Vietnam to Lower Pressure of Next High School Exam: Minister

Vietnam’s national high school graduation-university entrance exam in 2019 will not be harsh and put push much pressure on learners, said Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha at the national online conference on May 14 on preparation for the exam, state media reported. The local newswire VnExpress expressed its concern about on the quality of the exam contents. The exam in 2017 was regarded as easy with 4,235 scores of ten (on scale of ten). The ministry changed the approach to hard exam in 2018 and the exam had only 477 scores of ten. Minister Nha vowed to bring a suitable difficulty to the exam for both purposes of graduation and university entrance. At the event, representatives of 63 localities informed that they basically completed the preparation and stand ready for the exam. Notably, three provinces of the infamous grade cheating exam last year, namely Hoa Binh, Ha Giang, and Son La, noted that they will not make mistakes this year. The national high school exam this year is scheduled to take place on June 24-27. Among 818,774 examinees, down 4.3% y/y, universities and colleges aim to recruit 489,637 students, up 7.6% y/y. Meanwhile, 279,001 (27.8%) others registered for graduation only. (Nhan Dan, Tin Tuc, Bao Chinh Phu, Bao Chinh Phu, VietnamNet, moet, VnExpress, Giao Duc Thoi Dai)