The Ministry of Education and Training has abandoned the proposal to draw lots for the third subject in the 10th grade entrance exam, but when it is not known which subject will be chosen, parents are very worried and students are under psychological pressure.
Many teachers suggested that students should be informed about the third exam earlier than expected so that they have more time to practice many types of questions outside of the textbook, helping students reduce unnecessary anticipation and waiting.
The draft Circular promulgating the Regulations on Secondary School and High School Admissions that has just been announced has removed the proposal to draw lots for the third subject for the 10th grade entrance exam. However, it still requires that the third subject be changed over the years, in order to achieve the goal of comprehensive education in the basic education stage or use a combined exam instead.
However, there is also another opinion, teacher Nguyen Xuan Khang proposed to choose Foreign Language as the 3rd exam subject, mainly English. Thus, the 3 fixed entrance exam subjects for grade 10 nationwide are Literature, Math, Foreign Language.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Khang gave quite convincing analysis, including Conclusion No. 91-KT/TW of the Politburo setting out a breakthrough task in teaching and learning English with the key content: "Focus on improving foreign language skills of students, gradually making English the second language in schools...".
The Education sector's plan of key tasks and solutions for the 2024-2025 school year also sets out the requirement: "Research and develop projects and plans to gradually make English the second language in schools."
In fact, English is the "key" to open the door to international integration, so focusing on this subject from all levels of education is necessary.
A piece of information presented at the seminar “How to make English a second language in schools?” held last October was that the world has an index to assess the level of English proficiency in society. In 2015, Vietnam ranked 29/70; in 2020, it dropped to 65/100 countries. Most recently, in 2024, Vietnam reached 58/113 countries.
That means Vietnam is in the middle of the rankings, not a strong country in English proficiency.
But the proposal to choose Foreign Language (English) as the third subject for the 10th grade entrance exam has not been agreed upon yet, because if the 3 subjects are fixed, students will study lopsidedly and memorize.
Once we realize that students may be learning in an unbalanced way, we must find a way to correct it. This requires objective, scientific and responsible contributions from education experts.
