'Grade points should only be a reference number'

Professor Pham Tat Dong, former Vice President of the Vietnam Association for Promoting Education, commented that schools are following the "trend" of selecting students with "flawless" academic records, even transcripts with all 10s.

"Schools are demanding unrealistic abilities. No one is perfect enough to excel in all subjects, from natural sciences, social sciences, foreign languages ​​to gifted subjects. A report card with all 10s is unimaginable," he said.

Schools should consider the transcript scores as a reference number, not the main criteria for admission. Schools should put the ability assessment test to recognize the true academic ability of students on the transcript. This helps the school select excellent students, in accordance with the school's teaching motto. Moreover, it is very difficult to completely trust the dreamlike numbers on the profile.

Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong.

Experts also expressed concern about the sky-high application score requirements and the fact that “where there is supply, there is demand.” That is, if the criterion of completing all subjects of 5 years of primary school with excellence is used as a condition for admission, it will easily lead to the problem of chasing scores and competing for achievements.

"When schools require high admission conditions, it is not impossible that parents will try every way to ensure their children have good academic records. This is no different than the school encouraging people to lie," the expert said.

In practice, there are not many students who are assessed as having completed all subjects excellently according to Circular 22/2016/TT-BGDDT dated September 22, 2016 and Circular 27/2020/TT-BGDDT dated September 4, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training. Therefore, when developing an enrollment plan, secondary schools can get opinions from lower levels. Primary school teachers themselves will clearly understand the evaluation criteria as well as the classification of students from grades 1 to 5.

With 5 years of primary school scores mostly being 10, this application was still rejected outright (Photo: PHCC).

“Teachers at specialized schools are not perfect, so why do they require students to be perfect when applying for grade 6?”, Mr. Dong wondered and gave an example: a math teacher may not be good at playing the violin, singing well, or drawing well. Therefore, demanding students to be excellent in all aspects is completely unreasonable. He does not agree with specialized schools teaching students too advanced knowledge. If studying is difficult but useless, the specialized school model needs to be reconsidered.

Previously, VTC News reported the story of many students whose school records were mostly 10s, but because one subject was classified as "Completed", their applications to grade 6 at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted were rejected.

According to the school's proposed admission plan, in addition to the total of 17 required scores of at least 167 points, the final report cards of grades 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of students must be assessed as "Completing the learning and training content well" or higher to be eligible to pass the application round.

Thus, in this year's 6th grade entrance exam, Amsterdam School requires students to have a "flawless" transcript from the first grade.

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Source: https://vtc.vn/chuyen-gia-diem-hoc-ba-chi-nen-la-con-so-tham-khao-ar796973.html