As a long-time teacher in the profession and always following, I have two proposals on this issue.
High school graduation exam is not negative
We know that the high school graduation exam goes through stages from question setting, invigilation, grading and university admission. Just one of the stages has problems, and the exam encounters problems. The stages that encounter problems are all caused by humans and make the education sector chaotic.
Exam question setting stage: One exam question with two purposes, which is recognition of graduation and admission to universities. I think this stage is extremely important, the question is designed to classify each student group. If the exam questions are too easy or too difficult, we equate the student groups, so universities find it difficult to choose the right good and excellent students. It requires the question setting team to be good and impartial.
Exam supervision stage: This is the most important and complex stage because it mobilizes a very large number of people to participate in exam supervision and negativity often occurs at this stage. This year, at the Tuyen Quang High School for the Gifted exam site, Mr. Nguyen Ha Duy, a math teacher, came into the exam room to remind him of his lessons, leading to noise in recent days.
Grading stage: In addition to Literature, the exam is graded by essays, the rest is graded by multiple-choice. In 2018, fraud in 3 provinces Ha Giang, Hoa Binh (old), Son La took place at this stage and caused public outrage.
Admission stage: For a long time, the enrollment stage has been considered easy, but in 2025 it also encountered trouble when the Ministry of Education and Training required each student to only be admitted to one aspiration. It caused difficulties for candidates, leading to the birth of countless aspirations that were not mentioned before.
With the above arguments, I propose the graduation exam for 2027 and subsequent years as follows:
Regarding exam questions: For a fair, objective, and rich exam question, the Ministry of Education and Training should assign a reputable university to be responsible for issuing the exam questions and absolutely keep them confidential so that no one knows that the university issued them. For example, this year, Hanoi National University of Education issues exam questions, then next year, Ho Chi Minh City National University of Education, just rotate them like that.
Regarding exam supervision and marking: Since merging the two exams into one and initially the Ministry of Education and Training assigned universities to take the lead, it was smooth, but when it was transferred to localities where the Department of Education and Training is the focal point, negativity reappeared. Therefore, I propose that the exam supervision and marking stage be assigned to universities with sufficient capacity to take on, then there will be no more negativity because they are not under pressure from achievement disease, so they work objectively.
Students from which province still take the exam in that province, shuffle candidates and take exams concentrated in a few locations instead of being scattered as they are now. Exam results are transferred to universities where candidates register.
Merging public schools
We know that streamlining education institutions in general education is a completely correct policy.
On July 10, 2026, the Prime Minister sent a document to the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, the City Party Committee and the People's Committees of provinces and cities on arranging the system of public preschool, general education, continuing education and vocational education institutions according to the two-level local government model. The requirement is to reduce 30% of public educational institutions compared to July 1, 2025.
To do so, the Minister of Education and Training needs to work with the Ministry of Home Affairs and local authorities to clearly stipulate the number of education sector management officials in localities. Reducing school management officials helps the apparatus operate effectively.
Each school from preschool to high school only has one principal and one vice principal, each professional group has one head and one deputy head. The vice principal is the assistant to the principal, so it is not necessary to have two or three people because there is already a professional head below.
Schools with a small number of classes should be merged, considered as branches of other schools and the principal appoints a deputy head to directly manage.
I take a specific example as follows:
First, schools with a scale of 20 classes or less should merge with each other, it is possible to merge two campuses together or three campuses together depending on the geographical location between the schools.
Second, schools with a scale of 21 to 35 classes will not merge, but the structure will only have one principal and one vice principal.
Third, schools with a scale of 35 classes or more will not merge, but the structure will only have one principal and two vice principals.
Fourth, redundant education management officials are resolved in two directions. The first direction: If they are young, they can transfer to become teachers or transfer to work in education in wards and communes. The second direction is to create conditions for retirement.
If the above solutions are implemented synchronously, I believe that it will be possible to streamline staff according to the Central Resolution and increase teachers' salaries, saving the budget. Excess money from streamlining the apparatus to subsidize teachers' salaries, avoiding teachers quitting their jobs due to low salaries. At that time, teachers will come to school without worrying about food, clothing, and money, striving to be creative in teaching and being thorough with their work.
