VietNamNet Bridge - Local education and training departments have agreed on secondary school plans to select students based on their learning records and tests on comprehensive knowledge. 

Secondary schools for the gifted have finally found a solution to the 2015 “no-entrance exam” enrolment season.

As the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has prohibited schools from organizing entrance exams, educators have decided to challenge students with IQ and EQ tests to assess students’ abilities in a comprehensive way. 

The solution, approved by the Hanoi education department, will be made public in an official press conference to be held soon. 

In HCM City, the Tran Dai Nghia School for the gifted has announced it will survey students’ English ability. 

Soon after hearing about the new enrolment method, parents urged their children to cram for IQ, EQ and English tests.

Analysts said MOET had prohibited schools to organize entrance exams in order to protect younger children from exam pressure. 

However, students, instead of cramming for entrance exams, are now hurrying to stuff their heads with English words and practice for IQ tests.

A parent, who had enrolled his son in TS, a well-known exam preparation center in HCM City, said his son had stopped going to private math and literature tutoring classes because he now had to focus on English lessons.

An officer of the center said students take three to five English class hours a week at the center. 

“Some parents even want more English lessons, because they fear that three to five hours a week is not enough,” the officer said. “Everyone knows that Tran Dai Nghia School always has difficult questions for exams and tests.” 

Meanwhile, a parent who sent his daughter to an exam preparation center in District 1 said he guessed that the English test will comprise questions related to natural and social sciences as well. 

“I think the questions would be designed in a way so as to require comprehensive knowledge from students. Therefore, I have told my daughter to review math and literature lessons as well. However, English skills will be most important,” he said.

What worries parents and students is that they do not know what the questions will be like.

“I wish we could have mock questions for practice,” the parent said.

Tran Van Thach in Thanh Xuan District said he felt anxious after hearing that Luong The Vinh School in Hanoi would test students by raising questions like those posed on the “Who is the Millionaire?” TV show.

“The questions will be in many different fields. In order to answer the questions, students need to have comprehensive knowledge,” he said. “I don’t know how my child should prepare for the test.”

Tien Phong