X LOWEST PISA RANKING EVER
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just announced the results of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment, initiated and directed by OECD) in 2022. Accordingly, Vietnamese students scored 469 points in math, 462 points in reading comprehension and 472 points in science, 3-14 points lower than the average of OECD countries. Compared to the 2018 assessment, the average math score of Vietnamese students decreased by 27 points, reading comprehension and science decreased by 43 and 71 points, respectively.
Students stopped going to school and studied online during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to experts, this is one of the reasons affecting the PISA results in 2022.
In terms of rankings, Vietnamese students are average in math, but below average in reading and science. Specifically, among 73 countries and 8 territories participating in PISA 2022, Vietnam ranked 31st in math, 34th in reading and 37th in science.
Since Vietnam joined the PISA rankings in 2012, this year's rankings are the lowest, with a drop in all areas. Of which, math results dropped 7-14 places, reading comprehension dropped 2-21 places, and science dropped 27-31 places.
At the workshop, Professor Le Anh Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, said that the trend in all four PISA exams was that the ratio of the lowest scoring group and the ratio of the highest scoring group were relatively low compared to countries with similar scores.
"So we do very well on average, but we have fewer excellent students and students with the lowest results. This may be a positive signal, but on the contrary, when we are discussing the development of learners' qualities and abilities, maximizing the abilities of each individual, we need to do better in training talented students," commented Professor Vinh.
ARE LOW RESULTS DUE TO THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?
According to Professor Vinh, the 2022 PISA exam was scheduled to be held in 2021, but had to be postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic certainly affects the quality of education worldwide, but the story is "difficult for others, difficult for us". "Why is everyone affected by the pandemic but our country seems to be more severely affected than other countries?", Mr. Vinh asked.
At the same time, Mr. Vinh hypothesized that the reason why Vietnam achieved high results in PISA many years ago was because the group of Vietnamese students participating in the PISA exam was selected at the age of 15, a very wide age range. Some countries selected students who had not finished grade 9, but Vietnam, due to the pressure of the entrance exam to grade 10, selected all grade 10 students to take the exam. About 68% of grade 9 students go to grade 10, so Vietnam selected a sample of this 68%, while other countries will select 100% of high school students or grade 9 students... so they choose a wider sample. Second, students who have entered grade 10 mean that they have gone through a very fierce exam, so they do not need to review for the exam, they are very confident to do the assessments.
"In the past two years, due to the pandemic, we have been able to maintain our studies, but have regular testing and assessment and the 10th grade entrance exam changed to affect the results? This needs to be studied more carefully and deeply, but we clearly see that testing and assessment throughout the learning process will affect the overall results of students," Mr. Vinh suggested.
The gap in PISA scores between the highest and lowest-scoring students is as long as 3 years of schooling.
According to Professor Le Anh Vinh, if we analyze the score groups, we will see that the gap between the 25% highest and the 25% lowest scores in Vietnam is about 78 points. This number of points is equivalent to 2 and a half years of study. Notably, this gap is higher than the gap in the first year of participating in PISA in 2012 (that year the gap was more than 60 points). However, this gap is still low compared to the OECD average of more than 90 points (about 3 years of study).
Professor Vinh emphasized: "This gap in scores is very large between students with the best learning conditions and those with the most difficulties. The difference between them can be about 3 years of schooling and we certainly have to do a lot to narrow it."
At the workshop, Mr. Pham Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Quality Management (Ministry of Education and Training), said that if students are not really inspired to solve practical problems, the assessment will still be a "piecemeal". According to Mr. Khanh, when participating in the PISA assessment, he discovered that our students are very good at reading each practical situation to convert it into a problem and solve the problem, but the reading comprehension of practical situations is very limited. "Reading and understanding the problem is very important before solving the problem. Mathematics is the same and life is the same," Mr. Khanh said.
: Vietnam's results and rankings in PISA 2022 for mathematics, announced on December 5
WILL ANNOUNCE INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDENTS TAKING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION EXAM FROM 2025
In addition, Mr. Khanh also spent a lot of time talking about the high school graduation exam in 2025, the year when the first batch of students studying under the 2018 General Education Program will graduate from high school. According to Mr. Khanh, students only care about two things: what subjects to take and how to take the exam. The exam plan is made in very careful, scientific steps, with collective intelligence. This is the most suitable plan, balancing the most relevant benefits and controlling the most risks. "In the coming time, we will continue to announce how students will take the exam. The Department is working with experts to explore and "quietly" test in various places to listen. However, this test is only one channel because students have not finished the program, only studying up to the first semester of grade 11. Another scientific channel will help the Ministry of Education and Training announce a suitable exam format structure, but perfection is a process," said Mr. Khanh.
According to Mr. Khanh, assessment is based on objectives but process and final assessment must be combined together. Thus, high school graduation is a final exam that is only part of the assessment, helping learners develop qualities and abilities as the program's objectives set out. The high school graduation exam from 2025 or in recent years is a broad assessment but still needs to assess the qualities and abilities of each student. This is an issue that, according to Mr. Khanh, still needs to be further studied. "What to test but how to test is a story that needs further research and improvement," Mr. Khanh emphasized.
Mr. Khanh also added that the high school graduation exam from 2025 will have a roadmap, model and testing method that the Ministry of Education and Training has just announced will be stable until 2030 but will certainly have to be gradually improved. It is not until 2032 that we will have students from grades 1 to 12 following the 2018 General Education Program participating in the graduation exam. Therefore, the Ministry will take appropriate steps.
Abusing "standardization" will hardly achieve the highest goal of education.
Regarding this issue, Professor Le Anh Vinh said that the capacity development program aims to change the way of teaching, learning, and implementation at school so that teachers do not only focus on what their students can do in terms of knowledge and content, but dare to overcome that to become better people. Assessment will go hand in hand, gradually changing from rigid testing to the process of observation of teachers, participating in learning projects throughout the process. Therefore, to evaluate a person, if we overuse the concept of "standardization", it will be difficult to achieve the highest goal of education.
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