High school graduation exam from 2025: Reduce the number of subjects, reduce pressure on candidates

The Ministry of Education and Training is seeking opinions on organizing the high school graduation exam from 2025 – when the first batch of students studying under the new general education program will finish grade 12 – with three options: 6 subjects, 5 subjects, and 4 subjects. Many opinions suggest that the number of subjects should be reduced to reduce pressure on candidates.

How many subjects should I take?

According to the draft plan for high school graduation exams from 2025 of the Ministry of Education and Training, there are two options being put forward for comments.

Option 1:Candidates studying high school must take 6 subjects, including 4 compulsory subjects (literature, math, foreign language, history) and 2 subjects that candidates choose from the remaining subjects studied in grade 12.

Option 2:Candidates take 5 subjects, including 3 compulsory subjects (literature, math, foreign language) and 2 subjects candidates choose from the remaining subjects studied in grade 12 (including history).

However, during the survey, many experts and localities proposed an additional option three: candidates only take four subjects, including two compulsory subjects (math, literature) and two subjects candidates choose from the remaining subjects studied in grade 12.

Accordingly, all three options agree that there will be two exams in the optional subject group and there are different opinions on the number of exams in the compulsory subject group.

As a candidate who will take the graduation exam in 2025, Pham Phuong Linh, a student at Viet Duc High School (Hanoi), said she supports the option of taking 4 subjects because it will reduce pressure. Then, she will have time to devote to her favorite subjects as well as focus on subjects that use scores for university admission.

Sharing the same opinion, Nguyen Tuan Anh, a student at Le Quy Don High School (Hanoi), said that the graduation exam should be conducted in a relaxed manner because the exam score only accounts for 30% of the weight in the graduation recognition consideration. In addition, in addition to the graduation exam, candidates may also have to take additional exams for university admission.

According to Tuan Anh, universities are now diversifying their admission methods, so in addition to the graduation exam, students are also under pressure from many other exams. “Therefore, reducing the workload in the graduation exam is very meaningful to students,” Tuan Anh said.

Also supporting the four-subject exam plan, Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Educational Psychology, proposed that this plan should be researched and boldly implemented to reduce pressure on students and teachers, while not causing an imbalance between admission combinations. “Reducing the number of exam subjects will give students more time to study subjects of their choice that suit their career orientation,” said Mr. Lam.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, when consulting nearly 18,000 officials and teachers about three exam options, the 4-subject exam option was also chosen by 59.8% of teachers, 40% chose the 6-subject exam option. The 5-subject exam option and other opinions accounted for a very small percentage of choices, only 0.2%.

The Ministry of Education and Training believes that the 4-subject exam plan has the advantage of reducing exam pressure for students as they have two fewer subjects than the current number of exams, and reducing costs for students' families and society as the number of exam sessions is reduced to 3, a reduction of 1 exam session compared to the current number.

This option also does not cause imbalance between admission combinations; is suitable for students' career orientation; creates conditions for students to spend time studying elective subjects that are suitable for their career orientation.

The disadvantage of this option is that it may affect the teaching and learning of history and foreign languages, two subjects that are currently compulsory.

Need to finalize the plan soon

Faced with many options, students and teachers across the country hope that the Ministry of Education and Training will soon announce the final exam subjects so that schools can proactively develop plans to organize teaching, review and exam orientation for students according to the 2018 general education program.

Ms. Luong Thi Thu Ha, a teacher at Viet Duc High School, said that not only teachers and students but also parents are very anxious about this issue when the students have "completed" half of the curriculum.

Sharing the expectations of teachers and students, Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Hai Duong Province, Member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, also said that the exam plan needs to be finalized soon so that the Ministry of Education and Training as well as localities, especially students, teachers and schools can proactively develop a thorough preparation plan for the exam.

According to Ms. Nga, although organizing exams is an annual activity of the education sector and localities, 2025 is the first year to organize high school graduation exams for students studying under the 2018 general education program, so this will be a very important exam.

“The program has many innovations compared to the old program and from the innovation of the program, there are regulations on innovation in teaching and learning methods, from innovation in teaching and learning methods, there are regulations on innovation in testing and assessment methods. Therefore, if there is no careful preparation from early on, from afar, it is easy to fall into passivity and confusion,” Ms. Nga analyzed.

According to National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to base on the purpose and requirements of the new 2018 general education program to decide on the appropriate number of exam subjects. “The Ministry is the agency responsible and has the highest expertise in this field, so it will know what exam method is most suitable for students,” Ms. Nga said.