Regarding the Ministry of Education's recent proposal to abolish the use of academic transcripts for evaluation, as a high school math teacher, I have a few thoughts to share.
First of all, during their studies, all students always have to take exams or tests such as oral tests, 15-minute tests, one-hour tests, semester tests, etc. For those of us who teach students in their final year, specifically me teaching Math, the exam questions are always closely monitored, often taken from practice exams that students take, similar to the high school graduation exam.
As a result, when students take the high school graduation exam, their scores are not much different from the scores they took on other exams throughout the school year. This means we've broken down the large high school graduation exam into smaller exams like semester exams and end-of-year exams. The scores from these tests/exams are the ones recorded in each student's academic transcript. In an honest education system, if students want good grades on their transcripts, they have no other choice but to study diligently.
In addition, students can participate in aptitude tests administered by the two national universities – similar to the SAT and ACT exams in the US. To achieve high scores, students must study very seriously and possess strong critical thinking skills. Therefore, it's not the case that if there were no high school graduation exam, students wouldn't take any exams at all. Many people argue that if there were no exam (for high school graduation), students wouldn't study. But in advanced education systems, if they don't have exams, do their students not study? This is obviously illogical.
Another important issue that leads many to support high school graduation exams instead of university entrance exams is the belief that university entrance exams would be unfair. This thinking probably stems from a lack of understanding that the university entrance exam process is far more complex.
Last year, my friend in the US had her child accepted into Brown University (one of the top universities in the US). The child was accepted because of excellent grades in all subjects (A's), perfect SAT and ACT scores, and strong evaluations of extracurricular activities, essays, and a personal statement video .
My friend told me that leadership skills are essential for getting into top schools, and the journey to developing these skills is very long because schools evaluate students based on the process and time invested, not the number of activities they participate in.
In addition, it is very important that applicants have letters of recommendation from three people, including a person who directly supervises the student at school, a teacher who has directly taught the student for a long time (around 2 years or more) or has worked with the student for a period of time, for example, a football coach, a city council member, or the neighborhood committee where the student participated in volunteer work…
This selection method, on the one hand, encourages students to constantly strive for excellence in their studies, and on the other hand, can recruit truly high-quality candidates. There are candidates who achieve perfect SAT/ACT scores and have high academic records but are still not accepted by prestigious schools due to poor extracurricular activities or essays.
This method can accurately assess a student's abilities because it considers and reflects their long-term learning and training process, as demonstrated through their report cards and essays, rather than just one or two exams.
The United States has developed a highly advanced education system thanks to its admissions process based on selection rather than rigorous entrance exams. They have been doing this for a long time, and we should take note of this for future reference. Currently, only a few countries like China, South Korea, and Vietnam still hold rigorous high school graduation exams.
A recent survey indicates that South Koreans are earning more money than before but are not happier. It's quite possible that intense exams are contributing to this unhappiness. In Vietnam, while school years used to be associated with memorable, dreamy times, many people now recall their school days with lingering memories of grueling exams.
I still maintain my opinion, as expressed in an article from 10 years ago, that for the time being, we can allow students to graduate with low scores, but the results must be clearly stated on the diploma and transcript. For example, student Tran Van A: Score: 15; Ranking: Poor… Looking at the diploma like that, students will know their abilities, who they are, where they can apply, whether to go to university or vocational school… Gradually, we will move towards eliminating the high school graduation and university entrance exams – two exams that are both costly and ineffective – and replacing them with admissions based on scores and essays, as developed countries do.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/khi-nen-giao-duc-trung-thuc-xet-tuyen-hoc-ba-van-mang-lai-su-cong-bang-2345097.html
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