New program, but the same old way of learning.

Following the 2025 high school graduation exam, there has been much debate regarding the exam questions. It's important to recognize that adults bear some responsibility for the shock experienced by students during the 2025 high school graduation exam.

Is it too hasty to use the 2018 high school graduation exam, the first year 12th-grade students study using new textbooks, as the benchmark for the 2025 high school graduation exam? The lifespan of a general education program is approximately 10 to 12 years, with learning objectives following a roadmap that aligns with the teaching staff, facilities, teaching equipment, and school management. However, reality is far from what was envisioned.

Teachers haven't truly understood the 2018 General Education Program, haven't invested enough effort in lesson planning, classroom instruction, and testing, and some teachers may be heavily involved in extra tutoring with a complex web of motivations. As a result, students still follow old habits despite the new program, taking notes, working with sample exercises, memorizing, and reciting answers. Learning in the same old way inevitably leads to difficulties when faced with new exam questions!

The teaching methods that teachers currently use to guide students are still mainly based on guesswork, experience, exam preparation, and achieving high scores… This contradicts the requirements of the new curriculum and new textbooks.

The 12th-grade students participating in this year's high school graduation exam are the first cohort of students to complete the new high school education program.

PHOTO: NGOC DUONG

Teachers are still heavily reliant on the 2006 general education curriculum, leading them to subjectively mix the old (2006) and new (2018) curricula in their lesson planning, teaching, and testing. Even more worrying, school administrators, teachers, students, and parents are all lulled into complacency by grades of 9 and 10, and year-end summaries featuring impressive numbers of excellent and outstanding students.

Therefore, when the exam demands understanding and application skills, but the teaching and learning methods remain unchanged, the fact that students cry after the high school graduation exam is largely the fault of many teachers, school administrators, and even parents.

Following the exam, there are crucial tasks that need to be addressed in the current education sector, such as: evaluating the difficulty of the math and English exams; assessing the results of implementing fundamental and comprehensive reforms in general education; the impact of the high school graduation exam on different groups of students; and setting directions for this exam in subsequent years.

This requires meticulousness, accuracy, honesty, prioritizing the interests of the learners, focusing on developing qualities and abilities as the core objective, using interpersonal skills as the driving force, and using impartiality as the measure of a teacher's ethics.

Starting with the 2025 high school graduation exam, we eagerly anticipate positive changes so that education can keep pace with the rest of the country in its journey of reform.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chuong-trinh-moi-ma-hoc-van-nep-cu-185250703193832249.htm