VietNamNet Bridge - Half the questions in the high-school graduation exams this year will require candidates to apply reasoning, up from the earlier 20-30 per cent.

At a press briefing Thursday, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia said this is to stop rote learning and to encourage creativity and reasoning as part of efforts to improve a testing system that many have complained as being rigid and academic.

For that reason, Tran Van Nghia, an examination and education quality assessment official, said open questions will definitely be included in the tests.

High schools across the country have been apprised of the requirement from the beginning of this academic year and it is consistent with the Ministry’s regulations and guidelines, he said, rebutting objections that this requirement is somehow new.

When Tuoi Tre asked him if average students can cope with this part of the question paper, he said they are also expected to apply what they have been taught and not just regurgitate lessons.

The Ministry’s guidelines for high-school graduation exams say tests should be designed so that average students can score at least five points out of ten and get through.

Vu Dinh Chuan, director of the Ministry’s High School Education Department, Chuan said the Ministry now places a strong emphasis on the new requirement since thus far high-school students have merely repeated what they have crammed.

Asked about high schools putting pressure on their students by asking them to sit for trial exams, Nghia said the Ministry has issued no instructions to do so.

Local education authorities make these decisions, he said, but added the exams may be somewhat beneficial to students.

But Chuan said taking so many trial exams would do more harm than good.

Source: Tuoi Tre