Consider eliminating early university admissions

Many experts believe that this draft will create unfairness in the admission process, making the admission process more complicated, increasing virtual candidates, and candidates will have to wait a long time while they may have all the factors to be admitted early... In response to this concern, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son said that when considering early university admission, schools do it independently and when the Ministry conducts a joint admission, the situation of virtual candidates arises.

Mr. Son said that each school and each industry cannot predict the virtual rate, leading to schools wanting to consider admission early to meet the quota or have many early admission quotas, leading to uncertain determination of admission quotas and benchmark scores.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son answers reporters' questions. Photo: DX

According to Mr. Son, the Ministry of Education and Training as well as other ministries and branches when amending legal documents are based on legal grounds as well as practice. Through the process of implementing the admission regulations for many years, the Ministry also monitors and listens to the opinions of experts and insiders to directly carry out the recruitment work with schools and Departments of Education and Training directly managing education at the general level.

The Deputy Minister of Education and Training affirmed that the most important rule in education is fairness and quality. Besides, it is to improve efficiency as well as create favorable conditions for candidates: "Specifically, yesterday (December 6), we also organized a frank and open discussion, with the participation of about 50 experts, who directly work in recruitment and training at higher education institutions. The opinions of the experts are in full agreement with the draft of the Ministry".

Explaining further about this draft, Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son said that the starting point of early university admission was 6-7 years ago. Before that, all admissions were conducted centrally after candidates had their high school graduation exam results. Since 2017, some training institutions have started early admissions based on academic records or other achievements.

According to Mr. Son, when a training institution organizes early admission, other institutions also race to gain a competitive advantage: "When everyone races, everyone is struggling. Training institutions have to prepare from the beginning of the year for admission, collect application documents, and students in grade 12 have to run around to take the certificate exam and prepare their application documents. Everyone is struggling, but the results are not high. There are 8 successful admission wishes in early admission, but only 1 is admitted; or there are 2 candidates who are admitted early, but only 1 is admitted later."

The Deputy Minister further explained that the benchmark scores will often be lowered to be able to recruit more people, therefore, the admission rate cannot be predicted and the virtual rate is very large. The Deputy Minister also cited evidence that in recent years, the benchmark scores in the general round of some industries have skyrocketed.

"There was a candidate with 25 points who was admitted to this major, but the standard score for admission later was 26 points. Meanwhile, if the admission had been considered earlier, the candidate would have been admitted. The unfairness leads to the quality not being guaranteed," said Mr. Son.

The leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training also commented that because of the early admission, students who have not yet completed the high school graduation program have been admitted, which also creates unfairness. Those who have the conditions can study early, study early, and complete the first semester program, but most of them have to finish the program by May. Thus, the admission score based on the students' academic results is uneven, also creating unfairness.

Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son said that the negative impact on teaching and learning in general education is that many students have the mentality that they have already passed the entrance exam so they do not care about studying anymore, they just go to class to sit around. Many students entering grade 10 of specialized schools are almost assured of being admitted and do not focus on comprehensive learning, studying subjects that are really necessary for future training. Therefore, the quality of general education has a negative impact, leading to the quality of university training later being affected, when students do not prepare a good foundation.

"It is possible to consider eliminating early admission. From these shortcomings, the Ministry of Education and Training has drawn from many years of practice, listening directly to opinions from insiders to make adjustments. When reducing the early admission rate, only those students with truly outstanding abilities will be admitted directly. Students focus on the general admission round to ensure fairness, quality as well as efficiency and convenience," said the Deputy Minister, adding that he will consider keeping 20% ​​or eliminating early admission to include it in the general admission.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training has also prepared a complete database of school transcript scores, high school graduation exam scores, competency assessment scores, thinking assessment scores, etc. of schools. At that time, schools will only consider the scores, and students will be assured to finish grade 12 and choose their wishes, choose the right major, and the right school on the system. From there, it will create convenience and efficiency for all, towards a transparent, fair, quality, effective, and convenient education system.

Source: https://vov.vn/xa-hoi/co-the-can-nhac-viec-bo-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-som-post1140573.vov