National High School Exam: Even if there is a loss, the exam fee will not be increased

Universities hosting national high school exam clusters all share concerns about funding as they will certainly have to compensate candidates at their clusters. Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien affirmed that there will be no increase in exam fees this year.

Universities are concerned that the more candidates they have to take the exam, the more they will have to cover their losses. Illustrative photo

The more candidates, the more loss must be compensated.

One of the concerns for universities responsible for organizing the national high school exam clusters this year is the issue of funding. Mr. Hoang Minh Son, Vice Principal of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, shared that every year the school has to compensate for losses of hundreds of millions of VND with nearly 10,000 candidates registering for the exam. Meanwhile, this year, the number of candidates that the school is responsible for organizing could be up to 20,000 candidates, if it has to compensate for the loss, this is not a small amount of money.

When asked about this issue, Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien shared that the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Finance will consider supporting the exam venues. However, Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien also worried that the subsidy funding would not be enough to cover actual expenses. "The Ministry of Education and Training will mobilize schools to promote their autonomy based on the principle of saving," the Deputy Minister gave the direction.

It is known that the Prime Minister has also requested the Ministry of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to soon issue a document regulating the exam and admission fees in the direction that the fees for this exam will not increase compared to current regulations. However, for candidates who register for multiple subjects, the fee will also increase as it is expected that each subject for university and college admission candidates will have to pay 35,000 VND, not to mention the admission fee of 30,000 VND per application. Especially for gifted schools, the fee is expected to be up to 300,000 VND/application.

Concerned about the quality of admissions

Not only are they concerned about the cost of the organization, many schools are also concerned about the uneven quality of enrollment when the organization and grading of exams depend on many schools, in many different locations. Representatives of Thai Nguyen University are concerned about whether the quality of candidates taking the exam in places where there are no school staff to supervise the exam is guaranteed? Or like with Hanoi University of Science and Technology, a school with many candidates in the regional exam cluster registering for admission but taking the exam in other places, can it ensure the recruitment of the right candidates?

Regarding this issue, Mr. Hoang Minh Son said that all universities must promote their responsibility in organizing exams as they still organize entrance exams for their own schools, then the quality of the exams will be guaranteed. “On the other hand, if there is cheating and you get into university, it will be very difficult to graduate later. For example, after being admitted to Hanoi University of Science and Technology, the school will also screen candidates according to each major. During the learning process, there will also be screening, if any student really does not have the ability, they will not be able to graduate” - Mr. Hoang Minh Son analyzed.

Regarding the threshold for admission, many candidates are also wondering what schools will base on to set this score when candidates only register after the exam results are out, instead of registering before taking the exam like previous years. The Ministry of Education and Training also requires schools to announce the admission standards before students submit their applications.

Sharing about this issue, Mr. Hoang Minh Son said that the Ministry only stipulates that the admission scores of schools must not be lower than the admission threshold for input quality as prescribed by the Ministry, and how much higher than the input quality is decided by the schools. Accordingly, the admission threshold for universities and colleges can be higher or equal to the admission threshold set by the Ministry of Education and Training. With this method, Hanoi University of Science and Technology will base on the specific exam questions and the score distribution of candidates in its cluster to be able to base on that to set the minimum level to receive applications.

According to ANTĐ