Finding solutions to improve the quality of the 2025 high school graduation exam is an urgent issue for the provinces in the Central Highlands region today.
Ranked 5th out of 6 regions in the Education Index
The Central Highlands is one of the six socio-economic regions comprising five provinces: Lam Dong, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak , and Dak Nong. It accounts for 6.1% of the country's population and is home to 53 ethnic groups, including 52 minority groups.
12th-grade students in Kon Tum province during a career guidance session. One of the solutions to improve the quality of the 2025 high school graduation exam is to strengthen career guidance education so that students can choose suitable exam subjects.
According to a report by the Ministry of Education and Training at the Central Highlands Education Conference in March 2023, during the period 2011-2022, the school network was strengthened and developed extensively, meeting the diverse learning needs of the people. Basically, there are no longer any communes without preschool education; most communes have primary and secondary schools, and all districts have high schools. Many localities have built inter-commune secondary and high schools. Currently, the entire region has 3,984 preschool, general education, and continuing education facilities.
The percentage of students attending school at the appropriate age across all three levels of general education is comparable to the national average. The percentage of primary schools offering two sessions per day reached 94.1%; the percentage of lower secondary schools offering two sessions per day reached 84%, nearly double the figure from 10 years ago.
According to the 2022 survey on living standards by the General Statistics Office, the average monthly per capita income in the Central Highlands region is quite low, reaching 3.282 million VND, ranking 5th out of 6 regions.
Regarding education, some educational indicators and the average high school graduation exam scores over the 5 years (2020-2024) in the Central Highlands region are low, ranking 5th out of 6 regions, much lower than the national average.
High school graduation exam results show a drop in ranking.
Based on the data published by the Ministry of Education and Training regarding the average scores for high school graduation in the period 2020-2024, we have arranged the results from highest to lowest, ranking them nationwide. The average scores for the Central Highlands provinces are shown in the following table (in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many students in Dak Lak had to take the exam a second time, so they were not ranked).
Literature and Mathematics are two compulsory subjects for the 2025 high school graduation exam. Therefore, knowing the quality of these two subjects in 2024 in each locality is essential. The results for Literature and Mathematics in 2024 show that Lam Dong had the best results, with Literature scoring 6.96 points (ranked 32nd) and Mathematics scoring 6.52 points (ranked 21st). The remaining provinces ranked 41st or higher in Literature and Mathematics.
QUALITY OF HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION: DIFFICULTIES PLUS DIFFICULTIES
General education, and high school education in particular, in the Central Highlands provinces is facing even greater challenges. Firstly, this is a mountainous region with many terrains fragmented by large rivers and streams. The proportion of ethnic minority students is quite high. According to a report by the Ministry of Education and Training, in the 2020-2021 school year, nearly 40% of the total number of students in the region were ethnic minorities (459,654 out of 1,221,784 students). The majority of ethnic minority students struggle with Vietnamese language, mathematics, and foreign languages; some students have dropped out due to academic difficulties. In the 2023-2024 school year, in Buon Ma Thuot City (Dak Lak province) alone, 113 junior high school students dropped out due to poor academic performance. Furthermore, some provinces have implemented a system of entrance examinations for high school admissions for many years, leading to a lack of motivation among junior high school students.
Secondly, the implementation of the 2018 General Education Program in the Central Highlands faces more difficulties compared to other regions due to a lack of facilities, teaching equipment, and teachers for new subjects, as well as a shortage of skilled teachers capable of innovation. Many teachers still lack the necessary skills. Recently, a review by the Education Department of Tu Mo Rong District (Kon Tum province) revealed that 17 teachers in the area have weak professional competence and are unable to teach the 2018 General Education Program. Mr. Vu Van Hung, Chairman of the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City, frankly stated: "A segment of administrators and teachers lack dedication to their profession, haven't pondered or worried about how to improve the quality of education. If we don't innovate, the quality of education will remain mediocre, and some schools may even decline."
Thirdly, the 12th grade students in the 2024-2025 school year are the same group of students who completed 8th grade in 2020-2021 and 9th grade in 2021-2022. These were two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely impacted the entire country, forcing schools to close and switch to online teaching. Due to the difficult conditions and lack of learning equipment for students in mountainous areas, the quality of education for 8th grade students in 2020-2021 and 9th grade students in 2021-2022 was significantly affected.
Fourth, the quality of high school entrance in some localities remains low. The 2024-2025 10th grade entrance exam in Dak Lak clearly revealed that many students scored below 5, leading to low cutoff scores. In some schools, the cutoff was as low as 3-6 points/3 subjects; on average, 1 point/subject was enough for admission. Schools that implemented admissions with low cutoff scores also failed to recruit enough students and had to lower their admission standards…
The implementation of the 2018 General Education Program in the Central Highlands faced more difficulties compared to other regions, due to a lack of facilities, teaching equipment, and teachers for the new subjects.
EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS FOR TEACHING, LEARNING, AND PREPARING FOR GRADUATION EXAMS
Given the aforementioned numerous difficulties, it is predicted that the results of the 2025 high school graduation exam in the Central Highlands region will decline further if effective solutions are not implemented.
First, each high school, depending on its conditions, should organize professional development activities to improve the quality of teaching and assessment according to the orientation and structure of the high school graduation exam announced by the Ministry of Education and Training, primarily for the two subjects of mathematics and literature. Strengthen career guidance education to help students choose suitable exam subjects.
Conduct a survey of students' preferences for the two elective subjects in the high school graduation exam, and divide classes and exam preparation accordingly. If the subject choices are too unbalanced (some students choose one subject, others don't), provide guidance to help students make more informed choices. Subject departments should develop a school-wide exam question bank. Assign teachers to closely monitor and tutor students in each class.
The Departments of Education and Training in the region have implemented a school-to-school support system. They can deploy a number of highly qualified and experienced teachers to assist disadvantaged schools in exam preparation; and take the lead in developing a question bank based on the Ministry of Education and Training's new structure for common use. The Departments of Education and Training will also conduct the first and second semester exams for 12th grade students across the province using the new structure to assess high school quality and practice the new exam format.
The State and authorities at all levels should implement solutions to invest in infrastructure, recruit enough teachers, and improve the material living conditions and morale of teachers and students to best prepare for the 2025 high school graduation exam.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ket-qua-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-cua-tay-nguyen-giam-giai-phap-cho-ky-thi-nam-2025-185241017175427152.htm
Comment (0)