Deputy Minister of Education and Training: Implement 4 right and 3 no's to have a safe exam

All preparations for the 2023 High School Graduation Exam have been completed and the exam organization must follow "4 rights - 3 no's" to have a serious, safe, honest, objective and fair exam.

This is the sharing of Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong, Head of the National Steering Committee for the 2023 High School Graduation Exam with the press before the exam takes place.

Prepare carefully, be ready

- Dear Deputy Minister, tomorrow, more than one million candidates nationwide will begin the 2023 High School Graduation Exam. Could you tell us how localities have prepared for the exam so far?

Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong: The Ministry of Education and Training has determined that organizing the High School Graduation Exam is the most important task that requires the highest concentration and cannot be subjective or negligent. The important step that determines the success of the Exam is the preparation stage.

To promptly grasp the situation, the Ministry of Education and Training and the National Steering Committee for the exam have organized working groups and inspection teams to work with localities on exam preparations. Through direct work and reports from 63 provinces/cities, it can be seen that localities have been proactive, urgent, thoughtful and comprehensive in preparing for the exam.

Provinces/cities have issued directives on organizing the exam, established provincial and district steering committees early, and issued work plans, clearly assigned tasks and responsibilities within the steering committees. In addition to implementing the Prime Minister's Directive, the Regulations and general instructions of the Ministry of Education and Training, localities, depending on specific conditions, also have their own directives and instructions to best prepare for the exam organization conditions.

Localities also develop scenarios and contingency plans for natural disasters, floods, epidemics, traffic, fire prevention and fighting, electricity supply, etc. to promptly respond and handle situations during the exam days; pay attention to supporting candidates in difficulty, ensuring that no candidate is unable to participate in the exam due to economic or travel difficulties.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training: Implement 4 right and 3 no's to have a safe exam — The Ministry of Education and Training has organized many inspection teams to inspect the organization of exams in many provinces and cities across the country. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

The local education sector has directed the completion of the program and graduation exam review for students with many methods, support methods and organized one to many trial exams.

It can be said that, up to this point, preparations for the 2023 High School Graduation Exam have been carried out in a proactive, urgent, thorough, thoughtful, and comprehensive manner; aiming for a safe, serious, fair, objective, and regulated exam.

- From the practice of the education sector as well as the inspection of exam preparation work in localities, what is the Deputy Minister's assessment of the advantages and difficulties of this year's exam?

Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong: The first advantage to mention is that this year's exam will basically remain stable as in 2022, with some adjustments to enhance security and safety factors and ensure the highest benefits for candidates, clearly assigning and taking responsibility for each party involved in organizing the exam.

The next advantage is that after three years of organizing the exam in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with many difficulties and challenges, this is the year the exam returns to normal, even the exam time has changed back to the end of June 2023 as before COVID-19. Grade 12 students taking the exam this year have also had a full final year of in-person learning. The peace of mind for candidates, test takers, parents and the whole society has partly brought about favorable conditions for organizing this year's exam.

The direction of the Government, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister; the coordination and assistance of ministries and branches; the unified, smooth and responsible participation from the Central to local levels are also advantages in organizing the exam.

However, in addition to the advantages, there are also difficulties that the National Steering Committee and the Steering Committees of provinces and cities have anticipated to have solutions in directing and organizing the exam. The first difficulty that can be mentioned is that this year's students have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic for two years, so schools need to strengthen review organization to help students have the best knowledge and mindset to enter the exam.

Another difficulty is that subjectivity may arise because one thinks that this work has been done for many years; subjectivity from preparing means and equipment to checking and supervising the processes. This has been thoroughly understood by the Ministry of Education and Training and the National Steering Committee in their instructions when working at the local level as well as in meetings and training sessions with the provincial and municipal exam steering committees and the exam staff.

The problem of using sophisticated, high-tech equipment to cheat is also one of the difficulties in ensuring the safety and seriousness of the exam.

The exam is organized on a large scale, at the same time with the participation of over 1 million candidates, about 250,000 people participating in the exam organization, organized in different terrains, so the work of ensuring security and safety needs to have a plan and solution. Extreme weather conditions, harsh weather, heat, power shortages... will be difficulties that require contingency plans.

Strengthening high-tech fraud prevention

- With the risks of high-tech device fraud, what instructions has the Ministry of Education and Training given on preventive solutions, especially when technology is increasingly developing and in fact there have been high-tech frauds in previous years?

Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong: This is an issue that the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Public Security have warned about for many years and have proposed many solutions to both warn and prevent it.

One of the important solutions is to raise awareness not only for candidates, parents, teachers but also for the whole society about preventing and combating cheating in exams using high-tech devices. The purchase and use of these devices not only violates the exam regulations but also violates the law and will be handled according to current legal regulations.

To prevent cheating in exams in general and cheating using high-tech devices in particular, the role of exam supervisors is very important. Before the exam, representatives of professional units of the Ministry of Public Security and provincial/municipal police provided information and thorough training to the exam supervisors to proactively detect and identify candidates carrying and using high-tech devices for cheating purposes.

When training is carried out seriously, when exam invigilators fully receive information from training, grasp warnings, identify and perform assigned tasks with the highest responsibility, detecting and preventing high-tech devices for exam cheating is possible.

A serious exam without cheating is also to ensure fairness for all candidates.

- Mr. Deputy Minister, in addition to the purpose of recognizing students' graduation, many higher education institutions also use the results for admission. So how will the exam be able to ensure the above goals?

Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong: The exam results are used to consider graduation recognition, assess the quality of general education, and assess the teaching and learning quality of teachers and students. On the other hand, according to statistics, about 60% of universities use exam results for admission.

With such nature, the exam orientation will ensure the levels of recognition and understanding while paying attention to the level of application, high application, and appropriate differentiation, which is the basis for universities to use as one of the admission methods.

In early March, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the sample exam questions as a basis for schools, teachers, and students to review and prepare for the official exam. Over the past time, the Ministry of Education and Training has implemented work on the exam questions to ensure absolute safety, accuracy, and meet the requirements of the exam and enrollment.

- In just one day, candidates will take the first exam. Does the Deputy Minister have any notes or messages for candidates, parents and exam supervisors?

Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong: 2023 is the fourth year the High School Graduation Exam has been held and the first year that the concern about the epidemic is no longer as complicated as in previous exams. However, the students taking the exam this year are still students affected by the epidemic. The education sector has actively supported and consolidated their knowledge in recent times. The students themselves have also made great efforts in their studies.

I have worked with many localities and met students at some schools during the final exam preparation days. The atmosphere and learning spirit of the students are remarkable. I hope that they will bring this spirit to the exam to achieve the best results.

For parents, in addition to taking care of and encouraging the candidates to stay calm and confident, I hope that parents will also pay attention and remind them to follow the exam regulations - only then can they avoid disadvantages in exam results for themselves.

To the team of exam supervisors in particular and all exam staff in general, I would like to reiterate the spirit of the directive "4 rights - 3 no's" that the Ministry of Education and Training has thoroughly implemented. "4 rights" are: following the regulations and instructions for the exam; following all procedures, not omitting any procedures; following the assigned positions and responsibilities; being on time, promptly handling unusual situations, "3 no's" are not being negligent or subjective; not arbitrarily handling unusual situations; not being overly stressed or pressured.

By implementing "4 right - 3 no" we are aiming for a serious, safe, honest, objective and fair exam.

- Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!

Pham Mai (Vietnam+)

Source link