VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has determined a new examination mechanism, under which, 99.9 percent of high school students can pass the final exams.

Professor Van Nhu Cuong, a well-known educator, believes that nearly 100 percent of students would pass the finals this year thanks to the “examination revolution” initiated by MOET.

Instead of having six compulsory exam subjects, including three fixed and three others MOET determines two months before the exam dates, high school students now only have four exam subjects, including two compulsory and two optional.

Cuong said that the easier examination mechanism would certainly lead to higher exam results. If noting that 98 percent of students passed the exams in 2013, the rate would be 99.9 percent this year.

Especially, high school students this year can be “saved” by a special lifebuoy – their GPA (grade point average). Under the old mechanism, students would certainly fail the exams if they got the exam average points at below 5.

With the new mechanism, the students short of the pass marks may still be let through if they have good GPA record.

A student, for example, would still pass the exam if he gets 3-4 marks for every exam subject, if his GPA is 6 or 7. Meanwhile, it is clear to everyone that it is easy to obtain the GPA of 6-7 at the 12th grade.

Whether a student is recognized as graduating from high school would be determined after calculating their exam marks and their learning records: (average exam mark + GPA)/ 2.

It is clear that the formula would help upgrade the exam results and that the more the MOET renovates the examination mechanism, the more students would pass the finals.

Cuong said he could not understand why MOET has to brainstorm to find out an exam mechanism if it is sure that all the students would pass the exams.

Dang Dinh Dai, Headmaster of Wellspring High School in Hanoi, has warned that the new exam mechanism may prepare the ground for students and teachers to make wrongdoings.

Teachers may give high marks to weak students at school in order to help students obtain high GPA, which would “save” them in case their exam results are too bad.

Dai said he can foresee that the students’ GPA would be increasingly high in the next years. The school reports would be “fabricated” to show good learning records of students.

“This would raise the doubts among the public about the education quality and the objectiveness of the schools’ assessments,” he said.

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, also a well-known educator in Vietnam, has also warned that the renovation may “do more harm than good.”

“I am afraid that we will not have reliable exam results if MOET decides to consider the students’ learning records at the 12th grade, while still organizing the finals in the same way it followed in the past,” Lam said.

“It would be better not to let teachers determine the fates of their students,” he said.

Thanh Mai