[Vnbiz] One third Vietnam high school students fail graduation exams

[Dyung Le]

Dear CCCA,

Lost in this entire discussion is something that puzzles me, except for anh 
Hoang's point. "How was the change in exam style being introduced and 
implemented?"

My assumption is that this is a very important annual exam that students 
studied for. Thus I assume that there were plenty of consultation, 
preparation, planning, test exams, etc.

A change in exam format, grading criteria, content is not an unusual event. 
In the US, that happens every 6-10 years for most major exams. The most 
widespread recent change was the addition of English essay in the US high 
school SAT test 2 year ago. I'm aware of other changes in the CPA exam this 
year.

Whenever these happens, there are plenty of sample exams, test trials, 
statistics, study, etc. If needs be, the exam grades are renormalized to 
accounbt for the unavoidable variation, so you can still have as close to an 
apple-to-apple comparison before and after the changes as possible.

So I'm truly mystified that the result of the changes in the exam in VN 
seemed to have caught everybody, students, administration, teachers, parents 
by surprise. Either the entire student population are idiots, which is of 
course non-sense. Or the entire Educational administration are incompetent, 
which is such incredible indictment that it could not possibly be true.

Since I can't explain it, I'm sure I'm missing something. But what is it?

Best,

Dyung Le


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Tran Dinh Hoanh" <tdhoanh at gmail.com>
Reply-To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
Subject: Re: [Vnbiz] One third Vietnam high school students fail 
graduationexams for cheating
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:23:50 -0400

[ Vietnam Business Forum ]



Dear Huong & CACC,

Of course, the entire world know that cheating was rampant in Vietnam.  They
even had a huge profitable industry for that.  so what is the surprise at
the number of people who cheat?

But, can we try to see things deeper when things don't feel right?

1.  Can you see that there is an official line from the educational
officials that use the flunking rate as the cheating rate and as the 
*evidence
of victory* on the war on cheating?  In other words, the higher the flunking
rate is, the better the victory on the war on cheating.  It means, the
education officials have a vested interest in a high flunking rate.  That
self-interest (which creates *conflict of interest*) makes the causes of
flunking rate questionable.

Here are other problems:

2.  Using the flunking students as as the evidence of victory is exactly the
"body count" that General Westmoreland used during the US-VN War.

3.  There is no question by the Ministry of Education and Training or the
media *why the students couldn't do better*.  The "war on cheating" has been
going on for a year. That means they had one year to prepare the students to
be better for test.  Why didn't they use that year to prepare the students
better for the exams, instead making them flunked?

Of course, all of my saying here is hypothetical, and it may be completely
wrong.  But shouldn't we question more closely when things don't look right
and don't sound right, instead of simply accepting the official line at face
value?

After all, the way things go:  The education establishment claims victory on
the war on cheating, the students end up being the victims.  Can we see that
it is not right?

Why are we so afraid of looking deeper into things?

Have a great day!

Hoanh

On 6/19/07, huong luong <huongluongdc at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>[ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>
>In all honesty, I agree with anh Phong.  I don't understand why some CACC
>sound surprised about this if you did go to school in VN after 1975.
>
>from my personal experience, I had changed so many schools and classes (3
>schools, 5 classes during elemetary, 2 classes in HS, 3 classes in 
>College),
>being in "gifted student class" to " evil student class"...yes, schools 
>kept
>moving me from "an evil class" with  all bad students or "not-so smart"
>ones because my parents knew nobody in school and simply agreed to let me 
>in
>any class, then they had to move me into "a gifted class" because they need
>students to attend academic competitions, and it is humiliating to "gifted
>students" if they have to pick up a student from "the evil class" :))
>
>Then they had to move me back because my dad (after seeing me cry for
>missing my old friends who were just playful kids, a lot of fun and better
>attitude about life, not spoiled and less selfish, more helpful, not just
>focused on competition and boring like some smart students or rich kids in
>the other class, or as poor as I was) kept asking the school to move me 
>back
>to my old dear class. Then they decided to move me into the gifted class 
>for
>the last 2 years of my secondary school for good b/c it's the school'
>demand. huh!
>
>coming back to the main topic of cheating habit, there are two types of
>cheating: self-cheating means students did the cheating acts directly in
>exams, and directed-cheating means going to tutor/review sessions before 
>the
>exams and paying your teachers some "compensation", you might have a great
>chance to guess what would be on the exam. The latter one is less risky, 
>but
>more expensive.
>
>I have seen so many kids cheating in exams during my school time, normally
>more than 50% even in "gifted classes". Smarter and richer ones did the
>directed way, the poorer and less sophiticated did the other. I could
>say that I pretty much did not cheat at all during my ES and SS because I
>did very well in those schools, but I helped others cheat by sharing or
>telling the answers....it was my retaliations toward
>school attitude/discrimination toward students in " the evil class"...yes, 
>I
>want to make sure my classmates do well, to make my master teacher happy 
>who
>was very nice to us, and not to be beatened up after school as well. (I did
>regret about that now, but well, I was just a kid). To be fair with
>outstanding students, maybe this is only portion of students who never
>cheat, but there are not many of them everywhere, right?.
>
>Going thru ES and SS smoothly, I had no need to cheat. HS overloaded me
>more with preparations for the entrance exams into universities. of course,
>I was disattracted and could not concentrate on all subjects.  I did my
>first cheating in a geography class with a "horrible teacher"....with very
>little skill, I put the whole notebook under my exam sheet....and with a 
>lot
>of good credit as a "doing-well" and "well-disciplined" student, I sailed
>thru the exam smoothly while most of my classmates got into trouble with 
>the
>teacher because she knew very well where materials were hidden, except my
>notebook. i did not know why she did not get me (maybe she was so
>dissappointed about me, or could not think of such a daring way of cheating
>:))
>
>  But cheating never hit me hard until my entrance exam into the University
>of Foreign Trade (one of the most desirable U to go at the time)....the 
>exam
>supervisors were really loose, so most students in the room decided to
>cheat....and I did not prepare or bring any materials into the room with me
>(I was scared and truly believed that nobody can bring materials
>inside)....and I did Not get in the school because of 1/2 point short !
>
>And I got the highest grade in an oral exam of EL in college when the
>teacher asked me if I ever cheated on exam, my answer was YES..and 
>basically
>he wanted to know why students cheat or why not....and I told him I prefer
>oral exams in college because I might not to be under pressure to cheat to
>pass/compete with my friends who had money to take review sessions in my
>teacher's houses.
>
>My conslusion on the cheating problem in VN school system is to blame
>teachers. They are solely responsible to let this happen.  Most teachers 
>can
>see clearly in class who cheat during exams (it is easy thing to see with
>natural eyes). But they did not catch those students b/c of so many 
>reasons:
>bribery, paid tutor/review sessions, personal relationship etc...in turn,
>students who can not afford a tutor session would be under pressure to pass
>the exam which might be more difficult than what they are taught in
>class....then they decided to cheat....and if schools and teachers take
>cheating seriously, they can catch all those cheating students if they
>want....but who will pay for next "turor/review sessions?
>
>Now the issue seems to stem from "Quo^'c na.n" - corruption!
>
>Ok, email is too long now...I should stop here. my last word is that it is
>not difficult to stop cheating among students....because they would not do
>that if teachers and parents don't allow them. They are just kids and they
>go to school to be educated about not only knowledge, but dignity and
>intergrity as well.
>
>Have a great day!
>h
>
>--
>Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
>Washington DC
>


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