Scores should not be used as the sole parameter for career counseling and guidance.

If we only rely on the scores of the 10th grade entrance exam subjects, it lacks information and can easily lead to subjectivity in counseling and orientation.

MSc. Pham Thi Khanh Ly said that it is impossible to rely on the scores of the 10th grade subject test to advise and guide students on their careers.

In recent years, the phenomenon of encouraging and advising students to write applications not to take the entrance exam to grade 10 public high schools has attracted public attention. The Ministry of Education and Training and some localities have requested schools to rectify the situation, but this situation still occurs. This is alarming, significantly affecting students' right to education.

First of all, we need to understand that student streaming is an important issue for each person's career and the development of national human resources. In Vietnam, student streaming after secondary school is a policy that has been affirmed in Party documents and State legal policies. This is an important task, requiring synchronous solutions and the responsibility of the whole society, but for a long time the responsibility has been placed heavily on the education sector and society has only looked towards this sector, because the direct target is secondary school students.

Streamlining students after secondary school is a difficult issue, because if the advice and orientation are not careful, the consultant as well as the parents and students will not understand clearly, which can easily cause misunderstandings. There are many reasons leading to this situation, but in my opinion there are 3 main reasons.

Firstly , there is a lack of uniformity in career guidance and post-secondary education, and the communication between management agencies, schools and vocational training institutions has not been effective. This leads to limited understanding of teachers, parents and students. When understanding is limited, unbiased and one-sided, counseling will lead to a lack of trust in parents and students, leading to conflicts and public uproar.

Second, career guidance has not been given its proper place in the educational program in many schools. Of course, this will not be taken seriously, while not many teachers are properly trained or have experience in career guidance.

Third , the pressure of exams, teachers' and schools' achievements, and parents' expectations.

All these reasons can distort the good purpose of career guidance and orientation at secondary school level. But more importantly, it can cause loss of trust in parents and students. Once trust is lost, counseling will become increasingly difficult.

In fact, we cannot use scores as the sole parameter for career guidance. I believe that any student who meets the required conditions has the right to take the 10th grade entrance exam.

Career guidance is an issue that the education sector is extremely concerned about, and has an important position in the overall education program. This is clearly shown in the 2018 General Education Program, where career guidance experience activities are taught from junior high school to high school and are mandatory.

Career guidance is a process and must be done through experience, experience and contemplation. However, to carry out this activity well is not easy, requiring specialized teachers, educational conditions, good coordination between schools, families and society. The current difficulty is that many educational institutions are not able to meet these requirements. Along with that, families lack career guidance information, focus on cultural subjects for their children to take the 10th grade entrance exam, leading to the use of cultural subject scores as parameters for advice.

From this situation, it is necessary to have solutions to improve the quality of education, and at the same time change the way of testing and evaluating students in each school year. The quality of education comes first from the quality of teachers - the soldiers directly on the educational front. Teachers must be well-trained, given the conditions to study, self-improve throughout their lives, imbued with educational philosophy, and have a correct outlook on life. With good human resources, education will certainly make a breakthrough.

Nowadays, the education program has changed, students are assessed comprehensively, education is oriented towards developing qualities and abilities. Scores are now one of many indicators to evaluate students. As assessment tests change, teaching and learning methods also change, from diversifying teaching methods to forms of assessment tests. Education is oriented towards personalization, the goal is for each student to become a better version of themselves.

When students are able to see themselves from different frames of reference, under the appropriate guidance of teachers, each individual will form a correct worldview for themselves. An equally important issue is that parents themselves must also clearly understand the new educational program, thereby having a correct view of their children's abilities, and at the same time sharing responsibility with the school.

So the story of how to provide career guidance for students from junior high school? Junior high school is the basic education stage in the overall education program, along with that, career guidance at this stage is extremely important, especially the two "pivotal" years of grades 8 and 9, before entering high school is the career orientation education stage. Therefore, the stream and career guidance for students is implemented very late in the second semester of grade 9, if only based on the scores of the examinations of subjects for the entrance exam to grade 10, there will be a lack of information, easily leading to subjectivity in counseling and orientation.

We need to understand that the principle of career guidance is self-career guidance, that is, teachers, schools, and families provide the most objective, impartial, and complete information, providing tools and thinking to evaluate careers and themselves so that students can realize where they are, what they are like, and what they want.

Career guidance in secondary schools needs to be implemented synchronously in all subjects and activities, not just experiential activities and career guidance. Because in each subject and activity are different aspects of life, different professions, thereby helping students have a complete worldview, a ready mindset, understand themselves, and from there confidently make decisions.

On the other hand, career guidance and counseling need special attention with parents, families and schools need to work together, have activities to connect and exchange information regularly, especially in the final year so that the school and family can understand and sympathize, only then can unnecessary frustrations be avoided.

* MSc. Pham Thi Khanh Ly is currently Vice President of the School Board/Executive Director of FPT Cau Giay Primary and Secondary School (Hanoi)/FPT Bac Giang Primary, Secondary and High School.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/khuyen-hoc-sinh-khong-thi-lop-10-khong-nen-dung-diem-so-la-tham-so-duy-nhat-de-tu-van-huong-nghiep-272145.html