VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training’s decision to require teachers to assess student work with comments rather than grades has met with opposition.

Teachers say the new assessment method is “reasonable, but difficult to implement” and “good, but unsuitable to the current conditions”.

After one semester of applying the new assessment method at primary schools nationwide, students have become lazier and teachers overloaded, while parents find it difficult to control their children’s study.

Ngo Gia Vo, head of the primary education faculty of Thai Nguyen University’s Pedagogy School, noted that the new method has placed a heavy burden on primary school teachers.

Many teachers complain that they have to spend day and night writing comments on students’ school works and learning records.

“Imagine if there are only one or two teachers in the subjects in every school, and they have to give comments to thousands of students,” he said.

Vo, who spoke to hundreds of teachers and primary school managers about the new marking scheme, said that educators were working harder and were more stressed than ever before.

Parents have not applauded the new assessment method set by MOET, though they were told that their children would suffer less pressure at school.

Tran Hanh Hoa, a banking officer, noted that her daughter had become lazier recently.

The problem, he said, is that she knows she will not receive bad marks, and therefore, thinks she does not need to study.

Hoa also complained that she finds it more difficult to control her daughter’s study because of the lack of information.

“The teacher only gives general comments, like ‘you need to make more effort’, or ‘you need to practice writing more’. Meanwhile, I want to know exactly how good my daughter is at school.”

The parent emphasized that the family plays a very important role in educating children, so, once parents lack information about their children, they will not be able to work well with teachers.

Vo, on the one hand, agrees with MOET that comment-based assessment can help ease pressure on students, but on the other hand, warned that this may spoil students if they do not have a reason to compete with each other.

The education expert noted that MOET’s officials “were too hasty to apply the assessment method in Vietnam, though it is considered ‘advanced’ in other countries”.

“By hurrying to apply a new mechanism without thorough consideration, MOET has used tens of thousands of students and teachers as ‘guinea-pigs’. This will cause immeasurable consequences,” Vo wrote in a letter to Giao Duc Viet Nam newspaper.

Kim Chi