Unbalanced exams should lead to unbalanced learning.

The joy of Hanoi candidates after completing the 2024 high school graduation exam - Photo: NAM TRAN

The 2025 high school graduation exam - the first exam under the 2018 general education program - is revealing a worrying reality: students' choice of subjects is seriously unbalanced between the two fields of natural sciences (KHTN) and social sciences (KHXH).

Statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training show that in addition to compulsory subjects such as math and literature, social science subjects such as history and geography are chosen by candidates much more than natural science subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology.

Specifically, while history and geography both have over 42% of candidates registering, chemistry only reaches 21%, biology is at a very low level (6.2%).

Why?

This phenomenon of lopsided learning and exam performance reflects deeper problems from general education policy, exam organization and career counseling.

Although the 2018 general education program was designed in an open, career-oriented direction from grade 10, when implemented, many schools did not ensure teachers and facilities, forcing students to choose subject combinations that were easy to organize, mainly leaning towards social sciences.

Students also prioritize choosing subjects that are easy to take and easy to get high scores on in order to graduate smoothly and easily apply for university.

The current graduation exam structure itself also contributes to this situation. Candidates only need to choose one of two groups: Natural Sciences or Social Sciences, leading to a trend of choosing Social Sciences as a "safe way out" to graduate. This makes it increasingly difficult for engineering, technology, and medicine - which require a solid foundation in Natural Sciences - to recruit high-quality students because students avoid more difficult, strenuous subjects that require logical thinking.

Current university admission policies also contribute to the worsening of the subject bias. Many universities use general combinations or lean towards social sciences, making it easy for students to be admitted without having to invest deeply in difficult natural science subjects. Meanwhile, career counseling in high schools is still weak and lacking in depth, not enough to help students have a correct understanding of choosing subjects related to their future careers.

In addition, the policy of using high school transcript scores to consider high school graduation with a rate of up to 50%, although correct in theory to reduce exam pressure and evaluate students comprehensively, reveals a big loophole in quality control.

Reality shows that the lack of transparency and honesty in assessment at high schools is seriously distorting the results of report cards. Many teachers, parents and schools still chase after achievements, "beautifying" report cards, making the scores lack substance.

If this situation continues, the initially correct policy will have the opposite effect, destroying fairness and trust in the entire education system. Vietnam is currently in a dilemma: either it must strongly standardize and seriously evaluate high school students, or it must immediately limit the role of transcripts in major decisions such as graduation and university admissions.

Serious consequences

The above causes lead to serious consequences for the quality of comprehensive education and the structure of national human resources. The lopsided learning situation causes students to lack core competencies, especially logical thinking, critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills - essential competencies in the 21st century.

The quality of university entrance is also reduced when students choose subjects to cope with the situation rather than to suit their field of study. A deeper consequence is the decline in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) human resources, affecting the national strategy for high-tech development and innovation.

The future labor market may be unbalanced due to a shortage of high-quality human resources in engineering and technology, while there are excess bachelors in social sciences.

In developed countries such as Finland, Germany, Japan, and Korea, graduation exams require students to complete at least 7-10 subjects in all fields of nature, society, arts, and sports.

More importantly, these countries all organize two separate exams: high school graduation assesses comprehensive abilities, while university admissions use independent, specialized exams appropriate to the training field.

Therefore, to improve the situation of lopsided exams and lopsided learning, Vietnam needs to quickly adjust in the direction of increasing the number of graduation exam subjects, requiring each student to take at least one subject in both the Natural Science and Social Science groups to avoid lopsided learning.

More importantly, it is necessary to quickly research a plan to separate the high school graduation exam and the university entrance exam, creating conditions for evaluating the correct goals: both completing comprehensive general education and selecting the right people and the right majors in higher education.

Increase differentiation

If we still have to maintain a common exam like the current one with dual goals, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to urgently improve the way and techniques of creating exam questions, increase differentiation and practicality, and simultaneously reflect the comprehensive capacity of high school graduates and specialized capacity for university admission.

Must innovate synchronously

The current lopsided learning situation is a cumulative manifestation of the lack of synchronization in the reform process. When the curriculum, teachers, facilities, career counseling, examination policies and national human resource strategies are not "synchronized" with each other, all efforts to reform education will continue to fall into a vicious circle.

To avoid lopsided learning, there is no other way but to innovate synchronously, consistently and comprehensively from the program, career counseling and especially exams. That is the only way for Vietnamese education to truly develop sustainably.

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TS HOANG NGOC VINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thi-lech-nen-hoc-lech-20250514093442542.htm