Nghe An students anxiously choose school

College is not the only option

Among the 684 12th grade students of Le Viet Thuat High School this year, Thai Bao Huy - Student of class 12D4 is one of the few candidates of Le Viet Thuat High School who did not register for admission.universitybut chose to go to vocational school after graduation. Huy personally said that the decision not to take the university entrance exam but to choose hairdressing to start a career was not a spur of the moment decision, but was prepared for more than a year, and he also spent more than a year studying and working as an assistant at a hair salon in Vinh city.

Review time for 12th grade students at Le Viet Thuat High School. Photo: MH

In Huy's class, there are two friends who decided to start a career in music: Ho Ngoc Tien and Bui Anh Minh. Tien wants to pursue composing rap music and plans to go to Ho Chi Minh City to work and study after graduation. Minh is in charge of mixing and arranging... but he still chose to study at the University of English Education. He said he will study in the South to be close to Tien and this is also a way for them to nurture their love of music and cherish their future plans.

Homeroom teacher of class 12D4 Nguyen Thi Ha Giang said that she was not surprised by this decision, because currently students' career choices are more diverse, many of whom do not choose to go to university. In addition, with many new admission combinations other than the traditional A, B, C, D groups, students have more opportunities to choose other careers. "About 90% of my class has university admission, the rest also have their own choices such as vocational training, artistic orientation... I see this as a positive sign because they have made the right choice for their passion instead of considering university as an absolute choice", said teacher Ha Giang.

12th grade students research their wishes before applying. Photo: MH

At Cua Lo 2 High School, Chu Thi Kim Nhung - a 12A2 student also chose to work abroad instead of going to university because she admitted that compared to her classmates, her ability makes it difficult for her to study well. To prepare for this decision, over the past year, Nhung has also researched a lot of information and started learning foreign languages. "Where I live, people choose the "study and work" study abroad program in Korea and Japan. I want to work right away, so I might register to work abroad in Japan because the opportunity to go is easier and the cost is less expensive," Nhung shared.

This school year, Cua Lo 2 High School only has 96/253 students registering for university admission. Teacher Dang Cong Huan - Vice Principal of the school said: "We are not surprised by this rate because last year, the rate of students registering for university admission was even lower (20%). Compared to other schools in the area, the average level of students at Cua Lo 2 High School is lower, so they want to go to vocational school, study abroad or work abroad after graduation."

Difficulty in choosing a career

Huynh Thuc Khang High School (Vinh City) has 721 12th grade students this year and only 4 students did not register for the university entrance exam but intend to study abroad. According to the school's statistics, up to 2/3 of students registered for the Natural Science subject group, so the students' tendency will be more inclined towards engineering, economics, finance, medicine, and pharmacy. Currently, in general, on average, each student registers from 5 to 6 wishes, some students even have more than 15 to 20 wishes and it is expected that the registration of wishes will have many adjustments after students know their exam scores.

Ms. Le Thi Hong Lam - Vice Principal of Huynh Thuc Khang High School said: "It is understandable that students register for many wishes because they often register for top schools such as Polytechnic, Foreign Trade, National Economics, so it is quite difficult to get admitted. Therefore, adding one more wish gives students a chance to be admitted.

There are quite a few applications with 10 or more wishes. Photo: MH

Compared to previous years, this yearMinistry of Education and TrainingThere are many adjustments to the admission of candidates for the 2021 High School Graduation Exam. Accordingly, in addition to registering through the exam registration form, candidates can also register for admission online and extend the registration period. If last year, the Ministry of Education and Training only allowed candidates to adjust their wishes once, this year they can adjust their wishes three times after knowing their high school graduation exam scores. This will be objectively favorable for candidates, but it also makes it difficult for them to choose. Like Thao Anh - a student at Vinh University High School for the Gifted, who won the National Third Prize in Information Technology this year, but when registering for school, she was still hesitant because "there are many schools, but I want to study more about computer science, but not many. Maybe, I will register directly for a school with a high chance of admission but still review to get admission points to a university that I like".

After the deadline for registration, the Nghe An Department of Education and Training also counted the number of 12th grade students participating in the 2021 High School Graduation Exam. Specifically, in this school year, the whole Nghe An province has 34,452 candidates registered for the 2021 High School Graduation Exam. Of these, more than 11,000 candidates registered for the exam only for graduation (32.35%) and the rate of taking the exam for both graduation and admission to colleges and universities is 67.5%.

Grade 12 students are in the final stages of preparing for the 2021 High School Graduation Exam. Photo: MH

The number of schools with many candidates registering for university is not beyond expectations, focusing mainly on top schools or schools in the central region such as the Provincial Ethnic Minority High School, Ethnic Minority High School No. 2, Huynh Thuc Khang High School, Le Viet Thuat, Ha Huy Tap, Vinh University Specialized High School, Do Luong High School, Quynh Luu 1 High School, Phan Boi Chau Specialized High School with a rate of 84 - 100%. However, there are still many schools with a rate of candidates not registering for the exam to be considered for university and college admission higher than the average of the province from 38.93% - 50%, such as schools such as Nghi Loc 5 High School, Quy Chau, Hoang Mai 2 High School, Nguyen Canh Chan High School, Nam Dan 2 High School, Do Luong 2 High School, Anh Son 3 High School, Nguyen Truong To High School (Hung Nguyen)...

The overall results are not beyond expectations when most candidates still choose to register from 5 to 6 wishes, even some candidates register from 35 to 50 wishes. Having too many choices also shows that there are still candidates who are having difficulty choosing a career or they are not confident in their future decisions.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training has also had the results of the statistics of wishes nationwide, accordingly, Business and Management is the group of majors with the largest number of registered wishes, accounting for about 1/3 of the total number of wishes registered for university admission. Specifically, this group has more than 1.2 million wishes, while the quota is only 118,679. The number of wishes registered for this major is also more than 10 times the enrollment quota of the schools, predicting that these will be groups of majors with very high competition.

Next is the Computer and Information Technology group, but the number of applicants for this major is nearly 7 times higher than the enrollment quota of the schools.

For students registering for the Social Science group, the Social and Behavioral Sciences group attracted 239,491 registration wishes. Meanwhile, the total enrollment target of the schools is 29,052, equal to 1/8 of the number of registration wishes.

A positive sign is that this year the group of Education Science and Teacher Training also received much attention from candidates and the chance of admission is also higher.