Ministry of Education and Training: Still allows assessment of capacity for grade 6
Secondary schools can still directly assess students when enrolling them in grade 6 through questions and answers, writing, presentations, practice..., according to the Ministry of Education and Training.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of Secondary Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training answered as above, on January 10.
Circular 30 on the regulations for admission to secondary and high schools, effective from February 14, 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 or city.
Mr. Thanh said that since 2014, the Ministry has regulated secondary school admissions based on examinations. This regulation ensures convenient and practical admissions for levels that require 100% of students to attend school.
By 2018, in the face of the fact that some prestigious secondary schools with a large number of students enrolled in them could not meet the general admission criteria, the Ministry allowed these schools to combine admission with testing and assessing students' abilities.
At that time, the Ministry clearly stated that testing and assessing capacity is different from an exam. Specifically, when recruiting to a secondary school, if the number of students meeting the requirements of the general criteria still exceeds the quota, the school can combine testing and assessing capacity to supplement the recruitment criteria.
"This does not mean organizing an exam with many subjects for 100% of students registering for the school," Mr. Thanh said.
However, in reality, there are some schools that have recruited students mainly based on "testing and evaluating students' abilities" as an exam, for all. The role of "admission" in the method combined with "testing and evaluating students' abilities" has not been properly implemented.
Circular 30 stipulates that the method of admission to secondary schools is by examination. Departments of Education and Training must develop a set of criteria, applicable to all schools; at the same time, have separate criteria guidelines for schools with a large number of candidates registering and meeting general requirements more than the quota.
"The specific criteria are not only the requirements in the application documents but also need to directly evaluate students in many forms such as: questions and answers, writing, presentations, practice, experiments, academic records, products, student activities, or testing and evaluating capacity," said Mr. Thanh.
In fact, these forms have been stipulated in the student assessment regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.
In recent years, most public secondary schools have recruited students through examinations and by school districts. In places where the number of registered students exceeds the quota, schools organize exams, mainly in three subjects: Math, Literature, and English.
In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, high-quality or advanced model schools with international integration conduct annual entrance exams after reviewing academic records. Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh also have a number of schools with similar admissions.
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.