While the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) places high hopes on the new assessment method that takes effect this school year, primary schools have voiced their opposition.

Under the method, teachers will not assess students’ capability by giving comments only and not marks. The aim is to develop students’ abilities and self-confidence.

Teachers will only give marks on semester-end and year-end exams.

While MOET believes the method is modern, teachers do not feel enthusiastic about it.
Nguyen Thi Minh Xuyen, deputy head of the Cau Giay district education sub-department in Ha Noi, noted that parents only want to know how many marks their children receive for school works, and do not care about teachers’ comments.

“I think first graders cannot read, so they cannot understand the teacher’s comments, so they will not feel happy if they only receive comments instead of marks,” Xuyen said.

“It will take teachers a lot of time to give comments to every student, especially when every teacher has to take care of 50 students in his class,” she added.

Meanwhile, a teacher of a people-founded school in Ha Noi, who asked to be anonymous, said that the ministry seemingly only thinks about the advantages and does not consider the disadvantages of such a system.

“The ministry explains that the new mechanism will help ease pressure on students, and therefore, make lessons more interesting to students. However, I don’t think it will be good for students if they do not bear pressure,” she said.

“If students think that they do not need to try their best to obtain high marks, they would neglect study and spend more time playing,” she added.

The teacher admitted that she does not know what kind of comments to write every day. “”Very good”... “You need to make greater efforts” … are not accepted, because they are too short and teachers are asked to give more details.

“Emoticons and Mickey stickers, which students like, are prohibited,” she said. “I have to give comments every day and I feel terribly tired. The problem is that I don’t know what I should write.”

TH, an English teacher at a primary school, took the initiative when she decided to use stamps instead of handwriting to give comments. She made some stamps with phrases like “very good”, “very bad” or “please, make greater efforts”. However, she was told that she needed to write the comments herself.

Another teacher said that she cannot give comments to 200 students every month, let alone every day.

“I don’t understand why we need to give comments every day. We need to wait several months to see if students are making progress,” she said. “There is no need to ask us to take on too much work.”