Promoting the achievements of 10 years of education and training innovation - Part 3: Expectations for exam innovation

Innovation in examinations (high school graduation exams and university entrance exams) is always a topical issue, attracting the attention of the whole society. Over the past 10 years, the education sector has made many efforts to innovate, but the innovation story still has many problems that have not met the expectations of society. If the innovation issue had been planned in a methodical and more far-sighted way, perhaps it would not have encountered such unfortunate incidents as in the past...

Candidates taking the competency assessment exam organized by Ho Chi Minh City National University in 2023. Photo: THANH HUNG

Patchwork innovation

Since the Resolution 29 was issued, the Ministry of Education and Training has made many efforts to reform the examinations but has always been ineffective. According to Dr. Nguyen Quoc Chinh, Director of the Center for Testing and Training Quality Assurance, Ho Chi Minh City National University, 2015 marked a major milestone in the history of examinations and admissions, when for the first time, two parallel exams, the high school graduation exam and the university and college entrance exam (3 in 1), were unified into one national high school exam, also known as the "2 in 1" exam - both taking graduation results and using the results for university and college admissions. With this unification, the two stages of examination and admission were separated.

However, the exam itself continues to be innovated in its organization. In general, these innovations have not been as expected, with unfortunate incidents always occurring in important stages such as marking, exam questions, etc.

The darkest point in the country's examination history was the 2018 national high school exam, when 11 education officials from the three provinces of Ha Giang, Son La, and Hoa Binh were caught up in the law for cheating, editing, and raising scores for 347 exams. Some candidates' scores were raised from 26.8 to 29.95 points compared to the actual score...

And the 2021 high school graduation exam has become the strangest exam when many subjects have surprisingly high scores compared to 2020. For example, English, which was at the bottom of the list in 2020, has jumped to the subject with the most 10 points... This exam result has led to many paradoxes in the 2021 university admissions season, which is that the admission scores for many schools are sky-high, in which many majors have an admission score of up to 11 points, some majors have an admission score of over 30 points, hundreds of candidates, even though they scored 29.5 points, 30 points, still did not pass.

Also in 2021, the Biology exam questions were leaked and two team leaders and deputy team leaders assigned to participate in building the exam question bank and the Biology exam council had to appear in court in July 2023...

It can be said that the report of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education on supervising the national high school exam is the most comprehensive picture for combining two exams into one, that is: Regarding the exam questions, although the Ministry of Education and Training affirmed that the exam questions are based on a question bank built "in the direction of standardization", simulating the process of building a standardized question bank of advanced countries in the world...

But in reality, the way the Ministry builds the exam question bank does not meet the criteria for standardization (the actual implementation process has not been independently assessed, supervised and evaluated for objectivity and science, as these are requirements for making national exams). Most of the question banks are based on sample exam questions from high schools across the country.

Looking forward to a radical change

Under pressure from public opinion, the Ministry of Education and Training recently announced the plan for the 2025-2030 high school graduation exam with some new points such as: the graduation exam has 4 subjects (2 compulsory subjects are Math, Literature and 2 elective subjects); using information technology in the exam. From 2030 onwards, the exam will start on computers, along with the preparation of a common exam bank for localities... In general, these changes are still only technical and do not reflect the fundamental innovation policy at the macro level.

According to Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Department of Vocational Education (Ministry of Education and Training), high school graduation exam policies are creating shortcomings, affecting the educational goals to some extent. Exams and tests are not for students' learning but are still assessments for exams, or so-called teaching and learning according to exams... which has led to a series of consequences such as: lopsided learning, students lack interest in comprehensive learning, teachers focus on teaching exam-related subject content, causing stress for teachers, and failing to assess students' abilities...

“It seems that there is no way to prevent dishonesty in reporting students’ academic performance through transcripts. Why can’t we apply information technology to manage scores and store students’ academic performance so that there can be no interference with scores entered into the system? If we evaluate based on ability, the current multiple-choice test format will be very challenging, but in reality, people often have to evaluate based on the process in different forms,” Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh suggested.

A former principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education acknowledged that the spirit of Resolution 29 is comprehensive innovation, including exams. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training announced that the graduation exam plan from 2025 has not made any breakthroughs in form, it is still the same as the exam. This will lead to skewed learning. Thus, the goal of general education will be difficult to demonstrate the general knowledge of graduates to have full capacity due to skewed learning caused by the exam method.

Therefore, from now until 2030, there should be a way to innovate in the direction of assessing comprehensive competencies for high school students. Fundamental innovation in high school graduation exams in particular and assessment tests in general education must be a comprehensive assessment without having to choose one subject or another in order to prepare students to face countless challenges in the future.

Innovations in high school graduation exams and university admissions

* Phase 2015-2016: Merge the two high school exams and the university and college entrance exams into one national high school exam. The exam is organized by universities and colleges. Universities and colleges nationwide mainly use the results of the national high school exam to conduct admissions.

* 2017-2019 period: The organization of the high school exam is assigned to local departments of education and training. Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University are pioneers in organizing the competency assessment exam as one of many admission methods.

* Period 2020 to present: The national high school exam has been changed to the high school exam with the purpose of recognizing high school graduation and assessing the quality of general education and university admission. In addition to the 2 national universities, many more schools organize their own exams for university admission.

Dr. NGUYEN DUC NGHIA, former Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City National University: We need to have determination to radically innovate.

Innovation in examination methods, recognition of high school graduation and university admissions is a big issue of national importance, but the solutions proposed by the Ministry of Education and Training have not yet found a feasible solution that is suitable for the overall education reform and textbook program. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training announced a new examination plan starting from 2025.

From now until 2025 is a very short period of time, so it is very difficult to do the most important thing, which is to build a test bank and prepare the technological infrastructure for computer-based testing in the following years. National independent testing centers have not yet been established.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a comprehensive assessment of the examination work in the past, to recognize the advantages and disadvantages in the innovations and to have a legacy. At that time, each solution and each plan will receive input from education experts and society for joint implementation. If the Ministry of Education and Training is determined to truly innovate, it will be possible.

Associate Professor, Dr. DO VAN XE, former Vice Principal of Can Tho University: Examination reform cannot be rushed.

The whole society wants exams to be easy, objective, fair and have accurate evaluation results. For a long time, we have focused too much on input, making exams stressful, costly and stressful, but the results every year are still something to talk about.

Meanwhile, the quality of university education is not determined by the input but by the entire training process. Countries around the world have long used testing centers to assess knowledge and use the results in universities. If Vietnam could establish a national testing center and build a system of standard question banks to organize exams, it would be great.

At that time, exams can be held anywhere, anytime and certificates of results will be issued. On that basis, schools will use the results to consider university admission. However, the most difficult problem is to build a test bank. Therefore, the reform of exams must be done systematically and scientifically and cannot be rushed.

PV GROUP

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/phat-huy-thanh-tuu-10-nam-doi-moi-giao-duc-va-dao-tao-bai-3-ky-vong-doi-moi-thi-cu-post722009.html