Education minister allays concerns over national high school exam

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan told National Assembly deputies that a single national high school exam, whose results are used for both graduation certification and university admission, would bring about many benefits to society and students.

The minister said students who do not wish to apply for universities and colleges could take the test near where they live while those seeking tertiary education would sit the exam at 38 centres throughout the country.

Illustration photo. Photo: Huu Chi

He assured members of parliament that this mode of exam organisation would help reduce social costs, travel time for students and their relatives, and the number of papers to be marked, and would be able to classify students by their vocation.

Responding to questions about the new school curriculum, scheduled to be rolled out for the 2018-2019 academic year, Minister Luan said the general curriculum was being developed with the participation of nearly 200 teachers, scientists and education experts.

The complete curriculum would be made available to the public for feedback and suggestion in July of this year, said the education minister, adding that it would take on the essence of the previous programmes and remove outdated content.

Under an education reform plan approved by the prime minister last year, Vietnam will allow the publication of many textbooks for the same subject instead of only one compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The reform package also combines the high school graduation and the university entrance exams into a single national exam as many education experts say the former is a waste of time and money because the pass rate is always nearly 100%.

Answering questions about pupil assessment at the primary level, Minister Luan said changing the method of assessment from one using test scores to one using regular comments was an appropriate move which was being implemented in developed countries.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)