Why is the pressure of scores still so heavy despite assessment innovation?

"ALL 10" SCORE PRESSURE

During dinner before the first semester exam, a mother told her daughter N., who is in 5th grade at a primary school in Bac Giang City (Bac Giang Province): "If you get a 9 this semester, I will stop indulging your interests." The child was eating, her face downcast and crying. When asked, it was learned that the family was aiming for her to take the entrance exam to 6th grade at the only "key" secondary school in Bac Giang City, so in addition to the requirement of "good" scores in her report card, N. will have to go through a very tough exam with 3 subjects: math, Vietnamese, and English. Therefore, since 2nd grade, the girl has been busy with extra classes for these 3 subjects, without a single day off during the week.

Assessment by scores is still heavy when admission also requires consideration of "good" academic records

On the forum for Hanoi students, in recent days, the first semester test results have also been a hot topic of discussion. A report card shared by students caused a stir when a high school student with an average score of 9.5, although classified as an excellent student, was only ranked 38th in the class... Although many opinions expressed surprise because the class had too many "superheroes", many students commented that they "understood", that this was not uncommon, whatever score they wanted would be there.

Returning to the story of parents in Bac Giang requiring their children to get all 10s, it sounds strange but is not a personal desire. The most vivid example is probably the admission to grade 6 at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted in recent years. In the first admission period of this school year, according to the admission guidelines for grade 6 at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, students must score 167 points out of 17 final exams, which means they can only get a maximum of 3 9s at the primary level, the rest must all score 10 to be able to register for the exam. In addition, parents even had to make a collective "rescue" petition to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training because their children scored "all 10s" but were still not assessed as "excellent completion" so they were still not allowed to take the exam to grade 6 at this school.

In Hanoi, there are also a number of other high-quality secondary schools such as Cau Giay Secondary School, Le Loi Secondary School (Ha Dong), Thanh Xuan Secondary School, Nam Tu Liem Secondary School... that also apply a similar stressful admission method. Many parents admit that in order to register for these schools, parents must have a "strategy" right from when their children enter first grade, how to make their report cards "beautiful", trying not to get a 9 on the final exam of the semester and the end of the school year.

Therefore, although the Ministry of Education and Training has long issued circulars and guidelines to change the assessment of primary school students in the direction of minimizing grading, schools and parents still place a lot of emphasis on grades.

INNOVATING ASSESSMENTS WITH MORE SUSTAINABLE WISHES, BUT…

According to the new regulations on testing and evaluating students according to the 2018 General Education Program, the Ministry of Education and Training has made many changes. For example, at the junior high and high school levels, the regulation of adding the average score of all subjects to evaluate and classify is eliminated. The Ministry of Education and Training believes that the principle of the new evaluation method is to evaluate the progress of students, so the training and learning results of the second semester will be the weight to evaluate the whole school year. For example, if the first semester is good and the second semester is good, the student will be evaluated as good for the whole year.

A report card shared by students caused a stir when a high school student with an average score of 9.5, although classified as an excellent student, only ranked 38th in the class.

The awards are now limited to two titles: Excellent Student and Good Student, no longer awarding Advanced Student. To be awarded as an Excellent Student, students must achieve good training and study results, but the requirements are higher, that is, the study results must have at least 6 subjects with a yearly final score of 9.0 or higher. The title of Excellent Student only requires students to achieve good training and study results.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training), explained: in the past, when evaluating the average score of all subjects, there was a phenomenon of taking one subject to compensate for another. Therefore, it led to the phenomenon of some subjects being at a very high level, even 9.0 - 10, but up to half of the remaining subjects were only at a fair level. And when looking at the average results of all subjects, it was assumed that all students had good scores without knowing which subjects each student had strengths in...

Removing the average score will help to look closely at the scoreboard of all subjects to know which subjects students are outstanding in, which subjects need to try harder, instead of lumping all of them into one general result. The purpose of this assessment is to be more realistic about students' learning results, and to help make adjustments in the educational process, promote the strengths of each student as well as help students who have not achieved the desired results in each aspect.

However, just like at the primary level, the Ministry of Education and Training's desire in testing and assessment is like that, but what students, parents, and schools are still concerned about is how schools at higher levels will recruit students. If schools still use transcripts to evaluate and recruit students, then even reducing grading and having fewer scores will be more stressful and pressured for teachers and students because they have to focus all their efforts on those few scores when there are not many starting points to "compensate" each other like before, and there are fewer opportunities for students to correct mistakes.

The pressure comes from studying to the point of exhaustion to get high scores in all subjects, the pressure also comes from finding every way, even negative, to get "good" scores for admission reasons. The difference in results when comparing high school graduation exam scores and academic transcript scores that the Ministry of Education and Training has conducted for many years is the clearest proof.

Proposal to eliminate student classification based on scores and admission based on academic records

At a recent conference on happy schools attended by hundreds of principals from provinces and cities, a notable proposal was to abolish the ranking of students by score. This view was put forward by Mr. Pham Khac Chung, Principal of Nguyen Ba Ngoc Primary School (Dak Nong).

Recently, one of the issues that many voters have been upset about and sent questions and petitions to the Minister of Education and Training is related to the consideration of academic records, leading to a situation where students, parents and schools are under a lot of pressure about scores, even leading to the situation of "beautifying academic records", "running academic records"...

After many years of applying the combined high school transcript admission method, it seems that many universities have felt uneasy about the difference between "good" high school transcripts and students' actual abilities.

According to the admission plan recently announced by Foreign Trade University, a notable new point in 2024 is that in the admission methods using high school academic results, there is an additional condition that the candidate's high school graduation exam score must meet the school's floor level (24 points or higher - PV). Explaining this change to the press, Associate Professor Pham Thu Huong, Vice Principal of Foreign Trade University, said that first, it is to unify the application of the high school exam floor score at the excellent level of 24 points for all methods. Second, it is possible to use the comparison of high school graduation exam results and high school academic results as an indirect tool to help high schools standardize student assessment.

"Don't let children regret later"

Associate Professor Chu Cam Tho (Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences) pointed out the harm when adults try to force primary school children to have "all 10s" in their report cards: "Until the day 10-11 year old children are shocked when they enter secondary school, for the first time they get below average scores."

Speaking at the opening ceremony of this school year, Professor Nguyen Van Minh, Principal of Hanoi National University of Education, advised future teachers: "Speak the truth and tell the truth, dare to abandon illusory achievements, because if not, it will become the foundation for lies later. Please do not let lifeless scores and beautiful report cards make children feel regretful later."

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