Thoroughly grasp the subjectivity when organizing high school graduation exams

In just two days, the 2024 High School Graduation Exam will officially take place. Ahead of the exam, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong, Head of the National Steering Committee for the exam, talked about preparations and notes on exam organization.

Ready for the exam

-Dear Deputy Minister, High School Graduation Exam2024 iskexam of the last batch of students studying under the 2006 general education program.So how is the exam organized this year?Is there anything different from previous years?

-In terms of scale and nature, the 2024 High School Graduation Exam is completely no different from previous years. The exam will still be held nationwide with more than one million candidates taking the exam at the same time and with the same exam questions. In terms of organization, the exam will basically remain stable as in the 2020-2023 period.

The purpose of the exam remains unchanged. The exam results serve the purpose of high school graduation, serve as a basis for university and college admissions, and assess the quality of management, teaching and learning at educational institutions.

Similar to every year, with its important, complex and sensitive nature, the exam always receives great attention from society. Units and individuals assigned to organize the exam also make every effort to organize the exam safely, seriously, thoughtfully and effectively. This year, all levels, sectors, localities and each personnel assigned to conduct the exam have been making the same efforts. The best conditions are being directed towards candidates so that they can confidently participate in the exam.

-Only two days left, the exam will officially take place. NowPreparations for the exam have been carried out by the Ministry.Education and Training, thebHow do ministries, branches and localities implement this, Deputy Minister?

-2024 is the year when preparations for the High School Graduation Exam will not only be early but also very proactive. Compared to previous years, the system of documents guiding the 2024 exam such as the Prime Minister's Directive, plans, regulations, and instructions of the Ministry of Education and Training and relevant ministries, branches, and agencies will be issued earlier. This is the basis for provinces/cities to proactively carry out preparations locally.

Through actual inspection, localities have prepared for the exam early and from afar. Localities have proactively issued a system of directive and guidance documents; established exam steering committees from provincial to district levels, clearly assigned responsibilities and carefully inspected and reviewed; proactively strengthened facilities and equipment to ensure the best for the exam. Localities have also been proactive in professional and technical work; in particular, training work has been seriously implemented with the spirit that all cadres participating in the exam must be trained and at the same time proactive in communication work, communicating correctly, sufficiently and promptly.

One of the things that localities and schools have done very well is supporting candidates. Not only supporting them in reviewing and consolidating knowledge to achieve the desired results in the exam, but the care also includes small things such as collecting phone numbers of many people in the candidate's family so that in case the candidate is late, there will be a plan to pick them up or knowing each candidate who lives far away to support transportation to the exam site.

Especially for candidates with difficult circumstances and disadvantaged candidates, localities have plans to support them both materially and spiritually so that they can confidently participate in the exam.

When inspecting localities, I always emphasize: The more carefully and thoroughly prepared, the smoother the implementation. And up to this point, it can be affirmed that the preparation for the 2024 High School Graduation Exam has been carried out carefully, thoroughly, closely and comprehensively by the Ministry of Education and Training, ministries, branches and localities.

The whole country is ready to organize a safe, serious, and regulated exam. However, with a large-scale exam, which is complex and sensitive like the High School Graduation Exam, I hope that localities will thoroughly grasp the spirit of not being negligent, subjective, and using experience to perform tasks better. Relying only on experience can easily lead to subjectivity and mistakes; it is necessary to continue to carefully review the conditions, content, tasks, and especially have a backup scenario, so that in any situation, we will not be passive.

Coordinate high-tech fraud prevention

-One of the issues that has been mentioned many times in recent years and continues to be mentioned many times this year is the prevention of exam cheating, especially high-tech devices. Does the Deputy Minister have any advice for the Examination Councils of 63 provinces/cities on this issue?

-We all know that in the context of today's technological development, it is inevitable that more and more sophisticated devices will appear - not only for cheating on exams but also for many other activities. Our problem is to do a good job of prevention.

Over the past years, preventing exam cheating using high-tech equipment has been considered by exam steering committees at all levels as one of the important tasks that must be carried out carefully from the preparation stage, in which the active coordination role of the police force has been very effective.

In order to detect and prevent cheating devices, the Ministry of Education and Training has coordinated with functional units of the Ministry of Public Security to train all exam staff. Next, the police of provinces/cities continue to train teachers and staff working in the locality on identifying high-tech devices and the risks that candidates may use them.

We identify prevention, identification, and containment as the main tasks, while continuing to emphasize human work. No matter how widespread high-tech devices for cheating are nowadays, the most important thing is still to choose people, while at the same time doing a good job of communication so that candidates clearly understand the seriousness of being discovered cheating and strictly handle cases of intentional violations.

Currently, the Ministry of Public Security and the Public Security of 63 provinces/cities are closely coordinating with the education sector to effectively prevent cheating in exams using high-tech devices in this year's graduation exam.

-This year's exam is the examRegarding the last batch of students studying under the 2006 general education program, what would the Deputy Minister like to share with the students and the staff and teachers working on the exam this year?

-For every student, the High School Graduation Exam is always very important when ending the high school journey, opening up the career journey and higher. In recent days, when checking the reality in the localities, I have witnessed many efforts of teachers and students to review in the "sprint" stage with the hope of having good results in this exam.

With a few days left until the official exam, I wish all students good health and confidence to enter the exam with the best results. The Government, the Ministry of Education and Training, together with ministries, branches and localities, have been preparing the best conditions for students to confidently participate in the exam. Students should pay attention to reviewing according to the instructions of teachers and strictly follow the exam regulations to achieve the desired results.

For the staff and teachers on duty at this year's exam, I hope that you will properly and fully implement the content that has been trained and instructed. The task of creating a safe, serious, fair, friendly and humane exam is being placed on the shoulders of the teachers, I hope that the teachers will do their best in this task.

Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!