According to the Draft Circular promulgating the Regulations on Secondary and High School Admissions that has just been announced, the Ministry of Education and Training has abandoned the proposal to draw lots for the third exam subject for grade 10. However, it still requires the third exam subject to be changed over the years to achieve the goal of comprehensive education in the basic education stage or use a combined exam instead.
The advantage of requiring the third exam subject to change over the years is that it helps students not to neglect other subjects and avoid the situation of rote learning, learning by heart, and guessing questions. However, the disadvantage of this requirement is that it creates great pressure for students, especially when the announcement of the remaining exam subject is expected at the end of March every year, forcing both students and teachers to rush to review, causing stress and panic. Meanwhile, the nature of the current 10th grade admission is mainly aimed at dividing students.
Another disadvantage is that the Draft has eliminated the drawing of lots for the third subject, but requires the third subject to change every year, so the Departments of Education and Training have no choice but to draw lots again to choose the third subject to ensure fairness, avoid information "leaking", guessing questions by the method of elimination...
To solve this problem, many education experts and teachers in localities are proposing a very remarkable solution: the Ministry of Education and Training only strictly regulates the examination of 3 subjects, and the choice of the third subject should be left to the locality to decide, but it is best to have 3 fixed subjects: Math, Literature, and Foreign Language. The Ministry of Education and Training should listen and consider this solution because it is superior to the solutions in the Draft, as well as creating clarity and stability - which is necessary for any education system.
Finally, the most important thing for education is to create a real learning environment, not just chasing scores. Solve the problem of lopsided learning and rote learning by teaching quality, lesson content, and test-making methods so that students feel interested and useful when participating in that subject.
And instead of being too dependent on changes in the way questions are set, subject selection, or announcement time of the Ministry of Education and Training, students, parents and teachers need to orient a balanced and even learning method between subjects to be ready to respond to all possible situations.
Being ready and proactive is not only a necessary spirit in exams, but also a valuable asset for students in their future lives!
