Minister of Education dialogues with mountainous students

During a working trip to Ha Giang, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan directly answered questions about textbook innovation and the national high school exam .

On the afternoon of May 12, Minister Pham Vu Luan had a talk and discussion with teachers and students of Ha Giang province at the Yen Minh district secondary and high school. The Minister directly answered questions from teachers and students about the national high school exam and curriculum and textbook innovation.

Below is the content of the exchange:

Minister presents gifts to children at Lung Cu kindergarten. Photo: HT

- What is the main task of renewing the textbook program?

- The most important content of this educational innovation is not the innovation of the curriculum and textbooks, but that is just one of many contents that need to be innovated. The most important point of innovation is to shift education from focusing on one-way knowledge transfer to skill development. Teachers go to class to re-teach the curriculum in textbooks for students to remember and grasp, and at the same time help them form skills and qualities, such as the skills to listen to teachers, society, and listen to different opinions...

Teachers must gradually become advisors, guiding students to self-study and group study, thereby developing presentation skills, listening, receptiveness, teamwork, self-research, and self-improvement.

The Ministry is innovating the way of testing to innovate the way of teaching. Specifically, the Ministry has changed the graduation and university exams, not requiring students to learn by heart or mechanically, so in recent years there have been fewer exam preparation centers. These are big changes. In fact, we have innovated.

Therefore, schools must quickly adapt to these changes. The Ministry has set up a forum to exchange experiences on innovative teaching and learning methods, to help teachers access and exchange experiences with each other. Giving the order to shoot is easy, anyone can do it, the important thing is to carry it out, so the entire education sector must work together.

Minister discusses innovation in national high school exams.  Photo: HT

- In previous years, continuing education students took the same exam as high school students, but the exam papers and exam rooms were separate. In 2015, there is no longer any distinction, the exam papers are the same, making students worried. What advice does the Minister have for these students?

- The children are completely equal and confident like high school students. The Ministry also has a policy of actively dividing and creating conditions for the children to learn a trade.

Although the learning conditions at the Continuing Education Center are not favorable, it may be more difficult for students than their high school peers. However, I have directed the exam committee to calculate how to make the exam suitable for all candidates. Therefore, students studying Continuing Education can rest assured, focus on reviewing, and try their best to complete the exam.

- The sample exam papers issued by the Ministry before were quite difficult, there were some questions that we could do without teacher guidance. We hope there will be a set of questions suitable for students from each region?

- This year's exam has two goals: to consider graduation and to serve as a basis for schools to recruit students. In previous years, there were 4 exams, graduation, 2 university entrance exams with very difficult questions and 1 college entrance exam. This year, there will only be 1 exam, so there will be very difficult questions. If you are only taking the graduation exam and going to vocational school, you can rest assured because the exam is still guaranteed to pass for students with average academic ability. In previous years, it took a lot of time, but this year, it only took 1.5 hours to finish the average questions.

The questions will not be riddles, will not require memorization, like History will not require stating how many enemies were captured, how many guns were confiscated... but will increase the number of questions requiring creative thinking.

Minister Luan visited and asked Lung Cu Border Guard to encourage students to go to school. Photo: HT.

- In order for students to do well on the exam, the school has organized review sessions, but this is an exam implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training, so the review assignment process is still confusing. Could you please give me some advice, Minister?

- The exam is calculated to reduce the workload and difficulties of students and parents, and schools have to work a little harder. The principle is that teachers, managers, and localities have to work harder to reduce difficulties and costs for students. If last year, students had to take the university entrance exam at least twice: once in the countryside, once in the city, and their parents took them there, now they only have to take the exam once, a little further than the graduation exam but closer than the university entrance exam.

Previously, we had to take many exams, now we can take one exam in 3 hours. Candidates have more choices because before, they registered for schools before taking the exam, now they know their scores after the exam and then they can register for admission. Candidates benefit and their parents have less difficulty.

The exam, the exam model consists of 2 parts as in the illustration, the way of making questions is the same as the graduation exam and university entrance exam of last year, some questions will be a little bit different. The exam will no longer require memorization but will enhance creativity and memory. So there is nothing difficult except the new way of doing things, so there is no need to worry.

- How can we be confident when this is the first year of organizing the national high school exam , Minister?

- I came from the countryside to Ha Dong town to take the high school exam. I went in the afternoon, the uncles left me in a local's house, and in the evening the director of the Department invited me out to reward me with a fountain pen. After receiving the award, I didn't know the way home because I didn't know whose house I was staying at or what his name was. I went around and around but couldn't find him. The police saw me and let me get on my bike, and I asked around a bit before I found my boarding house.

I tell the above story to show that everyone has confusion, the important thing is to be confident then you will definitely get good results.