Early clarification on adding English certificate points in high-quality 6th grade admission in Hai Duong city

My nephew seems sad these days when he heard that he might not get extra points to enter the high-quality 6th grade in Hai Duong City. He is studying at Thanh Binh Primary School, where he is weak in Vietnamese and excels in English. Last November, when the Hai Duong City People's Committee announced the enrollment of high-quality 6th grade students for the 2024-2025 school year, including a new regulation that would add 0.5-1 points to students with international English certificates, my sister's family was excited and decided to invest money and time to give their child the opportunity to get extra points.

Since then, my child has been attending 2-3 classes a week at the English teacher's house and 2 classes at an English center. In February 2024, the whole family took my child to Hanoi to take the Cambridge Flyers certificate exam. However, the listening and speaking sections were not good, so he failed the exam. Not discouraged, my sister registered for my child to take a trial exam at a center. Seeing that my child was doing better, the family took him to Hanoi again in March to take the exam and he achieved good results. At that time, my sister boasted that my child would get 1 extra point when taking the entrance exam to grade 6 at Le Quy Don Secondary School.

As for my classmate, he failed the first time he took the Cambridge Flyers level exam, and the second time he didn't dare to take the exam at this level anymore and was demoted to Movers. With the Cambridge Movers level exam, he is expected to get an extra 0.5 points.

According to the announcement of high-quality grade 6 enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year issued by the People's Committee of Hai Duong City on November 2, 2023, will add incentive points to students who have international English certificates within the prescribed time limit. Specifically, Cambridge certificates, add 0.5 points for Movers level; add 1 point for Flyers level. As for TOEFL Primary certificates, add 0.5 points for A1 level; add 1 point for A2 level...

According to the explanation of the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong City, the addition of this "open point" is to improve the quality of input for high-quality classes, promoting the movement of learning foreign languages. The city issued an early notice so that students can proactively register for the English certificate exam in batches.

With the new score, many primary school students in Hai Duong city have taken the test and achieved the required English certificate. In my class alone, there are nearly 10 students who have English certificates, most of whom are eligible for an additional 1 point.

On April 26, 2024, the Department of Education and Training issued instructions on secondary school enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year to the People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities. Accordingly, secondary school enrollment is based on the selection method. For secondary schools with a number of registered students exceeding the approved plan, the district-level Department of Education and Training organizes enrollment based on the selection method or combines selection with testing and assessing students' abilities. When testing and assessing abilities, students take a test in the form of objective multiple-choice combined with essay, 60 minutes, with content in two subjects: math and Vietnamese. In the instructions, there is no mention of adding bonus points to students with international English certificates. According to the Regulations on Secondary School Admissions and High School Admissions issued with the Consolidated Document No. 03/VBHN-BGDĐT dated May 3, 2019 of the Minister of Education and Training, the Department of Education and Training decides to organize secondary school admissions.

As of May 7, the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong City said that the city is still has not yet issued a plan for enrolling high-quality grade 6 students for the 2024-2025 school year. Last year, this plan was announced in April.

Currently, many students and parents are anxiously waiting for the city's policy. In the past, many families have spent a lot of money for their children to study for the English certificate exam, such as buying virtual exam preparation software; taking extra communication lessons with foreigners to ensure listening and speaking; the exam fee is 1.2-1.7 million VND/student... Many people complained that if Hai Duong City stopped adding these incentive points, it would be "like abandoning the child", "inconsistent", and a disadvantage for those who have spent a lot of time and effort studying to get the English certificate. The extra 0.5-1 point is very valuable to students, in many cases it is the deciding factor in whether they pass or fail.

However, many other parents believe that Hai Duong City should not apply the above incentive points because it will cause unfair competition between candidates with different economic conditions and learning environments.

Hai Duong City has 3 secondary schools with high-quality 6th grade classes, including: Le Quy Don, Binh Minh, and Vo Thi Sau. For nearly ten years now, every year at this time, issues surrounding high-quality 6th grade enrollment have always received great public attention, with more and more students registering for the exam. Hai Duong City should soon announce the high-quality 6th grade enrollment plan for the 2024-2025 school year, including a reasonable enrollment method, ensuring objectivity, fairness, and accuracy for all students.