VietNamNet Bridge – High school students have sighed with relief when hearing that they would have only four exam subjects for the finals instead of six as initially planned.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), at a conference on February 13, announced that the finals would take place on June 2-4, 2014. Students will have four exam subjects, including two compulsory - math and philology, and two optional of the five – physics, chemistry, biology, history and geography.

Foreign language is no longer a compulsory exam subject. However, students can register to take the exam to get bonus marks.

Most local education departments agreed on the four-subject finals plan at the said conference.

Director of the Kon Tum provincial Education and Training Department Nguyen Sy Thu said the four-subject exam solution is decided. It would help ease the pressure on students, while it still can help exactly assess students’ capability.

The high consensus of the local education department has put an end to the prolonged dispute about how many exam subjects the finals should have.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, when reminding the pros and cons of the four-subject and six-subject exam plans, said that the former would have ease the burden on students from 60 kilos to 40 kilos, but may cause shortcomings in education, because students would only cram only the subjects to be asked about and neglect the others.

Teenagers have leaped for joy about the long awaited decision. The finals usually take place in early June, while the university entrance exams in early July. Therefore, six exam subjects and the two close exams would make them too tired.

Hanh Shendo from the Hoang Hoa Tham High School wrote on her Facebook: “It’s so great that we will have only four exam subjects.”

Tuan Anh, a student of the Mac Dinh Chi High School said four exam subjects are in everyone’s power. Especially, he is happy because students will have two optional exam subjects, because one would obtain the highest possible achievements with their forte learning subjects.

The latest decision by MOET on the four-subject finals has been updated on the Fanpages of many high schools in HCM City and has got a lot of comments. The teenagers of Vo Thi Sau High School believe that with the new policy, 100 percent of students would pass the exams.

Even the students who finished high schools last year have also expressed their happiness about the new policy, commenting that this is a right decision by MOET which has kicked off the program on renovating the teaching and examination mechanism.

The only thing which remains controversial is whether foreign language should be a compulsory learning subject.

While agreeing on the four-subject finals, Director of the HCM City Education and Training Department Le Hong Son said there should be three compulsory subjects, including math, philology and foreign languages, and one optional subject.

Urban students believe that foreign language should be either a compulsory or optional exam subject, because foreign languages are very useful for their future jobs. Meanwhile, the students in rural areas, who do not have good opportunities enough to learn foreign languages, feel happy that they can avoid the “unfriendly” subject.

Van Chung