National High School Exam: Controversy over proposal to remove English essay section

There are many conflicting opinions about whether to remove or keep the essay part of the English subject in the 2016 National High School Exam.

While representatives of many universities in Ho Chi Minh City believe that the Ministry of Education and Training should remove the essay portion of the English exam this year, many English teachers and high school students want to continue maintaining the current exam structure.

Candidates for the 2015 National High School Exam

In the first year of the National High School Exam, the Ministry of Education and Training stipulated that the English exam structure would be 80% multiple choice and 20% essay. According to representatives of many universities in Ho Chi Minh City, this exam structure caused many difficulties for the grading process, as well as made many candidates struggle because the time to complete the exam was only 90 minutes.

As a result, in the 2015 National High School Exam, many candidates left the essay test blank. The 2015 exam marking process also had some problems in calculating the 20% and 80% scores for English. Therefore, many people believe that this year, the Ministry should change the English exam to a 100% multiple choice format.

Dr. Tran Dinh Ly, Head of Training Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, analyzed: "The 20% essay does not have a very large impact on the score, but it does have a technical impact in the grading process. Therefore, if possible, this year, we should try to grade the English test entirely multiple choice to avoid problems, especially the huge pressure on time."

However, representatives of many high schools and English teachers have the opposite opinion. According to them, maintaining the current exam structure is reasonable because it not only helps universities differentiate and select high-quality candidates, but the exam, which includes 2 parts: multiple choice and essay, also helps candidates actively learn all skills.

Not only that, if this year the Ministry of Education and Training continues to change the exam structure, it will easily lead to disruptions in students' review because there is not much time left.

Mr. Pham Hung, Deputy Head of English Department, Marie Curie High School, said: “I absolutely want to keep the essay test because it is a writing skill test. Actually, this is just a paragraph of about 120 to 140 words, and it is also a part that saves students. The essay is the part we should test because now when students take exams for certificates like IELTS or TOEFL, they all have to write essays.”

According to Mr. Pham Hung's analysis, with the essay section in the English exam structure of last year's National High School Exam, candidates only needed to write the topic sentence, the conclusion sentence, have the connecting words and ensure the required number of lines to get nearly 1 point. If they were willing to express themselves, without spending too much time, candidates would have gotten a significant score. Therefore, the essay section is a test with many advantages for candidates.

Sharing the same thought, Dang Thuy Linh, a student at Marie Curie High School, said that the Ministry of Education and Training should continue to maintain the essay test in English because it helps to more accurately assess candidates' abilities, avoiding the situation of randomly getting high scores.

In the face of conflicting opinions on whether to remove or keep the essay portion of the English subject in the 2016 National High School Exam, public opinion hopes that the Ministry of Education and Training will carefully consider the proposals and recommendations to best ensure the rights of candidates./.

According to VOV