Exam innovation (high school graduation exam and university admission exam) is an always current story, of interest to the whole society. Over the past 10 years, the education sector has made many efforts to innovate, but the innovation story still has many problems that have not met society's expectations. If innovation is planned methodically and with a longer vision, perhaps unfortunate incidents like in the past will not be encountered...
Patchwork innovation
Since Resolution 29 was born, the Ministry of Education and Training has tried to implement many efforts to reform examinations but has always been in a state of ineffectiveness. According to Dr. Nguyen Quoc Chinh, Director of the Center for Testing and Training Quality Assurance, Ho Chi Minh City National University, 2015 had a big mark in the history of examinations and admission, when for the first time there were two parallel exams. The practice is that the high school graduation exam and the "2 common" university and college entrance exams are unified into one national high school exam, also known as the "3 in 2" exam - just taken. Graduation results and use the results for university and college admission. With this unification, the two stages of examination and recruitment are separated.
However, this exam itself also continues to be innovated in its organization. In general, these innovations have not been as expected, there are always unfortunate incidents at important stages such as marking exams, exam questions...
The darkest point in the country's examination history was the 2018 national high school exam, when 11 education officials from 3 provinces of Ha Giang, Son La, and Hoa Binh had to be caught in prison for being involved in cheating. Cheating, editing, and increasing scores for 347 exams. There are candidates whose scores were raised from 26,8 to 29,95 points compared to the actual score...
And the 2021 high school graduation exam has become the strangest exam when many subjects have unexpectedly high scores compared to 2020. For example, English has jumped from being at the bottom in 2020 to become a subject with the highest number of scores. highest score of 10... This exam result leads to the 2021 university admission season having many paradoxical points, that is, the benchmark scores for many schools are sky-high, in which many majors have benchmark scores increased by up to 11 points, and some majors have high scores. standard of over 30 points, hundreds of candidates, even though they scored 29,5 points or 30 points, still did not pass the exam.
Also in 2021, the Biology exam questions were leaked and the two team leaders and deputy team leaders assigned to participate in building the exam question bank and the board that set the Biology exam questions had to appear in court in July. -2…
It can be said that the report of the National Assembly's Culture and Education Committee on monitoring the national high school exam is the most comprehensive picture for combining 2 exams into 1, that is: Regarding exam questions, although the Ministry of Education -DT affirmed that the exam is based on a test bank built "according to standardization", simulating the process of building standardized question banks of advanced countries in the world...
But in reality, the Ministry's method of building the exam question bank does not ensure standardization criteria (the actual implementation process has not been independently appraised, supervised and evaluated for objectivity, science when these are requirements for setting national level exams). Most of the question banks are based on exam samples from high schools across the country.
Looking forward to a radical innovation
Under pressure from public opinion, the Ministry of Education and Training recently announced the high school graduation exam plan for 2025-2030 with a few new points such as: the graduation exam has 4 subjects (2 compulsory subjects are Math, Literature and 2 subjects). Electives); Use information technology in exam work. From 2030 onwards, computer-based testing will begin, along with the preparation of a common test bank for localities... In general, these changes are still only technical and have not yet been demonstrated. fundamental innovation policy at the macro level.
According to Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Department of Professional Education (Ministry of Education and Training), high school graduation exam policies are creating inadequacies, partly affecting educational goals. Exams and tests are not for students' learning but are still assessment tests for the sake of exams, also known as teaching and learning based on exams... which has led to a series of consequences such as: misdirected learning, lack of concern for students. Focusing on comprehensive learning, teachers focus on teaching exam-related content, causing stress for teachers and not being able to evaluate students' abilities...
“It seems that there are no measures to prevent dishonesty in reporting students' academic achievements through transcripts. Why can't information technology be applied to manage scores and store students' academic achievements so that there can be no intervention in the scores entered into the system? If evaluated according to ability, the current multiple-choice test will be very challenging, but in reality people often have to evaluate according to the process in different forms," Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh proposed.
A former principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education acknowledged that the spirit of Resolution 29 is comprehensive innovation, including examinations. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the graduation exam plan from 2025, but there is still no breakthrough in form, it is still the same as the exam. This will lead to distorted learning. Thus, the goal of general education will be difficult to demonstrate the general knowledge of graduates to have full capacity due to deviations in learning caused by testing methods.
Therefore, from now until 2030, there should be an innovative way to evaluate general capacity for high school students. Fundamentally innovating the high school graduation exam in particular and the assessment test in general education in general must be a comprehensive assessment without having to choose one subject or another in order to prepare students for the challenges they face. with countless challenges in the future.
Reforms to the high school graduation exam and university admission exam
* Period 2015-2016: Merge 2 high school exams and university and college entrance exams into 1 national high school exam. The exam is organized by universities and colleges. Universities and colleges across the country mainly use the results of the national high school exam to conduct admission.
* Period 2017-2019: The organization of high school exams is assigned to local Departments of Education and Training to implement. Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University pioneered the organization of competency assessment exams as one of many admission methods.
* Period 2020 until now: The national high school exam has been changed to the high school exam for the purpose of recognizing high school graduation and assessing the quality of general education and university admission. In addition to the two national universities, there are many more schools that organize their own exams for university admission.
Dr. NGUYEN DUC NGHIA, former Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University: There needs to be determination to radically innovate
Innovating the method of testing and recognizing high school graduation and university admission is a big, national issue, but the plans proposed by the Ministry of Education and Training have not yet found a feasible solution to suit the total needs. can reform education and textbook programs. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training announced a new exam plan starting in 2025.
From now until 2025 is a very short period of time, so it is very difficult to do the most important thing, which is building a test bank and preparing the technological infrastructure for computer-based testing in the following years. National independent testing centers have not yet been established.
Therefore, it is necessary to have an overall assessment of the examination work in recent times, to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of the innovations and inheritance. At that time, each solution and each plan will receive comments from educational and social experts for joint implementation. If the Ministry of Education and Training is determined to truly innovate, it will be able to do it.
Associate Professor-Dr. DO VAN XE, former Vice Principal of Can Tho University: Exam innovation cannot be rushed
The whole society wants to make exams gentle, objective, fair and have correct assessment results. For a long time, we have placed too much emphasis on input, making exams stressful, expensive, and stressful, but every year's results are something to talk about.
Meanwhile, the quality of university training is not determined by the input but by the entire training process. Countries around the world have long used testing centers to assess knowledge and use the results to enter universities. If Vietnam can establish a National Testing Center and build a test bank system with enough standards to organize exams, it would be great.
At that time, the exam can be held anywhere, anytime and result certificates will be issued. On that basis, schools will use the results to consider university admission. However, the most difficult problem is building a test bank. Therefore, examination reform must be done methodically and scientifically and cannot be rushed.
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