VietNamNet Bridge - The policy on offering bonus marks to certain groups of student examinees has been applied for many years. However, it stirred violent debate after the 2015 national high school finals.

 

About 964 examinees have been found on the list of students admitted to Hanoi Medical University. Of these, only 109, or 11.31 percent, are from Region 3. 

The proportion is just 6.8 percent at Hanoi Pharmaceutical University, i.e. only 34 students out of 496 students from Region 3.

Some other prestigious schools including the Hanoi Foreign Trade University and Hanoi Banking Academy have also reported that the number of students from Region 3 was lower than the students from other regions.

Examinees from Region 3 are from cities and urban areas, who have better learning conditions. Therefore, they do not get bonus marks when applying to universities.

Meanwhile, the students from rural, remote and mountainous areas, who are believed to have worse learning conditions, can get 0.5-3.5 bonus marks. 

For example, if they receive 25 score for three exam subjects from the high school finals, they will be able to apply for universities with total scores of 28.5 (25 + 3.5 = 28.5).

With the scheme, students who get higher scores may fail to enroll in universities, while the students with lower score can do so, because they are from rural areas. 

Ngo Minh Vuong, with 29.75/30 score, came first at the 2015 national high school finals. However, Vuong is not first on the list of students admitted to the Hanoi Medical University as Vuong does not have bonus marks. 

Many students disagree with the scheme, saying that while it helps students from rural areas follow higher education, it prevents talented persons from entering university.

Thuy, a student applying to Hanoi Law University, noted that she ranked at the same level with students who get a 3.5 score lower than her. 

“It is quite difficult to get every 0.25 exam score. Students from rural areas can obtain 3.5 scores so easily,” she said.

Son, who has registered to study information technology at the Hanoi University of Technology, said it was unreasonable to give bonus marks to students in rural areas.

“It is a wrong that rural students have worse conditions than urban. I know a lot of my friends who have to take extra work to earn money to fund their study,” Son said.

Vice president of Can Tho University Do Van Xe noted that the bonus-mark scheme should be adjusted to make it suitable to the new circumstances, when the differences in socioeconomic development levels in areas narrows.  

Ngan Anh