Proposal to abolish student ranking based on final score

Hundreds of principals from provinces and cities are discussing ways to make schools "happy" places, one of the proposals is to stop ranking students by score.

This view was shared by Mr. Pham Khac Chung, principal of Nguyen Ba Ngoc Primary School, Dak Nong province, at a workshop on happy schools, held in Hanoi on the morning of October 20.

Mr. Chung said that the year-end parent-teacher meeting is always stressful not only for students, but also for their parents, because many teachers will summarize students' scores by subject, rank them, and then give them to parents.

"Parents all want their children to study well and get high rankings, but not all children have academic strengths. This only hurts students," said Mr. Chung, calling for the elimination of this ranking activity to reduce the pressure on scores in schools.

The workshop on happy schools was organized by the Ministry of Education and Training , Nguyen Binh Khiem Education System - Cau Giay, Hanoi, to find solutions to reduce pressure in schools, find ways to educate positively, resolve school violence to build happiness. Taking place over two days, October 20-21, the workshop attracted 500 teachers, mostly principals, from 60 provinces and cities.

Mr. Pham Khac Chung (middle) at the workshop on the morning of October 20. Photo: Thanh Hang — Mr. Pham Khac Chung (middle) at the workshop on the morning of October 20. Photo: *Thanh Hang*

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, founder of the Nguyen Binh Khiem - Cau Giay, Hanoieducation system, also believes that it is necessary to "untie" students. Setting goals and regulations is necessary, but we should not create pressure or scold students when they get bad grades.

Mr. Hoa acknowledged that learning is just one of many human abilities, and not all of the more than 22 million students are academically talented. They may be good at sports, fine arts, music or communication, so it is impossible to use a common measure of academic ability to rank students.

"You can study poorly, but there are no weak children, it's just that teachers haven't taught them well," said Mr. Hoa.

Four years ago, the Ministry of Education and Training launched the campaign to build happy schools, motivating schools to change and adopt many new models.

Mr. Vu Minh Duc, Director of the Department of Teachers and Educational Managers, said that the diversity of happy schools shows the interest of teachers in finding positive educational solutions that are suitable for the current context. However, managers realize that the diversity also causes some happy school models to have inappropriate criteria and be exploited for economic purposes.

Therefore, Mr. Duc hopes to receive many contributions from principals at the workshop, because this will be the basis for determining the core values of the happy school model, thereby creating unity in management across the country.

Teachers were excited about the activities of the workshop on the morning of October 20. Photo: Thanh Hang — Teachers were excited about the activities of the workshop on the morning of October 20. Photo: *Thanh Hang*

Attending a conference on the topic of happy schools for the first time, Mr. Tran Vo Long, principal of Truong Van An Primary School, Bac Lieu province, agreed with the view that schools should not place too much importance on students' scores.

"If we only evaluate students based on their scores, this will create discrimination among students and make it difficult to manage. I really like this point of view," said Mr. Long, adding that he will disseminate it to teachers in the school to make changes together.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy, principal of Quang Long Primary School, Quang Binh province, said she attended the event held in Da Nang last year and was "very excited".

At this event, Ms. Thuy hopes to learn from experts and teachers in creating a friendly and fun learning environment for students; connect with like-minded principals to implement larger-scale joint projects.

Thanh Hang - Duong Tam

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