The Ministry of Education and Training suddenly issued an 'order' to completely stop the entrance exams or assessment of capacity for grade 6 in special schools, causing not only schools to be caught off guard but also to be heavily worried about the situation of 'running' for transcripts and awards for admission, which has happened before.
"T HI - BANNED FROM EXAM" THEN "TAKE - BANNED FROM EXAM"
Before the above ban, those who are involved or have witnessed the Ministry of Education and Training's exams - bans, exams - bans in the past 10 years will find it more worrying than encouraging.
Since 2015, the Ministry of Education and Training has banned entrance exams for grade 6, regardless of whether it is a private school, a high-quality school, or a special school. Parents and students have not yet had time to celebrate when they have realized that the selection of students for grade 6 based on additional criteria other than academic records and competition awards has caused many problems.
At that time, there was an explosion of international commercial competitions such as: math, English online, science competitions in English... To limit this, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training had to come up with a list of competitions. However, in the exams on the list of the department, students and parents also had many ways to avoid and practice, not to mention other negative manifestations.
Students participating in the 6th grade entrance exam at Tran Dai Nghia Secondary and High School (HCMC) in 2024
PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH
Not only cultural subjects, competitions to encourage students to develop comprehensively such as arts and sports are also full of negativity to get prizes. There are students who are not strong in sports but win very high prizes in athletics, swimming...
On the other hand, after several years of implementing the admission process, public opinion was shocked by the appearance of thousands of "superhuman" transcripts with all 10s to be considered for admission to grade 6 at "hot" schools... As for the schools themselves, they said that after eliminating the exam, many students entered the school with very high scores, piled up awards, but had to relearn basic knowledge. Many opinions suggested that schools should organize exams, even though students may have to review, but schools should say that it is real quality rather than forcing them to accept a fake quality. Organizing an exam would be more honest and fair than many other types of exams that cannot control quality like that.
After 2 years of applying the selection method, on May 29, 2017, the Ministry of Education and Training sent a document to the Departments of Education and Training directing the reduction of national-level competitions as well as local competitions for teachers and high school students. "The results of the Ministry's review show that the number of competitions for teachers and students is currently too many, overlapping, causing pressure for teachers and students. Many competitions do not receive the consensus of society," the document stated. Therefore, the Ministry advocates reducing national-level competitions, only selecting a number of basic competitions, closely linked to the political tasks of the sector to organize.
Notably, in this document, the Ministry of Education and Training affirmed that it will "not use the results of competitions organized by the Department and the achievements of students sent by the Department to participate in international competitions to evaluate students' learning outcomes from the 2017-2018 school year, and direct admission in the admission of first-grade students from the 2018-2019 school year".
By 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training officially issued a Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on Secondary School and High School Admissions, including the following provision: "In cases where an educational institution has more students registering for grade 6 than the enrollment quota, the Department of Education and Training shall guide the implementation of the enrollment plan by the method of selection, or combining selection with testing and assessing students' abilities".
DON'T KNOW WHAT TO BASE ON FOR FAIR AND OBJECTIVE RECRUITMENT
Regarding the admission of grade 6 students at some special schools by "competency assessment test" implemented over the past 7 years, there have been no concerns about any major negative or inadequacies. Therefore, public opinion was really surprised, some said "could not handle it" when the regulations on admission to junior high school and high school recently issued by the Ministry of Education and Training, the admission to junior high school only has one admission method, no more exceptions for special schools.
It is worth mentioning that the draft regulations announced for public consultation do not have any "pre-orders" for eliminating the entrance exam for grade 6. On the contrary, they still state: "Middle schools with more students registering for grade 6 than the enrollment quota will be allowed to enroll students by combining admission with testing and assessing students' abilities."
In Hanoi, there are many secondary schools that enroll students in grade 6 by taking entrance exams such as Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary School, Ngoai Ngu Secondary School, Cau Giay Secondary School, Thanh Xuan Secondary School, Nam Tu Liem Secondary School, Le Loi Secondary School, and Experimental Secondary School. In addition, many private secondary schools in Hanoi have long organized exams to enroll students in grade 6 because they do not enroll students according to the enrollment route, the number of applicants is much larger than the enrollment quota...
Up to this point, many private schools in Hanoi have announced their plans for enrolling 6th graders for the next school year using a combination of admission and competency assessment tests, as per the old regulations and the draft new regulations. Some schools have even finished organizing entrance exams. Most schools say they do not know how they will enroll 6th graders to avoid repeating the problems of exam bans in 2015-2017.
Teacher Nguyen Xuan Khang, Chairman of the Marie Curie School Board (Hanoi), said: "The regulations stipulate admission criteria as specifically instructed by the Department of Education and Training. However, what is the basis for determining admission criteria, if not based on academic records and some "achievements" in cultural, artistic, and sports exams...? Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training has restricted university admission by considering high school transcripts. Why? The most convincing answer is none other than the Ministry of Education and Training. Primary school transcripts are even "more obscure" than high school transcripts, more than 90% are excellent."
Teacher Khang expressed concern that this school year, parents will compete to make good report cards and medals of all kinds to get a place in a high-quality school, a "hot" school... "Will the 6th grade entrance exam in that situation be fair, objective, and transparent?", he asked.
Therefore, Mr. Khang agrees with the opinion that the Ministry of Education and Training should let the department decide on local exams, with the locality taking responsibility "because the characteristics of each locality are different. Hanoi is not like Cao Bang, Ho Chi Minh City is not like Ca Mau".
Meanwhile, the representative of the Ministry of Education and Training only expressed a general wish: the Departments of Education and Training should soon have guidelines for admission criteria for grade 6 in special schools in the direction of promoting comprehensive educational development, not just relying on primary school learning results for admission.
Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training will propose a survey on 6th grade enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year.
The leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that they will develop a plan for enrolling 6th grade students to suit the city's reality, including calculating and proposing a plan to organize a capacity assessment survey to enroll 6th grade students in the 2025-2026 school year for some secondary schools with learning needs many times higher than the enrollment quota.
A leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training shared that according to regulations, the Ministry of Education and Training allows the Department of Education and Training to decide on the criteria for admission to grade 6. Thus, the admission can be based on criteria such as primary school test scores or survey scores.
In cases where the number of students applying is many times higher than the enrollment quota for grade 6, such as Tran Dai Nghia Secondary and High School or some schools in District 7, Thu Duc City, Hoc Mon District, the Department of Education and Training will study and propose to the City People's Committee to apply for permission to implement an appropriate form of enrollment for grade 6.
In the 2024-2025 school year, Ho Chi Minh City will have 6 schools enrolling 6th grade students using a competency assessment test.
An officer in charge of 6th grade admissions in Thu Duc City wants to implement the 6th grade admissions method using an entrance capacity assessment test like in recent years. "If we consider entrance based on math scores, Vietnamese scores, English certificates or other skills, it will be very difficult to ensure. If we take the results of foreign language and IT certificates, the pressure will be on students to participate in exams... Therefore, organizing a survey will help the school select truly excellent and suitable students," this person said.
Bich Thanh
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cham-dut-thi-vao-lop-6-lo-lap-lai-lam-dep-hoc-ba-giai-thuong-185250109223047944.htm
Comment (0)