99% graduation rate is not a reason to abolish the exam
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) said that in recent years, the high school graduation exam has been organized and gradually adjusted to suit reality. Continuing to innovate and improve a national standardized exam is not only a requirement according to policies and regulations, but also a requirement from practice to move towards a fair, quality and honest education.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, Resolution 29-NQ/TW and the Law on Education both identify the innovation of the exam in the direction of reducing pressure but still ensuring reliability, correctly assessing students' abilities, as a basis for vocational and university education enrollment.
The innovation of the high school graduation exam from 2015, especially from 2020 to now, has promoted many advantages such as creating a common assessment level nationwide, contributing to ensuring fairness, reducing pressure and social costs, and providing data to serve education quality assessment and university admissions.
Along with the process of innovating the high school graduation exam method, many times the question of "is it necessary to have a national standardized exam" has been raised and the answer from most experts, scientists, education managers, teachers... all affirmed "necessary", with some basic reasons.
Firstly, for a not small part of students and teachers, if they do not take the exam, they will not study and not teach. This is a reality that needs to be frankly acknowledged to propose appropriate solutions.
Second, without exams that are organized seriously and evaluated on a large scale, especially at the national level, education managers do not have reliable information about the current situation of general education nationwide and in each locality.
Third, it is not advisable to set "more than 99% graduation rate every year" to wonder why take the exam. Because, even if a production line has 99% of products meeting standards, no one will skip the output product inspection stage. Even the detection of abnormalities in exam results in some localities is the result of the data analysis process of the exam and the publicity and transparency of those data - something that very few exams today can do.
The exam will continue to be innovated towards standardization and transparency.
According to the assessment of many teachers and experts, the biggest advantage of the "2-in-1" exam is saving time and effort for people, reducing costs for society, and reducing exam pressure for students. However, after many years of implementation, the exam still exists, generating negativity in the organization process.
Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that instead of thinking about separating the national exam, it is necessary to fundamentally reform the exam and admission policy through modernizing testing technology; building a standardized question bank; data management before announcing scores; independent supervision; and forming a professional testing team.
Agreeing with this view, Dr. Le Viet Khuyen - former Deputy Director of the Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training, said that the high school graduation exam is the result of the renovation process established from Resolution 29 on fundamental and comprehensive renovation of education and training, towards the goal of reducing pressure and costs for learners, while creating a reliable database for universities to enroll students.
He affirmed that this is a policy that has been researched and implemented for many years, and cannot be denied because of a few negative cases.
Mr. Khuyen said that what needs to be done is not to change the exam model, but to continue to improve governance, increase transparency, apply technology and build a test system that is reliable enough to serve both graduation and enrollment goals.
On the side of the Ministry of Education and Training, Minister Hoang Minh Son directed to review and comprehensively evaluate the organization of the high school graduation exam in the past period, on that basis, continue to improve to aim for a safe, quality, and effective exam.
Along with that, the Ministry of Education and Training will continue to improve regulations on autonomous enrollment associated with accountability; issue minimum standards for independent exams, promote modernization of testing, build a standardized question bank, gradually pilot computer-based testing and apply artificial intelligence in data analysis, detection of abnormalities and support for testing work, and at the same time strengthen measures to ensure the safety and transparency of the exam.
