Locality flexibly organizes cluster exams

From the 2012 high school graduation exam, the Ministry of Education and Training officially removed the regulation requiring provinces and cities to organize exams in clusters, which had been implemented since 2009.
However, many localities still flexibly organize many different cluster exam forms to ensure objectivity.

Although the school year ended on May 26, on the morning of May 28, teachers and students of class 12A15, Mac Dinh Chi High School, District 6, Ho Chi Minh City continued to organize graduation exam review - Photo: Nhu Hung

Inheriting the experience of organizing cluster exams from 10 years ago, this year Ho Chi Minh City continues to organize cluster exams. Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that the city organized 109 examination councils (HĐCT) for all 66,316 candidates from all schools and continuing education centers (GDTX). Of these, 30 councils were combined between high school students and GDTX students according to the principle of mixing students from schools in the same district, county or inter-district located next to each other. High school students and GDTX students in the same area took the same exam council but in different exam rooms.

Cluster and combined exams

According to Mr. Dat, with the above cluster exam organization, only students in Can Gio district have to travel more than 10km: students in Can Thanh have to go to Binh Khanh to take the exam. Due to the characteristics of Can Gio, which has a small number of candidates, the whole district only has one exam center. However, high schools will organize to pick up and drop off students to the exam by bus for safety and to ensure that they are not late. In remote district schools such as Binh Chanh and Cu Chi, students are transported by car.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan, head of the examination department of the Department of Education and Training of Can Tho, said that the locality also applies the form of combined examination clusters between high school students and continuing education students. Accordingly, this year's high school graduation exam in Can Tho will have 9,182 candidates registered to take the exam. The Department has arranged 22 councils, including nine combined examination councils.

Meanwhile, in An Giang, in previous years when the exam was organized in clusters across the province, there were only 24-25 HĐCTs. This year, the cluster exam format was abolished, and the number of HĐCTs increased.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh - Director of the Department of Education and Training of An Giang - assessed: "Although the budget has increased, in return, candidates will have less trouble traveling and will not have to spend money on renting a room, and parents will not have to put their work aside to take their children to the exam". Mr. Binh emphasized: "Abolishing cluster exams is necessary, especially in the current difficult traffic situation, and the Mekong Delta is entering the rainy season. Although cluster exams are abolished, we still have many ways to organize exams objectively, such as: organizing cross-marking by district, transferring invigilators from one district to another to supervise the exam so that teachers do not supervise and grade students from their own school and neighboring schools in the same district".

This year, An Giang organizes the following activities: high school students take the same exam board (but in different exam rooms) with students of the Continuing Education system; students from this school take the same exam board with students from neighboring schools, ensuring the travel distance is no more than 3km.

In Nghe An alone, the exam steering committee has decided to maintain the cluster exam format, but the exam clusters will be arranged according to school type: separate public schools and separate non-public schools. "We want the exam results to be close to the actual quality of the candidates, so we can have different measures to ensure objectivity and reduce negativity," explained Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee and Head of the Exam Steering Committee of this province. This year, Nghe An has 59 exam clusters, with 90 exam councils.

Study and take the test

Hanoi is also the locality that continues to maintain the form of cluster exam organization in this year's graduation exam. Mr. Doan Hoai Vinh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, said that this year, Hanoi will have 76 exam clusters, including 12 independent exam clusters (one school) in remote areas, the remaining clusters have 2-5 schools, candidates from continuing education centers are arranged to take the exam together with high school candidates. "Each inter-school exam cluster has one school assigned as the "cluster leader school" responsible for coordinating the organization of the exam" - Mr. Vinh said.

In Bac Giang, Mr. Ngo Thanh Son, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, said: “We only organize inter-school examinations in reasonable locations, without causing difficulties for candidates when traveling. The whole province has 43 examinations, of which 16 are combined examinations and 27 are independent examinations.” Mr. Son said: “The flexibility in arranging examination clusters has helped both us and parents and candidates overcome difficulties in cases where they have to travel too far like in previous years.”

Similarly in Ben Tre, “In remote areas, students will take the exam where they study. In areas with many high schools located close to each other, the exam will be held in clusters but candidates will not have to travel more than 4km,” said Mr. Le Ngoc Buu, director of the Ben Tre Department of Education and Training.

In Thai Binh, Mr. Dang Phuong Bac, Director of the Department of Education and Training, informed: Thai Binh's policy is that every high school with enough candidates for five or more examination rooms will establish an independent examination council. However, there are still examination councils that must be combined with continuing education centers.

In Hoa Binh, about 50% of schools and continuing education centers will be provided with combined exam boards, the rest will organize independent exam boards. Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, head of the examination and education quality assessment department of the Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, informed: "Independent exam boards are often located in remote areas with difficult transportation. Flexibility in arranging exam boards this year will create more favorable conditions for candidates in traveling and staying during exam days."

According to Tuoi Tre - H