According to the plan approved by the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, the entrance exam for grade 10 public high school in the 2025-2026 school year will take place on June 3-4, with three compulsory subjects: Literature, Math and English.
At Lam Son High School for the Gifted, each candidate must take an additional major according to their wishes. Notably, the new point this year is that the major will be multiplied by a coefficient of 3 when admission, instead of the coefficient of 2 as before and as most specialized schools across the country are now.
The increase in the coefficient of specialized subjects makes many parents and students concerned, because specialized subjects now account for a large proportion, deciding the admission results. This is said to be a possible cause of skewed learning, when students only focus on reviewing one major and taking advantage of the other subjects.
The consequence is that if they are not admitted to Lam Son specialized school, students will face a disadvantage when admitting to other public high schools - where the three subjects are a key factor.
Some opinions are also concerned that "breaking" the general level of coefficients across the country could create a skeptical mentality about transparency, when just affecting the scores of a major can change all enrollment results.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son - Principal of Lam Son High School for the Gifted - confirmed that the regulation of multiplying coefficient 3 is a new point this year. The goal of this change, according to Mr. Son, is to "choose students who are really good at their major", because the general three- subject exam is organized at the provincial level, so it is difficult to classify the full-time capacity correctly.
Similarly, Mr. Ta Hong Luu - Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa also said that the new regulation is necessary to improve the quality of enrollment. Mr. Luu also emphasized that the exam will be organized seriously, without any negative incidents.
However, many opinions argue that if we want to properly assess professional competence, we can increase the difficulty of the subject exam or organize a two-round exam instead of adjusting the two-round coefficient - the method has been standardized in professional admission for many years to a coefficient of 3 suddenly and abnormally like that.
In the 2025-2026 school year, Lam Son High School for the Gifted will enroll 12 classes with 420 quotas. After the exam results are available, candidates who are not admitted will use the common three- subject scores to apply to other public high schools.
This reality shows that adjusting the coefficient of specialized subjects will greatly affect students' admission opportunities, requiring the education sector to be more transparent in the reasons, the basis for change and clearly announce the plan to ensure fairness for all candidates.
"This is not just a matter of an exam, but also a question about the philosophy of comprehensive education and the role of a specialized school in the general education system - a place that trains gifted students, but cannot become a place to practice "goosebumps" at all costs" - said teacher Pham Thao Huong (Thanh Hoa City).
