Need to reduce pressure of exams and test preparation

TP - Dr. Le Viet Khuyen, Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges, believes that students studying the new curriculum and taking the graduation exam for the first time face many challenges and shortcomings, requiring the Ministry of Education and Training to have appropriate adjustment plans.

TP - Dr. Le Viet Khuyen, Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges, believes that students studying the new curriculum and taking the graduation exam for the first time face many challenges and shortcomings, requiring the Ministry of Education and Training to have appropriate adjustment plans.

Analyzing the 2018 general education program, Dr. Khuyen said that students have the advantage of being differentiated early on and being able to choose subject combinations to study according to their abilities, including new subjects such as Technology, Economics and Law Education…

However, these are not familiar fundamentals for career guidance for students. Forcing students to choose subject combinations from the beginning of high school, before they have received proper career guidance and understanding, also risks making wrong choices, and changing combinations later can be difficult and problematic.

With only one semester left, this year's 12th-grade students will be taking the 2025 high school graduation exam.

With the trend in university admissions from 2025 onwards, a number of universities may continue to organize their own entrance exams called "aptitude assessment" or "thinking skills assessment".

Many lower-ranked universities also employ numerous "unusual" and unconventional admission methods to fill their enrollment quotas, causing difficulties and expenses for students and parents due to multiple exams, enrollment in numerous "cram schools," extra classes at school, exam preparation courses, aptitude test preparation courses, IELTS preparation courses, etc.

Supporting the proposal to tighten the early admission rate, Dr. Khuyen also suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training should standardize the regulations to select the results of the high school graduation exam as the main criterion for admission to higher education and vocational education, as directed in Resolution 29: "Innovate the method of examination and recognition of high school graduation in a way that reduces pressure and costs for society while still ensuring reliability, honesty, and accurate assessment of students' abilities, as a basis for admission to vocational education and higher education."

The Ministry also needs to standardize reasonable admission combinations, resolutely eliminating "unusual" combinations. Then, universities should only set supplementary criteria for aptitude-based or popular majors. "With this approach, unnecessary study and exam preparation pressure on students will be reduced," Dr. Khuyen stated.

"University and college admissions processes are becoming increasingly chaotic and inefficient, creating inequality in access to higher education for disadvantaged groups in society," said Dr. Le Viet Khuyen.

Dr. Vo The Quan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dong Do High School (Hanoi), believes that a synchronized and interconnected mechanism between high school and university education needs to be created in a scientific, flexible, appropriate, and effective manner. Universities should not offer many admission methods but should choose a broad range of traditional subject combinations to meet the training needs of fields such as Natural Sciences, Engineering, Technology, Economics, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, etc.

Within specific specialized fields, higher requirements may be placed on certain subjects. For example, if applying to a Mathematics Education/Mathematics Bachelor's program, Mathematics might be weighted with a coefficient of 2.

High schools with the resources to organize targeted career guidance and study programs for students, ensuring the quality of the graduation exam, and universities using the graduation exam results for admissions, will have a richer pool of applicants, and the admissions process will be more streamlined, higher quality, and more efficient.

Nguyen Ha

Source: https://tienphong.vn/can-giam-ap-luc-thi-cu-luyen-thi-post1695744.tpo