Where is the score for me?

(Baonghean.vn) - Teacher Ho Tuan Khoi, a specialist of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, once wondered: "Holding the pen to write a score of two/Hearing my heart restless/Oh, this score is not/Only for me?". The test not only evaluates the students' test results but also evaluates the level of the test authors.

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These days, in Hanoi, 300 km away from our hometown, we still hear conflicting opinions about the 5th grade exam questions of Vinh city primary schools.

I am writing this when my son, also a 5th grader at a primary school in Dong Da district (Hanoi), is engrossed in playing with his classmates at Ecopark. After playing and saying goodbye, each child will choose a school to attend next year. At Trung Tu school, 5th graders do not have to write letters, parents do not discuss whether the exam is easy or difficult. Of course, the Department of Education and Training and, more importantly, the Ministry of Education and Training do not have to get involved, and the press does not have to waste ink. At the school my son attends, the school itself creates the exam questions, the teachers cross-grade and the principal randomly checks the 5th grade exams, and that's it.

How easy and simple. Perhaps the Vinh City Department of Education and Training is one of the few units in the country that “puts the yoke around its neck” by taking the right to create the 5th grade semester exam.

Everyone was startled.

Fifth grade students at a school in Hanoi after their semester exams. Photo: An Thanh.

I also sympathize with the concerns of Mr. Thai Khac Tan - Head of Vinh City Department of Education and Training when answering Nghe An Newspaper:“This, if said to be unusual, is true because from 2014 onwards, the city's annual periodic tests were about 1,800 points 10 in Math, 1,000 points 10 in Vietnamese (accounting for about 60%). Perhaps, after many years as Head of the Department of Education and Training, Mr. Tan "vaguely" saw the unreasonableness, so he decided“Apply common test questions for 5th grade students".

Then, last year, Vinh City education workers were startled: "From last year until now, after the city applied a common test for 5th graders, the scores have decreased significantly. For example, last year, the city only had 49 10s in Math and 69 10s in Vietnamese." After the teachers were startled, this year it was the parents' turn to be startled by the test results: "There were no 10s for both Math and Vietnamese." Many parents saw their children get 10s in 9 semesters, but in the 10th semester, they were suddenly shocked and could not believe their eyes.

The exam questions do not simply assess the students’ test results, but also assess the level of the authors. Publishing the “most difficult” exam questions in the Gulf of Tonkin does not mean that colleagues, parents and students highly appreciate the professional level of the test takers. I remember teacher Ho Tuan Khoi, a specialist of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, once wondered: “Holding the pen to score a score of two/Hearing my heart restless/Oh, this score is not/Only for you?”.

Disadvantaged are students

As Mr. Thai Huy Vinh - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Education and Training admitted, the exam was too difficult and not in line with the spirit of reducing the workload of Circular 22. We call for reducing the workload but increase the difficulty of the exam, which is unreasonable. Obviously, the Ministry stipulates that the exam for students only includes 4 levels of difficulty, so it seems that students are having to do the test at "level 5". It is true that when the exam is so difficult that they cannot do it, good and bad students are... the same.

In fact, from the perspective of parents, we believe that if the situation of 60% of students getting 10 points is not an accurate reflection, then the fact that 0% of students got 10 points in Math and Vietnamese is even more inaccurate reflection of the reality of students. The number 0% does not correspond to the results of the city's excellent student competitions during the school year.

Should semester exams just be knowledge tests, not necessarily "puzzles" for students? Photo: Internet.

Obviously, when assigning the exam questions to schools and not doing it right, and then withdrawing them to the Department to create the questions is also full of shortcomings, then we need to seriously review. Firstly, this is simply a semester exam for 5th graders, there is no need for such a complicated "process", but in the end, the Head of the Department himself had to admit: "With results like this, I am a bit worried because more or less there must be students with 10 points. We must admit that the exam questions that the Department created are not close to the actual level of students". Secondly, if any school does not do it right, the Department should correct it, not "fix one mistake with another mistake" like now. Not to mention, if the school level creates questions that are not standard, it will only affect a few schools, but if the Department level creates questions that are not close to standard, up to 29 elementary schools in the city will be affected.

Let’s simplify things so that “every day at school is a happy day”, so that there are not many letters from both students and parents complaining about exams. That is the spirit of educational innovation in Circular 22.

AT