Eliminate inappropriate recruitment methods – an inevitable requirement

Disadvantages for many sides

Early admission in university admissions has revealed some shortcomings, a story that has been mentioned many times at conferences and seminars related to high schooleducation and university and college admissions.

Representatives of high schools said that many universities announce admission scores early as early as January every year. This not only fails to comprehensively assess students’ qualities and abilities, but also seriously affects the quality of teaching and learning at high schools.

The draft regulations on university and college admissions have many new points.

As the head teacher of a 12th grade class that had 100% of its students admitted to university through early admission, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, a teacher in Hanoi, said: “When we heard that students were admitted to university through early admission, teachers were very happy, but the atmosphere in the second semester of 12th grade was very bland. Students were no longer focused or diligent as before, but instead had a subjective mentality, studying half-heartedly because they only needed to pass the graduation exam to get into university. This also affected students in other classes and the quality of the school's graduation exam scores.”

Nguyen Ngoc Huyen, a former high school student in Cau Giay District, Hanoi, said: “Last year, my class had about 30 students who passed the early entrance exam, and the remaining 15 students were studying for the high school graduation exam, including me. Although we really wanted to focus on studying, seeing our friends “studying for the sake of it”, not studying for the high school graduation exam, we were distracted. Classes in the second semester of grade 12 and above were quiet, not as exciting as before.”

The fact that 12th grade students know the results of their university entrance exams from January and become negligent in their studies is something that everyone can clearly see. The consequence is that it reduces teachers' interest in teaching and also reduces the quality of high school education.

In addition, the admission process based on transcripts only counting the scores of 4 semesters (grade 10, grade 11), or 5 semesters (grade 10, 11, semester 1 of grade 12) of many universities has also received many strong reactions. Not to mention, this also makes high schools spend a lot of time handling administrative procedures related to confirming transcripts and transcripts according to the requirements of the universities where students submit their early admission applications.

In addition, one reason for the increase in admission standards based on academic records is that the quality of university admission is not guaranteed. Associate Professor, Dr. Do Van Dung, former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, pointed out that students admitted based on academic records cannot keep up with students admitted based on exam scores; the difference in qualifications makes teaching difficult; even cases of students admitted based on academic records dropping out after 1-2 years because they cannot keep up with the program are not too rare.

Based on the above reality, the draft university and college admission regulations propose to tighten the scale of early admission (no more than 20% of the target). Along with that, many suggestions are to increase the conditions for considering academic records (consider all 6 semesters); announce the admission benchmark scores early after May 31 so that students can fully complete the high school program. These are considered appropriate adjustments, positively impacting teaching and learning; helping to increase the quality of general education, ensuring fairness for all candidates.

Converting a common scale helps create fairness

In recent years, most training institutions have allocated separate quotas for each admission method; from there, they apply admission criteria to calculate candidates' scores and determine admission scores from high to low until the quota for each method and subject group is exhausted. This helps schools to apply early admission and proactively complete their enrollment plans.

However, there is hardly any scientific or practical basis for allocating quotas between admission methods or combinations of subjects for a training program. This leads to unreasonable differences in admission scores between admission methods and combinations of subjects; pushing up the standard score of the admission method based on high school graduation exam scores because there are not many quotas left for this method; from there, it causes inequality in opportunities for candidates who do not have access to many admission methods.

According to Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education and Training), the draft amendment to the university and college admission regulations this time stipulates the equivalent conversion of the scores of the admission methods and subject groups to a common scale, consistent with each training program, major, and group of majors. On that basis, the admission scores are determined from high to low for most of the quotas of the training program, major, and group of majors (except for direct admission and early admission of candidates with outstanding abilities and achievements).

In addition, the draft also stipulates that the conversion method must ensure the opportunity for all candidates to achieve the maximum score on the general scale; at the same time, no candidate has a score exceeding the maximum score. Training institutions will have to research to re-regulate the addition of foreign language certificate points and other priority points. Thereby limiting abuse, causing unfairness among candidates.

Applying the above regulations, all candidates applying for a training program will be considered fairly based on a common score scale and admission standards. The chance of admission for candidates with real ability will increase and the quality of input from schools will also increase. Schools still have the opportunity to consider early admission to proactively recruit the best candidates; at the same time, students with the best ability have the opportunity to be admitted early and proactively decide to choose the most suitable learning path.

These admission methods and combinations all have appropriate criteria to evaluate the candidates' learning capacity according to the requirements of the training program and major. The evaluation criteria of the admission methods and combinations for the same training program and major must be comparable.

"The conversion of admission scores to the same scale ensures that schools can choose the most suitable admission methods for the major/training program they are recruiting for; compare candidates with each other to choose the most suitable candidates to study (regardless of using high school graduation exam scores, school records or results of independent exams, international certificates)", explained the Director of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education and Training).

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/loai-bo-nhung-hinh-thuc-tuyen-sinh-khong-phu-hop-yeu-cau-tat-yeu.html