Many schools in Vietnam have been reporting extremely high test results, while the actual quality education is deficient.

Students at a primary school in Hanoi attending a flag-rasing ceremony.

At a recent parent-teacher meeting at a secondary school in HCM City, the head teacher reported that 98% the students had excellent results, with the remaining 2% being "good".

The results surprised many, including parents. Such results can be interpreted as the teachers and school staff having done a good job, but many in the community were suspicious.

Such results are not unique to this school, but have been a trend among schools across the country, leaving many parents at a loss for how to assess the real quality of their children's education.

The question on the minds of many is whether the teachers are giving passing results to their students to make their jobs easier, not paying attention to the development of young people.

Parents at a school in Can Tho City recently complained that the exam questions for the first term were so difficult that it was impossible to achieve high marks. But, in fact, three quarters of the students got good results.

The same situation is recorded at several other localities where parents protested when school applied hard exam questions for student classification. This proves that parents just pay too much attention to the study results instead of their children’s capacity and qualities.

Teachers have also complained about the system. If they do not reach their quota of "excellent students" their jobs may be at risk. This has led to a situation which incentivises giving high, but inaccurate test results. In several cases, students who should not have passed a year were passed anyway.

The real victims, however, it seems, are the students, who think they are proficient, only to learn that they are not ready for university upon taking the exams.

One anonymous teacher said, “The current situation only facilitates giving good marks to students. If you have a challenged student, it might be wise to just leave a note such as, 'Parents should take these results as cursory.'"