes for new 10th grade students according to groups A, B, C, because the selection of admission to universities is still based on this basis. Meanwhile, Anh Son 1 High School has oriented teachers to teach in a form that is "heavier on knowledge and newer on exam structure" to meet the requirements of the general exam of this school year. Mr. Thai Huy Vinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nghe An said: The reason for choosing option 1 is because this option has many advantages for both students and teachers in teaching and learning, a student can take exams in many subjects (both natural sciences and social sciences) and can participate in many groups. Regarding the exam format and exam plan, he affirmed: Particularly for Nghe An, this is not a concern, because the Vinh exam cluster has 10 years of experience organizing exams according to the "3 common" plan very successfully. Now the number of candidates taking the exam has increased, many students from the highlands have come down. If there is active participation from departments, branches, and support from the "exam season support" program, the difficulties will certainly be overcome.

Representative of Vinh Medical University, Mr. Nguyen Canh Phu - Vice Principal of the school also believes: Although there are many changes in the 2014 - 2015 school year exam, if it is implemented seriously, if all students try to study hard and take the exam, we can still be assured of the "fairness" and "objectivity" of the exam.

My Ha