VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has once again tried to reform the high school examination and has, once again, met with dissatisfaction from students and teachers.

The 2016 high school exam is expected to take place in mid-June 2016 instead of late June or early July. However, students don’t like the new schedule designed by MOET because they fear they will not have enough time to prepare for the exam.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, a 12th grader at the Phu Quoc High School in Kien Giang province, said if the finals take place on June 13, 14 and 15, or 20 days earlier than usual, students won’t have enough time for the exam preparation.

“The second-semester exam will only take place in May, and if the high school finals take in mid-June, we will bear hard pressure,” she said. “This will badly affect our feelings.’

Hang also said she was worried about the English test. Hang and a lot of other 12th graders nationwide follow the trial English teaching program with a teaching method which is quite different from the familiar one. 

According to Hang, under the program, students must get used to a new curriculum which focuses on providing skills, not on grammar. Meanwhile, the exam questions would still focus on grammar exercise as usual. Therefore, Hang fears she would not get high marks from the English test.

Le Hoang Huy, a 12th grader of Tinh Bien High School, also said that the policies change so regularly that students don’t have time to adapt to new circumstances.

“We feel stressed after hearing that the high school finals would take place 20 days earlier than usual. We are afraid we won’t have enough time to prepare for the exam,” Huy said.

For the 2014-2015 academic year, Vietnamese students attend the 2-in-1 exam instead of two separate exams – high school finals and university entrance exam.

Le Thanh Van, headmaster of the Phu Quoc High School, said in Tien Phong newspaper that teachers and students can only begin preparing for the finals after they finish the 12th curriculum. 

As requested by MOET, teaching will finish in May, which means that they will not have time to review for the exam. 

iOne, a website for teenagers, quoted students complaining that the new 3-day high school schedule is more stressful than the current 4-day exam.

Thanh Giap, a student of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School in HCM City, said that she prefers the 4-day exam schedule. 

“If someone takes history and geography tests, he will have a very busy and stressful day,” she explained.

CV