Positive signals from the education quality assurance model in Nghe An

Great progress

Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities No. 2 has over 95% of its students being ethnic minorities from the mountainous districts of Nghe An province. Three years ago, when they were admitted to the school, their admission scores were only average, good and only in the middle of the province.

However, in the 2022 high school graduation exam, Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities No. 2 rose to 2nd place in the province's rankings, just behind Phan Boi Chau Specialized High School.

According to the school's statistics, this school year, the school has one runner-up in block C in the province, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai (29 points), and one valedictorian in the province, Luong Cao Truc Linh. It is expected that the school will have 6 students on the list of students to be honored by the Provincial People's Committee at the 2022 high school graduation exam.

Review session of 12th grade students, Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2. Photo: My Ha

Holding a high position on the rankings, this result is not too surprising for the school, because if compared with the previously committed scores of the subjects, the actual exam scores are not too different, the difference is only 0.1 points increase or decrease.

Mr. Nguyen Dau Truong - Principal of the school said: Comparing the results of the school's report cards and 6 mock exams, this result accurately reflects the teaching and learning of the school's students in the past time.

With low input, to improve the overall quality, the school has had many synchronous solutions in the past time. In particular, from the 2021-2022 school year, after implementing the education quality assurance model, the school has had many innovations in teaching and learning direction. Accordingly, to organize effective teaching and learning, the school is proactive in differentiating each student group. On that basis, build lesson plans in the direction of promoting students' initiative, positivity, and self-study through designing the teaching and learning process into learning activities to be carried out both in and out of class.

Teachers of Ethnic Minority Boarding High School No. 2 provide extra tutoring in Foreign Language for students before the 2022 High School Graduation Exam. Photo: My Ha

Previously, since September, the school has directed professional groups and teams to develop content and scenarios to organize self-study clubs for Literature, Math, and English for students. In particular, it focuses on direct interaction between teachers and students to resolve students' questions and concerns about studying and propose self-study methods for their subjects that are suitable for their own abilities and highly effective. Based on the curriculum framework of the subjects, the school directs professional groups and teams to review and adjust the content of knowledge and skills required for the subjects, thereby unifying the distribution of the program of the subjects suitable for the students of each class. The year-end competition assessment is also based on the learning results of the students.

Among the top schools in Nghe An education is the Provincial Boarding Ethnic High School, with an average score of 7.19 points, the average score of all subjects far exceeding the average score of the whole province. This is also a proud achievement, because for a school where students are Mong, Kho Mu and O Du people, making up a fairly high proportion, raising the average score of the students, from an entrance score of only 4-5 points to 7 or 8 points is a remarkable effort.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Kieu Hoa - Principal of Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School said: This is a course that faces many difficulties when students' studies are interrupted for a period of time due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. However, to improve the quality of teaching, we assign responsibilities to each subject teacher, each homeroom teacher and tutor each student, especially students with average academic performance. Before the high school graduation exam, the school organizes many mock exams to evaluate the students' learning results.

On that basis, there are plans to organize teaching and learning suitable for each subject. Therefore, this school year, not only did the school's average score increase, but the number of students with university entrance scores was also very high. With this result, the school achieved its "output" goal of ensuring educational quality.

Difficulty, challengeawakeis the driving force for teaching and learning

The survey on parent and student satisfaction is one of the new features of Do Luong 1 High School this school year and is one of the important steps in the roadmap for implementing the school's quality assurance model. With more than 1,500 questionnaires distributed in the 2021-2022 school year, the school also received more than 1,500 feedback questionnaires from parents and students for each subject teacher and homeroom teacher of 39 classes with levels of very satisfied, satisfied and unsatisfied.

Feedback form for parents and students of Do Luong 1 High School. Photo: My Ha

The implementation process is carried out by the school in an objective manner, respecting each teacher, student, and parent. The results of the vote count are approved by the entire vote counting team and the school principal is responsible for informing each teacher of the results. In particular, if any teacher receives many satisfied or very satisfied votes, the school will encourage and motivate them to develop their abilities. Teachers who receive many unsatisfied votes will also be tactfully reminded to adjust their attitudes and teaching methods.

Teacher Le Duc Hung - Principal of Do Luong 1 High School said: The satisfaction survey is an objective channel for the school to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning quality for each teacher. According to statistics, some teachers are considered unsatisfied mainly because they focus on achievements, causing students to feel pressured. To make the survey effective, we do not publicize the results throughout the school but only notify each teacher individually to avoid too much pressure. This will limit the teachers' sublimation in the teaching process.

Professional meeting of teachers of Do Luong 1 High School. Photo: My Ha

Talking about the model of ensuring educational quality in the first year of implementation, the Principal of Do Luong 1 High School also admitted that there were many difficulties.

However, according to teacher Le Duc Hung - Principal of the school, "if we say it is difficult but do not do it, we have not fulfilled our responsibility as a school. Instead, we must turn difficulties into motivation."

In fact, at Do Luong 1 High School, although it is the first year of implementation, the school has built a fairly systematic implementation plan from assessing the overall capacity of the school, analyzing the input of each student, determining the output standards of each class to designing the educational program, the quality assurance plan of teachers and each student is implemented in detail. In the past school year, in parallel with focusing on grade 10 students, the school also focused on the output for grade 12 students to achieve high results in exams. During the implementation process, the school took the results of semester exams and mock exams to assess the capacity of each student and on that basis, had appropriate teaching plans. Thanks to these efforts, from 5th place (school year 2020 - 2021), this year the school rose to 3rd place in high school graduation exam results and is one of the best results of the school in the past few years.

At Nguyen Canh Chan High School (Thanh Chuong), in order to achieve 100% graduation rate for the third consecutive year, holding the 24th position out of 198 units in the province, the school's board of directors has also persistently implemented a program to ensure educational quality.

Students of the provincial Ethnic Minority High School attend the 2022 high school graduation exam. Photo: My Ha

Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan - Principal of the school said: The input of our school is much lower than the average level of other schools in the area, so it is very difficult to improve the quality of the whole school. Therefore, in the past school year, in order to fulfill the commitment to ensure the quality of education signed, the teachers of the school volunteered to teach more than 250 free lessons for students, focusing mainly on average and above average students. Therefore, the results achieved are the result of the whole process of dedicated work, enthusiasm and responsibility of the teaching staff and the students.

Nghe An province's ranking has also improved, rising 14 places compared to the results of the 2021 high school graduation exam.

Teacher Thai Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Education and Training said: Since the beginning of this school year, the Department has issued a Plan on implementing quality assurance work in general education institutions in Nghe An province and is the first province in the country to implement this model. During the implementation process, the implementation of monitoring and management of teaching quality, education quality, improving criteria, standards and responsibilities of heads of educational institutions; organizing the signing of commitments and evaluating the quality of educational institutions based on the main criterion of student output quality. This is also considered a breakthrough in educational administration, improving the quality of teaching and learning with the biggest goal being for the progress of learners.