Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of Secondary Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) answered Lao Dong as above on January 10.
The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Circular 30 on the regulations for admission to secondary and high schools, effective from February 14. The new Circular stipulates that secondary schools must consider admission to grade 6 and are not allowed to organize exams, even for high-quality schools. Admission criteria are guided by the Department of Education and Training of each province and city.
Mr. Thanh said that previously, Circular No. 11/2014/TT-BGDDT regulated annual secondary school enrollment by examination.
This regulation ensures that secondary school enrollment is carried out smoothly, effectively and practically for the level of education that requires 100% student enrollment according to the goal of universal education.
By 2018, due to the fact that there were a number of prestigious secondary schools with a large number of students enrolling, making the admission based on general criteria unable to meet the enrollment target, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular No. 05/2018/TT-BGDDT regulating the admission of secondary schools based on the admission method.
In case the number of students registering for grade 6 is more than the enrollment quota, the Department of Education and Training will guide the implementation of the enrollment plan by the selection method or combining selection with testing and evaluating students' abilities.
At that time, the Ministry of Education and Training also made it clear that testing and assessing capacity is different from an exam, that is, when conducting admission to a secondary school.
"If the number of students meeting the requirements of the general admission criteria still exceeds the school's assigned quota, the school can combine testing and capacity assessment to supplement the admission criteria applied to the number of students who have met the requirements of the general admission criteria, instead of organizing an entire exam with many subjects for 100% of students applying to the school," said Mr. Thanh.
According to the Director of the Department of Secondary Education, through the implementation in recent years, some schools have implemented enrollment mainly based on organizing "testing and evaluating students' abilities" as an entrance exam for 100% of students applying to the school; the role of "admission" in the method combined with "testing and evaluating students' abilities".
The newly issued Circular No. 30 continues to stipulate that the method of secondary school admission is selection. Departments of Education and Training must develop a set of selection criteria applicable to all schools; at the same time, there must be specific criteria for schools that, after selecting students according to general criteria, still have more students meeting the requirements than the school's assigned quota.
"The specific criteria are not only the requirements in the application documents but also need to directly evaluate students in many different forms such as questions and answers, writing, presentations, practice, experiments, academic records, products, and student activities, ensuring that the admission is carried out fairly, publicly, transparently, and in accordance with practical conditions as stipulated in Circular 30," said Mr. Thanh.
In recent years, most public secondary schools have recruited students through examinations and by school districts. Schools with more students than their quota usually hold entrance exams, mainly in three subjects: Math, Literature, and English.
In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, some middle schools have a competition ratio of up to 1/20 to enter grade 6, many times higher than the competition for grade 10, even for university entrance exams.
