LookAtVietnam – Final exams last for three days and cover six exam subjects. These tests cost a lot of money, burdening society and families

Final exams last for three days and cover six exam subjects. These tests cost a lot of money, burdening society and families, so some are questioning whether or not something can be done to save on the huge expenditures.

Exam prep centres for fun, romance and relaxation

High schools gearing up for final exams

High school students racing against time for final exams

A mother brings her daughter to exam room

Exams cost money, burden families

Saigon tiep thi reporters met Huynh Thi Bich Huyen on the second exam day in front of Vo Thi Sau High School waiting for her son to finish his exam. Her son, a student of Gia Dinh High School, goes to extra classes every day, which costs one million dong a month.

Tu Ngoc Em, who has a daughter at Hoang Hoa Tham High School, also calculated that his daughter’s extra classes cost two million dong a month.

“I cannot understand why she has to work so hard, Em complained. “When I was a student, I never had to attend extra classes and therefore, my parents did not spend much money on my education. Students nowadays have too much to learn, but they do not know what they will do with what they have learned.”

Vu Khac Minh, HCM City, estimated that he spends 5 million dong on his son’s studying each month. Now he must pay another two million dong to prepare his son for finals.

Parents who live in the countryside and send their children to school in HCM City carry a heavy burden. Bui Van Vu’s son studies at Nguyen Khuyen Private School and must pay 9 million dong a month. “Our responsibility is to pay for his education, but it is too costly nowadays to cover all expenses,” he lamented.

Most parents who send children to city schools are farm workers who want their children to have a better life. They are ready to do anything that allows their children to study well.

Other parents confirmed that their children’s education costs no less than nine million dong a month, a sum that does not include other expenditures such as traveling to the city to visit their children.

Huynh Thi Be from Long An is proud of her son, who is studying at Le Hong Phong Gifted School, because the son studies so well that he has received a scholarship. Be still must shell out 4-5 million dong a month to cover his basic needs and tuition. Be wishes that students did not have finals. “If so, it would lift a burden off the shoulders of poor people and reduce spending,” she asserted.

Final exams not only cost families, but society as well. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, one million students will attend final exams this year, so thousands of trillion dong need to be spent to hold the exams. Le Van Linh, Headmaster of Thanh Binh High School, revealed said that the school must hire six buses to carry students to exam rooms at a cost of 21.6 million dong.

How to reduce expenses?

According to Linh, if examining institutions organized 3-4 exams every year to grant high school degrees instead of one national exam, this would ease the burden on society.

Other educators suggested that it is not necessary to organize university entrance exams. Universities should consider the students’ score boards to decide whether or not to admit them.

In general, Linh asserted that exams should be organized only by universities that enroll students for key national study branches.

It is also necessary to reconsider curricula and give career advice to students soon, so that they can decide if they will go to vocational schools or continue on to study at universities.

Currently, only 80 percent of students pass the final exams, and 20 percent of those pass university entrance exams.

Source: Saigon tiep thi