General Secretary: "We must reduce the number of exams. Why are there so many exams?"

(Dan Tri) - Along with the goal of universalizing high school education, the General Secretary requested to reduce the number of exams. “Why so many exams? Too many exams are costly, stressful and tiring for parents, students and teachers,” said the General Secretary.

This viewpoint was given by General Secretary To Lam when meeting with voters of 11 wards of Hanoi before the 10th session of the 15th National Assembly on the afternoon of September 23.

Speaking after listening to voters' opinions, General Secretary To Lam talked about the good news that after 9 months, many indicators achieved positive results, typically the 9-month state budget collection results met the plan, finishing 3 months ahead of schedule.

Strive for "just bring your phone to do the paperwork"

The General Secretary recalled that in 2024, the budget revenue will reach over 2 quadrillion VND for the first time, but this year, the estimated budget will reach 2.5 quadrillion VND. “Good budget revenue will have investments to improve people's lives, invest in health care and education ,” the General Secretary emphasized.

Regarding administrative procedure settlement, Party leaders requested to continue to reform more strongly because previously there were too many administrative procedures.

“In the past, the mindset was management, but now it must be creative and service-oriented. The government proactively grasps people's problems to solve them instead of passively waiting for people to bring documents to ask for confirmation,” the General Secretary emphasized.

Raising the issue of inadequacies when carrying out an administrative procedure that still requires submitting a lot of related documents, the General Secretary emphasized the goal of striving to not need any documents in your pocket, when carrying out procedures you only need to bring a phone because it has an application that integrates all necessary documents of citizens.

“We must continue to review and remove what is not necessary and manage it in another way. Such management is a burden for the local government and the people,” said the General Secretary.

General Secretary To Lam speaks at the meeting with voters on the afternoon of September 23 (Photo: Viet Thanh).

Responding to voters' petitions, the General Secretary mentioned 5 groups of issues.

One is the issue related to improving the operational efficiency of two-level local governments.

Overall, the General Secretary assessed that the apparatus has been operating stably and effectively, but still needs to be improved, especially at the ward and commune levels. “All Party policies and guidelines must be resolved at the grassroots level. Wards must resolve them for the people, and must not ask people to go here or there,” the General Secretary requested. According to the General Secretary, as long as people still complain, the government is not operating effectively.

He also encouraged the view of "not considering the State as a safe haven". Instead, when not working for the State, one can contribute to the private sector or start one's own business to create material wealth.

“Previously, the policy was that you could enter but not leave. Once you entered the state-owned sector, you would stay until you retired. But now we have to re-evaluate to make it reasonable. There is nothing wrong with doctors working in private hospitals. They also examine, treat, and take care of people's health,” the General Secretary cited.

Don't increase prices before raising wages

Regarding the second issue of job positions, the General Secretary emphasized that this is important content to determine the payroll and adjust salary policy.

Emphasizing the point of “no equalization”, the General Secretary noted the need for preferential policies on salaries for teachers, doctors, armed forces or scientific research staff… “This must have a roadmap and calculation, do not let the salary increase before the price increases. In fact, sometimes when we hear about the salary increase, the price in the market has already increased”, the General Secretary reflected.

Referring to the goal of building a nursing home to care for the elderly, the General Secretary suggested that it must be calculated in accordance with pensions. It is impossible to have a pension of 6 million VND/month but spend 10 million VND in a nursing home.

“For a country to grow and develop, it must improve people’s lives. That is the real result,” the General Secretary emphasized, adding that if the State’s salary is increased, it must also increase the salary of employees in enterprises and workers.

The third group of issues the General Secretary mentioned was improving the quality of healthcare, with the view that we must shift our thinking from treatment to prevention.

General Secretary To Lam and National Assembly deputies met and talked with voters (Photo: Minh Chau).

Party leaders proposed strict control of factors that could potentially affect people's health, including food safety. "This is also a big issue that needs to be considered. Why are there whole communes and markets in Hanoi producing counterfeit goods? How can people trust them? Everyone knows that this is the center of counterfeit goods, so why don't we fight it? What profit is there in doing business over other people's health?", the General Secretary asked.

He also suggested that in each locality, we can take advantage of surplus headquarters to build food centers that ensure food safety, invite the most famous stores to enter there, and exempt taxes for the first 1-2 years to gradually help people give up the habit of eating on the sidewalk. "The civilized world has done a lot, but we have not. Each ward and commune must be creative and plan to have those places," the General Secretary requested.

Universalizing high school education, reducing exams

Regarding the fourth group of issues on science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation, the General Secretary emphasized that "without science and technology, development is impossible".

According to him, if we want to develop quickly and be on par with other countries, we can only rely on science and technology. “The most developed country in the world is the country that develops science and technology. The trillion-dollar billionaires are all billionaires who develop through technology. Getting rich through industry takes hundreds of years, but getting rich through technology only takes 10 years,” the General Secretary shared.

The fifth issue, according to the General Secretary, is to improve the quality of education and prevent brain drain.

Sharing the joy that the Politburo issued Resolution 71 on educational breakthroughs and that we have gradually universalized preschool, primary and secondary education, the General Secretary affirmed that the whole country is now fully qualified to universalize high school education.

Hanoi Party Secretary Bui Thi Minh Hoai welcomed General Secretary To Lam to attend a meeting with voters in 11 wards in the city (Photo: Viet Thanh).

“The other day I asked why high school education is not universal, the Ministry of Education said it is due to a lack of schools, classes, and teachers. The State must take care of that. In the past, the children's families did not have money to pay tuition, but now the State takes care of tuition. If students graduate from junior high school but do not go to high school, what will they do? Will they just hang around? Then we will have to spend more time dealing with this problem,” the General Secretary shared.

Along with that, the General Secretary emphasized the need to universalize high school education and reduce exams. “Why so many exams? Too many exams are costly, stressful and tiring for parents, students and teachers,” the General Secretary reiterated the need to reduce exam pressure and encourage the emulation movement in studying.

Furthermore, according to the General Secretary, we must continue to reform education. From reducing and exempting tuition fees to providing education for children to ensure equality, then free textbooks with the orientation of a set of books for stable and long-term use.

Agreeing with the proposal to deal with brain drain, the General Secretary said that there should be solutions to make good use of talents, considering attracting talents from around the world to work in Vietnam.

"The increase in gold price affects the vegetables and fish in the market"

Sharing earlier, voter Nguyen Van Lam (Ngoc Ha ward) said that at the 10th session, the National Assembly will consider and pass 42 laws and 3 draft resolutions.

With the National Assembly discussing and deciding on public investment for key national projects, Mr. Lam emphasized that these are important contents with long-term strategic vision for building and developing the country in the new era.

Therefore, he proposed that the National Assembly consider the project in a comprehensive, appropriate and highly feasible manner, absolutely not allowing corruption, embezzlement and negativity in project implementation.

Voters of 11 wards of Hanoi attended the meeting with voters of General Secretary To Lam and National Assembly deputies of constituency No. 1 (Photo: Viet Thanh).

Voters of Ngoc Ha ward also requested the National Assembly to discuss and consider draft laws carefully and comprehensively to avoid the situation where newly issued laws have to be amended and supplemented.

Voter Pham Xuan Mai (Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam ward) proposed to strengthen the National Assembly's supervision related to market management, anti-smuggling and anti-counterfeiting; and strengthen supervision related to gold market management.

“Every time the price of gold in the market increases, it affects the vegetables and fish in the market, affecting people’s lives,” said Mr. Mai. Along with that, he suggested solutions to curb the increase in gold prices and real estate prices so that workers have the opportunity to settle down.

This voter also pointed out the reality that when the two-level local government came into operation, the workload of the commune/ward level was very large because it took over the workload of the previous ward and district levels, while the number of specialized departments decreased significantly.

Therefore, voter Mai suggested that the Central Government should have a project, specifically study the working needs of local administrative agencies and survey practices to build a suitable operating model.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/tong-bi-thu-phai-giam-bot-cac-ky-thi-thi-gi-lam-the-20250923135319505.htm