Why remove the regulation of adding vocational points to high school graduation?

The Ministry of Education and Training is seeking comments on the Draft Circular promulgating the Regulations on High School Graduation Exams in 2025. The Draft has many new points, including a notable change that no longer stipulates the addition of vocational training points in the high school graduation exam. There are currently two streams of opinions supporting and opposing this issue.

Some people say that if we remove extra points for vocational students, it will go against the promotion of vocational education and training ; it will risk reducing the number of students registering for vocational training, making vocational education and training more difficult.

How does this actually work?

Learn a trade to get extra points

In fact, the current vocational training of students is not for the purpose of streamlining and career guidance to help them access the professions they have studied early, but the main purpose is to get extra points when considering high school graduation.

To convince the public, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to collect statistics on how many high school students continue to study a profession or apply the profession they have learned to their lives after graduating from high school to evaluate whether the vocational training goal has achieved the purpose of streamlining and approaching career orientation as set out or not? In reality, vocational training of students is not really as effective as expected.

Students only study occupations that are easy to get extra points, while other occupations are studied by very few or no students because it is difficult to get high scores in the vocational exam. Besides, students are not allowed to choose a profession based on their interests and abilities, but only study occupations that are taught in schools (vocational secondary schools).

The draft Circular promulgating the Regulations on High School Graduation Exams in 2025 no longer stipulates the addition of vocational training points in the consideration of high school graduation.

ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO: MY QUYEN

Not to mention that both male and female students study the same profession while the needs and abilities of each student are different. Female students tend to be interested in making cakes, arranging flowers, cooking, sewing, etc., but many schools do not teach them. On the contrary, male students tend to be interested in IT, electricity, and repair, but schools do not teach them.

It is worth mentioning that after the exam, students do not care about these jobs but only worry about continuing to study, reviewing cultural subjects to pass the high school graduation exam and have the opportunity to go to university. Very few students continue to study to develop the career they learned in high school because, as mentioned, they study the job to get extra points.

No points added for fairness

Is the organization of vocational training and exams guaranteed to be of good quality, truly objective and serious?

In fact, many vocational schools today have limited facilities, and many vocational teachers do not have vocational certificates suitable for teaching. Therefore, it leads to a waste of money and time of students when participating in vocational training.

Meanwhile, students who don't pursue vocational training are at a disadvantage when it comes to graduating from high school (because they don't receive vocational training points). Currently, parents don't want their children to pursue vocational training because it affects their academic studies, but not doing so puts them at a disadvantage when graduating from high school. Therefore, whether they like it or not, students are rushing to enroll in vocational training to get points, and 100% of students taking vocational exams receive bonus points because very few students fail.

With the above reality, the Ministry of Education and Training has a reason to remove the regulation of adding vocational points in the high school graduation exam. Knowing that vocational training is necessary in the current situation of "too many teachers and not enough workers", but is it necessary for students who are studying culture to learn a trade? While they are studying culture with a program that is not light and according to a combination of subjects oriented to a career, adding vocational points is not necessary.

Students who want to learn a trade should voluntarily register to study, only then can their vocational abilities be developed. In addition, vocational points are not added in the high school graduation exam to create fairness in the selection based on cultural knowledge, not to let students "fail" because of lack of vocational points.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bo-quy-dinh-cong-diem-nghe-xet-tot-nghiep-thpt-vi-sao-185241027201511697.htm