National High School Exam 2019: Many important changes
The 2019 National High School Exam will have improved methods of organizing the exam and grading by increasing the application of technology and following the principle that teachers will not grade students from their home province.
Many important contents were discussed by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) at the meeting of the Steering Committee for the 2018 National High School Exam with the participation of directors of 63 Departments of Education and Training.
Separate the subjects in the combined exam
Mr. Mai Van Trinh, Director of the Department of Quality Management - Ministry of Education and Training, assessed that the negative and serious violations that occurred in some localities in the 2018 national high school exam had affected social trust and damaged the teaching staff. Therefore, the 2019 national high school exam must have technical adjustments to improve the organization to be lighter but more reliable.
Mr. Ha Thanh Quoc, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Quang Nam province, emphasized that the most important part of the national high school exam is the test questions. "It is necessary to invest more in the test bank to achieve the desired differentiation. In addition, each subject in the combined test should be separated into a multiple-choice answer sheet" - Mr. Quoc suggested.
According to Mr. Quoc, this way, the invigilators can manage the multiple choice answer sheets better, avoiding the possibility that after the break between the two exams, candidates may ask their friends and go home to make adjustments. In addition, the multiple choice answer sheets should be made in a way that when processing the multiple choice answer sheets, they will not know which candidate's test, thereby ensuring the confidentiality of the test.
 |
| Candidates taking the 2018 national high school exam in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Hoang Trieu |
Sharing the same view, Ms. Pham Thi Hang, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa province, said that first of all, the Ministry of Education and Training must complete the exam questions. The questions in the question bank must be able to assess the knowledge, abilities and qualifications of students, avoiding being too demanding or too easy.
"Regarding the exam proctoring, we think that there should still be coordination with universities. Each exam site should have at least 3 schools, including central and local universities and high schools, so that lecturers and teachers from each school can monitor and supervise each other when performing exam proctoring duties, avoiding subjectivity," Ms. Hang added.
Ms. Hang emphasized the need to study the marking process in multiple-choice tests so that the marking can be encoded, so that the examiners cannot know which student's test it is. The council that makes the multiple-choice and essay marking should be completely isolated until the marking is completed.
"The marking stage is important, but no matter what, it is still due to humans. If the process does not clearly define the awareness of those doing the exam invigilation and marking, negativity will arise, so the most important thing is to thoroughly understand the rules and regulations before the exam, so that there is no negativity in each stage" - Ms. Hang expressed her opinion.
Establishment of inter-provincial multiple-choice test scoring team
Mr. Mai Van Trinh said that the Ministry of Education and Training will improve the method of organizing exam supervision and grading in 2019 by increasing the application of technology in grading, and at the same time consider organizing exam grading to ensure the principle that teachers do not grade exams of students in their own province (for example, organizing exam grading in clusters).
However, cross-scoring between localities is not new and there has been a story of 11 provinces in the Mekong Delta colluding to adjust exam results. In response to the opinion that the Ministry of Education and Training should organize centralized exam marking right at the ministry to ensure objectivity, Mr. Trinh said that in previous years we have organized cross-scoring, but the context of organizing the exam this year is very different from previous years, especially in terms of technology.
"With technology solutions, especially information technology and accompanying solutions, even though they are cross-checked, the specific organization method will be different. We will consider them carefully," said Mr. Trinh.
Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Vinh, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Da Nang City, affirmed that marking multiple-choice tests at centralized clusters is very convenient when we have adequate facilities. "We only swap members in terms of technical aspects to process cross-tests and rest assured that the results are accurate. Regarding essays, in the past, for a number of years we organized cross-marking between provinces and cities. Now, to ensure objectivity, the ministry will return to organizing cross-marking without causing any difficulties. The problem is that we need to calculate the distance of the test to be moved, to swap appropriately" - Mr. Vinh said.
Should organize inter-provincial multiple choice test scoring
Ms. Nguyen Thi Quyen Thanh, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh Long province, proposed to establish an inter-provincial or regional multiple-choice test marking team. The decision to establish a multiple-choice test marking team and the plan to assign test marking by province or region will be issued by the Ministry of Education and Training and will be kept confidential until the appropriate time to be announced.
