Cramming to graduate
28-APR-2008 Intellasia | 24/Apr/2008 Thanh nien
Apr 28, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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The value of inundating Vietnamese high school students with homework and reviews prior to important exams is questioned by parents and administrators alike.
Leaving school at nearly 10 p.m., T., a twelfth-grade student at Pham Ngu Lao High School in HCM City, said that ever since March she often attended classes from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then stayed until 9 or 10 p.m. for additional tutoring at school with her teachers.
Showing notes eight pages long, she said, "This is the summary of three physics chapters, tonight we have to learn them all by heart to recite to our teachers tomorrow."
T.'s situation is not an exception but rather the rule.
A host of students across the city have been kept at school late in preparation for the upcoming high school graduation exams.
According to some students, they are not allowed to leave school until they have memorised all the assigned lessons.
"If the students cannot memorise lessons, they are required to stay until 11 p.m. or midnight!" said a concerned parent.
Pham Ngu Lao, in fact, is just one of many high schools that are extending their instructional hours and pushing students to review for exams in a practice that is controversial for parents and administrators alike.
Steep learning curve
In preparation for graduation exams, District 4-based Nguyen Trai High School had increased the daily teaching periods for history, biology and physics after the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
The school also arranged daily subjects' recitation times from 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. every Monday to Saturday for its 15 twelfth-grade classes.
"The increase in review time and recitation periods will help students improve self-studying and self-systematisation of knowledge," said school principal Ngo Tuong Dai.
However, some parents who live far from the school have complained about its early start.
"I live in District 7, so I have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to take my daughter to school everyday," said one parent.
The routine is consistent at other citywide schools like Ly Thuong Kiet High School in Hoc Mon District, where school heads have asked students who under performed during semester exams to remain each afternoon for recitation and to attend evening tutoring sessions.
Due to the heavy schedule, students report not having adequate meals or rest.
"I can hardly open my eyes during the night class," said a student.
"I almost have no idea about my surrounding environment anymore, since I have to study constantly at school," a student of the Ba Diem High School lamented.
"We need sufficient rest so that we can acquire knowledge, please!"
Pressure cooker
Discussing the strained practice of cramming information, HCM City Department of Education and Training vice director Nguyen Hoai Chuong said, "It is right to prepare twelfth-grade students for graduation and university entrance exams, but the plan should be designed on scientific bases to ensure students' health and be adaptive to their competency levels."
Chuong suggested that extra classes should be applied to students in accordance with their learning capacity, such as focusing on tutoring for struggling students while raising the academic abilities of high achievers.
Students with poor learning capacity should be tutored by a teacher at school or at home.
Additionally, they should be taught how to understand and analyse problems, rather than be forced to memorise subjects word by word, he said.
According to Chuong, it is not a long-term solution for schools to emphasize compulsory exam subjects by intensifying the curricula in the short-term and forcing students to attend recitation periods at night.
The practice serves simply as a Band-Aid for schools that are worried that under performing students will diminish the institutions' reputation, and actually circumvents real education.
He revealed the department has inspected 24 high schools, one-third of the total number of high schools in the city, and discovered that violations mainly occurred at schools with previous problems related to teaching quality and teacher shortage.
"If there is any problem, the department will ask them to correct immediately," Chuong said, adding that his agency will hold meetings with particular schools that are forcing students to study excessively and fine them in accordance with their violation.
This year's high school graduation exams are scheduled to take place over three days starting May 28, with six compulsory subjects— mathematics, literature, foreign languages, physics, biology and history.
After passing the exams, students will go on to take the university entrance exam in early July.
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