Still expensive

(Baonghean) - The “two in one” exam has ended. Whether it will be a “great success” as usual is still uncertain because there are still many unresolved issues. Even the simple, obvious issue of funding for those taking the exam has not been reduced as expected.

The reason for saying so is that, before the exam took place, many people were convinced that this year's exam would certainly be less costly and troublesome for families and the whole society. Because with 99 exam clusters spread across provinces and cities across the country, instead of centralized exams like before, the distance that candidates and their families had to travel had been significantly reduced, the farthest distance was only 200 km instead of thousands of km; instead of millions of candidates and parents having to travel, now only a much smaller force of invigilators would have to travel (if any). That is an "operations research" problem that is easy to see and beneficial to millions of people.

However, in life, there are things that "seem so, but are not so". In the story of exam reform, it is also easy to be like that. Just say that students only have to take the exam once, do not have to travel far, and save costs. But if you calculate carefully, it is not necessarily so. In the past, when taking the graduation exam at school, students went to school to take the exam by themselves. In the morning, they took the exam and returned home at noon, in the afternoon, and in the evening, they went home to eat and sleep. No one picked them up. Those who passed, those who wanted to take the university entrance exam, would go to the city to take the exam. Those who did not want to be "a courtesan or a graduate" would stay at home and find a job. But now, "two in one", so even if they did not want to go to university, they still had to pack up and go to the exam cluster. When children take the exam, their father or mother must also go with them. So everyone had to go, not thousands of kilometers, but even if they were fifty or a hundred kilometers, they would have to stay in a motel, eat, and spend money. Spending a few days of the exam would cost a few hundred thousand dong per student. Adding it up, the whole country is also not a small amount. After the exam, those who have enough points to be considered for admission by universities must go to that school to take the entrance exam as required by some schools. Once again, they have to pack up and leave. Of course, it is not as crowded as the last time, but the distance is sometimes “a long journey of thousands of miles”, so the cost is quite expensive.

Of the more than 1 million candidates taking the exam, only about 59% want to go to college or university. That means half of them only need to graduate. If the exam was taken in the old way, half of them wouldn’t have to spend a penny because they took the exam right at school. But now that it’s been changed, half of them still have to travel. That saves an exam, but the number of people who have to travel is almost double, so it doesn’t save much money. The hassle is still the same. On record hot days, parents still hang out on the streets just like in previous exams.

If you calculate carefully, it's still troublesome and costly.

Confidant