Grading high school graduation exams: Preventing situations of "lenient grading, strict grading"

Mr. Nguyen Huu Do, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, noted that grading high school graduation exams requires each examiner to uphold a high sense of responsibility and prioritize the interests of the students above all else.

Báo Thanh niên•13/08/2020

On the morning of August 12th, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do led a delegation from the Ministry of Education and Training to attend the opening ceremony and inspect the preparations for exam grading in Nam Dinh province.

Essay exams must be graded in two independent rounds.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Huu Do reminded Nam Dinh, as well as all localities, to pay close attention to the selection, training, and background of exam graders. If done correctly from the beginning, assigning tasks to the right people, following each step and procedure, the results will be accurate.

Citing the example of a seemingly simple oversight by an exam supervisor that resulted in some candidates having to retake the exam in several rooms using backup papers, causing difficulties for the entire system, Mr. Do argued that some issues, though seemingly repeated, are still not superfluous. Despite the familiarity and the persistent need to address them, complacency is unacceptable, and a high sense of responsibility must be upheld throughout the grading process.

Mr. Do noted that there are quite a few new points in the grading process for both essay and multiple-choice exams. This year's multiple-choice grading software is more rigorous, assigning responsibility to the chairman of the grading committee at each stage of the grading process. The security mechanism is better, and multiple-choice exams are electronically coded… to prevent cheating.

Each examiner must have a clear but not dogmatic viewpoint, prioritizing the interests of the students, ensuring objectivity, and making the assessment appropriate for the students' abilities.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do

Regarding the essay exam, Mr. Do emphasized the need for a strictly independent two-round grading process; it's crucial to grade fairly. Therefore, before the official grading begins, the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates that the essay grading committees in each locality must jointly grade at least 10 papers to exchange ideas and reach a consensus on interpretation and approach. "I have instructed the exam committee to develop grading guidelines that are as easy to understand as possible, avoiding instructions that could be interpreted in multiple ways," Mr. Do said.

Protecting the confidentiality of candidates' exam papers.

To ensure the progress and quality of grading, especially for the Literature subject, where the exam questions are open-ended and encourage candidates to express their own opinions and creativity, Mr. Do requested: "Each examiner must clearly state their viewpoint but not be rigid, prioritizing the interests of the students above all else, ensuring objectivity and appropriateness to the students' abilities."

Mr. Cao Xuan Hung, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Dinh province, said that all the examiners selected for grading the exams are highly qualified and have good attitudes, chosen with great care to perform this particularly important task. To ensure consistency in grading, Nam Dinh does not use the method of having each examiner read aloud, but instead projects each line and paragraph of the students' work onto a screen for discussion. "The principle is to discuss and grade collectively until there are no more doubts before officially beginning the grading," Mr. Hung said.

According to Mr. Hung, Deputy Minister Do's directive to prioritize students' interests during the grading process is very significant in the practical experience of grading exams over the years. In reality, there are points in the candidates' papers that are "eligible to be graded or not graded," so examiners and grading committees must apply the grading guidelines in a way that ensures the rights and interests of the candidates, as long as they do not violate regulations and avoid situations of excessively strict or lenient grading (too strict grading in essay-based subjects will disadvantage candidates, while too lenient grading will create large discrepancies and fail to accurately assess the candidates' abilities).

"Regarding the Literature subject, I always tell the examiners that if the student performs exceptionally well, and after discussion there's nothing to criticize, they should give them a perfect score of 10 without hesitation. However, examiners are often hesitant and nervous, so Nam Dinh has never had a perfect score of 10 in Literature in the high school graduation exam," Mr. Hung shared.

Mr. Hung affirmed that Nam Dinh will grade the exams seriously and objectively, ensuring that the final papers will still be checked. "As for the examiners, each person must fulfill their responsibilities to ensure that after grading, they can go home and sleep soundly without any worries or being called back to resolve any issues," Mr. Hung reminded.

Mr. Do also noted that examiners should avoid some common mistakes in grading, such as: understating points, missing component scores; for the literature subject, he requested that examiners keep the information on candidates' papers confidential, and not publish humorous or poorly written sentences... to avoid affecting individual candidates. The review process is a verification of the grading process. Good grading quality means there are not many review requests and no exam papers require score adjustments due to discrepancies of 1-2 points or more.

32 examination inspection teams

According to the Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Education and Training, Nguyen Duc Cuong, a total of 191 officials, specialists, and university lecturers participated in 32 inspection teams across 63 provincial Departments of Education and Training. Of these, 63 were officials and lecturers from 32 higher education institutions nationwide. The longest period for the teams to conduct on-site exam grading inspections was from August 11th to 26th, and could end earlier depending on the volume of papers to be graded, the grading progress, and the local score entry schedule.

Ensuring COVID-19 prevention measures are in place during the exam grading process.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Huu Do noted that the grading process is taking place amidst the still complex developments of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Education and Training requests that grading committees comply with disease prevention requirements. This includes ensuring that teachers with confirmed COVID-19 cases or a history of the pandemic are not involved in grading; having medical personnel on duty in the grading area to measure the body temperature of examiners; and ensuring proper social distancing and mask-wearing throughout the process.