Vietnam - Educators suspect sky-high exam pass rates

Local educators question the reliability of the dramatic results of the national high school graduation exam released Saturday by many local eduation departments.

A lot of provinces and cities, including ones in highland and border areas where learning conditions are extremely unfavorable, unveiled a near-perfect pass rate, with many schools reporting 100 percent of their students passed the exam.

Hoa Binh, a nothern moutainous province, announced a 99 percent pass rate, up 2 percentage points from last year, according to Nguyen Minh Thanh, director of the local Department of Education and Training.

The number of passes rose between 5 and 7 percentage points to almost 98 percent in two other northern border provinces, Lao Cai and Lai Chau, while 98.24 percent of candidates in Hanoi made it at the exam, which brought the capital a 0.55 percentage point increase.

Can Tho, the capital city of the Mekong Delta, published a 1.88 percent surge to a 99.62 percent pass rate, with 16 high schools achieving a maximum rate, whereas the central province of Binh Dinh reached a similar successful percentage, accomplishing a 2.7 percent rise year on year.

Nearly 98 percent of students in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak succeeded in the exam, earning the locality a significant hike of 8.53 percentage points.

Meanwhile, two southern economic hubs Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai also posted remarkable pass rates of 98.18 percent and 99.6 percent, which led to an annual surge of 1.48 percentage points and 4.26 percentage points, respectively.

Given those figures, Dr Nguyen Cam, of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy, wonders if they are real indicators of improvement in education quality because pass rates merely revolved around 70 percent 5 years ago when the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) took strong measures to prevent exam cheating or leniency.

The percentage has sharply risen year after year after MoET started ‘softening’ the measures, Dr Cam says.

“A slight increase in pass rates would result from really strenuous efforts by both teachers and students,” he says.

Dr Pham Thi Ly, from the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, labels the above impressive percentages “dubious,” pointing out a shocking scandal in the northern province of Bac Giang where proctors were caught on tape watching and helping candidates cheat on the exam.

“We are not sure if there is not any deception in those statistics,” she says.

Another educator, Le Thi Thanh Thao who is based in HCMC, says many teachers told her that proctors in some provinces and cities did read answers to candidates while leniency was rampant during the exam.

“I think the ministry has known of this ugly truth for a long time but MoET chooses to ignore it,” Thao complains.

Generally administered by MoET, the graduation exam began on June 2 and ended two days later, with almost 1 million 12th-graders sitting for it.

TUOI TRE

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