Minister of Education stated the reason for the necessity of maintaining the high school exam.

Reasons for maintaining high school exams

On the afternoon of September 29, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son reported on receiving and explaining opinions of full-time National Assembly deputies, giving opinions on projects related to the education sector.

The Minister affirmed that the construction and amendment of this period is in the spirit of only regulating the contents under the authority of the National Assembly , and not regulating the contents under the authority of the Government.

“In the process of preparing the draft law, we have cut a lot of articles. For example, the Law on Higher Education has cut up to 26 articles, aiming to reduce 55% of administrative procedures compared to the old law; or the Law on Vocational Education has also reduced 37 articles and reduced up to 36% of administrative procedures,” Mr. Son informed.

*Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son. Photo: QH*

According to the Minister, such a large reduction may cause a feeling of lack of detail for some contents. However, Mr. Son affirmed that he will consider and add some principled points in some important contents, as a basis for preparing decrees and other documents.

For example, regarding the opinions that want to regulate the autonomy of higher education institutions, according to him, the old law stipulates very detailed regulations so the drafting committee will consider this point. On that basis, it is possible to add a few principles and it is expected that there will be a separate decree regulating the autonomy of higher education institutions.

Regarding the high school exam, according to the Minister, maintaining this exam is extremely necessary at this point. In addition to checking whether students have met the graduation standards or not, the exam is also the basis for objective assessment of how students have met the standards, how well they have met the standard requirements...

“The exam is not only for students to meet graduation standards, nor is it only a basis for admission to universities and colleges, but it is also a basis for making policies and adjusting policies for the entire general education system, not just the story of graduation. Therefore, at this time, we consider that organizing the high school graduation exam is very necessary,” the Minister affirmed.

“We have devoted some contents to ensure the transition to the issue of not organizing a school council, to ensure that higher education institutions can operate continuously without interruption. Then there are contents on the transition to the compilation of textbooks. We will also review this,” said Minister Nguyen Kim Son.

Universities can train at college level.

In response to delegates' concerns about the regulation that universities can organize training at other levels, the Minister said that during the process of drafting the law, the drafting agency had carefully considered this.

*The Minister affirmed the need to maintain the high school exam.*

According to Mr. Son, in the past, some universities had training at college level and vocational education levels. “We see this as necessary, because in the articulation, a university can train at many different levels,” Mr. Son emphasized.

In fact, many higher education institutions are still providing general education training at specialized schools as well as vocational schools. However, the Minister noted that if this practice is not controlled and expanded massively, it could have an impact on the overall system of vocational schools.

“Therefore, in principle, we should open up in the direction that universities can train at college level and other levels of vocational education, but only for some fields where universities (in the field of technology, engineering) or some other specific specialized fields can promote very high advantages,” Mr. Son stated his opinion.

The “industry commander” gave an example: in the past, the Polytechnic University had a Polytechnic College and the training efficiency was very good. But since the two sectors of university education and vocational education were divided into two ministries, universities were not allowed to train vocational issues. That reduced the interconnectivity in the system.

“We plan to have regulations for strict supervision; not all higher education institutions are allowed to provide vocational training. Training is only carried out in some schools and in some fields, and this will be regulated in more detail,” said Minister Nguyen Kim Son.