VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City education authorities have decided to ease the pressure on children in first grade by having teachers merely remark about their performance and no longer mark their exercises and test papers.

HCM City education authorities have decided to ease the pressure on children in first grade by having teachers merely remark about their performance and no longer mark their exercises and test papers.— Photo sggp

The Department of Education and Training said the new system, a Ministry of Education and Training scheme, would be tried on an experimental basis this school year and become law in future.

It is still not mandatory for teachers not to score test papers, but they can no longer inform the children's families about the scores.

The periodic tests that first grade children had been taking until the last school year have been replaced by just one at the end of the year.

Le Hong Son, the department director, said: "Parents usually let their children learn maths and to read and write at four to five hoping to prepare their children for first-grade when they turn six.

"Every parent hopes their child is not inferior to their classmates and gets good grades at school.

"Not giving students grades will help ease pressure on parents, who send their children to extra classes if they get low grades. That in return put pressure on students."

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diem, a teacher at Nguyen Thai Hoc Primary School in District 1, approved of the new system, saying that instead of giving scores, teachers would comment on their performance and encourage them to do better if they fail to do well.

Students with low grades are usually upset and their interest in learning diminishes, she said.

Her school would measure children's performance with flowers of different colours instead, which do not affect them mentally, she said.

Source: VNS