Heavy hearted with the season of… showing off certificates!

Parents should not consider scores as a measure of their children's abilities.

Having been a secondary school teacher for 38 years, I would like to share with parents to better understand why at the end of the year, there is often an inflation of certificates of merit and excellent students when implementing the 2006 (old) general education program in previous years.

From the 2021-2022 school year, there will no longer be the title of advanced student at junior high school and high school levels under the new general education program.

There are many reasons for the inflation of certificates of merit. The high number of excellent students comes from the disease of achievement in education. Homeroom teachers want the class to have many excellent students so that the school board can praise them for being good at teaching, having solid skills, dedication, responsibility, and ability, and also for the criteria for the year-end competition on subject quality.

To achieve the quality target of the subject they teach, many excellent students are often given "lenient" marks by subject teachers. The school always wants to have many excellent students at school, district, and provincial levels to include in the criteria for ranking the school's titles at the end of the year.

In addition, contributing to increasing the number of excellent students is the assessment and classification regulations according to Circular No. 26/2020/TT-BGDDT issued together with Circular No. 58/2011/TT-BGDDT58/2011, amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Assessment and Classification Regulations for Secondary School Students and High School Students applicable to grades 9 and 12 in the 2023-2024 school year.

Specifically, Article 13 of the semester and year-end classification standards stipulates that students are considered excellent if they meet the following criteria: Average score of all subjects is 8.0 or higher, in which the average score of one of the three subjects of math, literature, and foreign language is 8.0 or higher; No subject has an average score below 6.5; Subjects are evaluated by comments of passing. Because the average score of all subjects is calculated, many students only need to diligently study history, geography, civics, biology, and technology to make up for difficult subjects such as math, literature, and foreign language to achieve an average score of 8.0 or higher to achieve the title of excellent student.

On the student side, although not all, many students have been dishonest in various ways in tests to get high scores, to deal with teachers and parents. When supervising mid-term and final exams, I have discovered many students with various forms of cheating during the test, many students use their phones to take pictures of documents for very sophisticated use. If not detected, a score of 9 or 10 is certain, so parents should not consider scores as a measure of their children's ability.

From the 2021-2022 school year, the application of Circular 22/2021/TT-BGDDT to grade 6 in the assessment, classification and consideration of student titles has received much public attention due to its new, progressive, positive and humane points. Specifically, the assessment and classification of students in terms of study and training are based on 4 levels: Good, fair, achieved, not achieved and only the titles of excellent students and good students are rewarded. The method of calculating the average score of subjects is eliminated; Conduct is no longer classified as Good, fair, average, poor; Academic performance is: Excellent, fair, average, weak, poor; The title of advanced student is eliminated.

Therefore, the widespread issuance of certificates of merit has been ended with the classes of the 2018 New General Education Program (grades 6, 7, 8, 10, 11) starting from the 2021-2022 school year. In fact, after 3 years of applying Circular 22, the widespread issuance of certificates of merit has been limited, the inflation of certificates of merit has been limited, and the parents of students have supported and rewarded them in substance.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nang-long-voi-mua-khoe-giay-khen-185240528145007064.htm