VietNamNet Bridge - A high percentage of students have decided to take the geography test for the 2016 high school finals, while history is the choice of very few students.

As per the request by the Hanoi Education and Training Department, high schools in Hanoi have conducted surveys on the subjects students choose for high school finals this year.

In principle, math, literature and foreign languages are compulsory exam subjects. The fourth one is optional.

Nguyen Tung Lam, headmaster of Dinh Tien Hoang High School, said 70 percent of 12th graders of the school chose geography as an optional exam subject. Besides, they also chose physics and chemistry. Meanwhile, very few students chose history.

At the Pham Hong Thai High School, geography is the subject of the majority of students (265 out of 446 12th graders), while 147 students chose chemistry. History and biology were chosen by a few students.

According to Nguyen Thi Thom, deputy headmaster of Pham Hong Thai, students choose to take geography tests because they believe they can easily get high scores with the subject.

A high percentage of students have decided to take the geography test for the 2016 high school finals, while history is the choice of very few students.

Also according to Thom, the school has been intensively preparing its students for compulsory exam subjects since the beginning of the year. As for optional exam subjects, the school will kick off the preparation for exam in mid-March.

Nguyen Thi Thu Anh, headmaster of Nguyen Tat Thanh High School, noted that the majority of students chose geography and physics, while only 11 students chose history and 10 biography.

The surveys all showed a common aspect that students did not choose history for their optional exam subject because the subject is too difficult for them. 

Experts have repeatedly warned that Vietnamese students tend to be ‘afraid of history as a learning subject’, emphasizing the problem must be settled, because Vietnamese have to know Vietnamese history.

The surveys in other cities and provinces have also shown similar results. 

According to the Vinh Phuc provincial Education and Training Department, of 10,000 surveyed students from 37 schools, only 219 students, or 2.39 percent, registered to take history test. The number of students registering biology is 501, or 5.47 percent.

Meanwhile, the majority of students decided to take geography test, 4,916 students, or 45.46 percent.

In Kon Tum province, 48 percent of students chose geography, 37 percent chemistry and few students chose history and biography.

MOET said in 2015, about 70 percent of students registered to take five tests for the high school finals.

Experts said it would be better to register to take five tests at maximum to be able to finish high school and enter universities.

“Taking five tests is the most reasonable choice,” an expert from the Hanoi University of Education said.


NLD