Competition for admission to pedagogy

In the context of many changes in enrollment in 2025, will pedagogy continue to "attract" candidates?

THERE ARE INDUSTRIES WITH EXPECTED TARGETS TO INCREASE MORE THAN 4 TIMES

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, training institutions for teacher training (pedagogy) sectors shall determine enrollment targets for each sector according to regulations and register with the Ministry. On that basis, the Ministry determines and announces annual enrollment targets for schools according to training capacity and local and national needs.

Candidates participating in the specialized competency assessment exam of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education this year

PHOTO: HA ANH

Among the majors, teacher training is also one of the few special cases where the quota is determined for each specific major. Up to now, universities have announced the expected quota for the teacher training majors determined by the schools themselves. Compared to last year, the quota for many majors has been adjusted to increase sharply.

According to the enrollment plan of Hanoi National University of Education 2, the expected enrollment quota for many teacher training majors is determined to be above 200, such as: Natural Science major 279 quotas, History - Geography major 205, Chemistry major 257, Physics major 278, Math major 204, Primary education 209 quotas... The expected enrollment quota for these majors has increased sharply when last year they were all recruited at 150 - 170 quotas. Notably, some majors have increased more than 4 times, such as Natural Science major from 60 quotas last year to 279 this year; Preschool education major has more than doubled, from 184 last year to 382 this year.

In 2025, Hanoi National University of Education plans to enroll 4,995 students in 50 majors, including 8 teacher training majors with a quota of 100 or more. Of which, the major with the highest enrollment is Literature with 300 quotas, followed by Mathematics with 250 quotas (not including Mathematics - teaching Math in English with 60 quotas), English with 160 quotas... Many other majors have new enrollment quotas of 70 - 90 students such as Biology, History, Geography, History - Geography, Natural Science... French has the lowest quota of 35 students. The expected quota for many majors this year has increased significantly compared to last year's quota of only 20 - 45 students, such as History (45), Biology (25), Chemistry (20), French (20)...

Saigon University plans to enroll 5,220 students, many of which are expected to increase slightly compared to last year. This year, some majors will enroll 200 students (preschool education, primary education) and English language teaching 120 students. Some majors have moderate enrollments such as: Music 70, Fine Arts 70, History - Geography 40, Mathematics 40. Compared to last year, the enrollments for 2 majors are expected to more than double, such as: Natural Science from 28 to 60, Literature from 21 to 50... On the contrary, many of the university's teacher training majors only enroll 10 students this year such as: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, History, Geography... The enrollments for these majors are expected to decrease by 50% compared to last year.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Education also plans to recruit 5,200 students, including increased enrollment in majors such as: Math Education, English Education, Primary Education, Preschool Education, etc.

Master Nguyen Hua Duy Khang, Deputy Head of Training Department of Can Tho University, said that the school plans to enroll 10,500 students, an increase of more than 1,000 students compared to 2024. Of which, the Pedagogical majors plan to enroll 1,040 students with a new major in History - Geography Pedagogy. Admission methods remain stable as in 2024, including: direct admission, priority admission; consideration of high school exam scores; consideration of V-SAT exam scores and consideration of academic records (using the average subject scores of the entire year of grades 10, 11, 12 of the subjects in the admission group).

Regarding the entrance exam for teacher training this year, Master Duy Khang said that candidates need to pay attention to the general regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training on the threshold to ensure input quality.

Universities also note that the expected quotas for teacher training programs are announced. The universities will update the official quotas after receiving the Ministry of Education and Training's dispatch on the allocation of quotas for teacher training programs in 2025.

Students of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education. This year, the school plans to enroll 5,200 students, including increased enrollment in majors such as: Math, English, primary education, preschool education, etc.

Photo: Nhat Thinh

It is difficult to predict the level of competition in each industry.

Analyzing the enrollment trends of teacher training majors, Dr. Huynh Trung Phong, Director of the Center for Student Support and Entrepreneurship Development of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, commented: "The enrollment reality in recent years shows that the number of candidates registering for teacher training majors tends to increase. Forecasting this year's trend, teacher training is still among the majors that students are most interested in."

Explaining the above statement, Mr. Phong pointed out 3 main reasons. The first is the impact of attractive incentive policies for SP students according to Decree 116 of the Government (regulations on policies to support tuition fees and living expenses for SP students). According to this policy, students who commit to serving the industry after graduation will be supported with tuition fees and a living allowance of 3.63 million VND/month. In addition, the current average income of teachers can be said to be stable and improved by many different policies. "The high admission scores for SP majors in recent years have also had a significant impact on students' psychology in choosing a career. For good students, being admitted to majors with high admission scores to assert themselves is also a trend," Dr. Phong analyzed.

With the strengths of the teacher training sector, combined with the reduction of recruitment quotas in many sectors, there has been high competition among candidates applying for teacher training in recent years. But for 2025, Dr. Phong added: "This year, along with new points in subject combinations, the recruitment methods are not determined by specific quota percentages but are converted to a common scale from high to low. This makes it very difficult to predict the level of competition among candidates applying for each sector according to each method."

Threshold to ensure input quality for the pedagogical sector

According to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, candidates for teacher training programs must meet the requirements on input quality assurance threshold for each method.

For formal training admission methods using high school graduation exam results, the entrance threshold is announced annually by the Ministry of Education and Training (this score is announced after the high school graduation exam results are available).

Other admission methods: Candidates with grade 12 academic performance ranked as excellent or higher or high school graduation score of 8.0 or higher for majors in the teacher training group (except for majors in physical education and sports training, music education, fine arts education; preschool education at college level). Candidates with grade 12 academic performance ranked as fair or higher or high school graduation score of 6.5 or higher are eligible for admission to majors in physical education and sports training, music education, fine arts education; preschool education at college level.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/canh-tranh-xet-tuyen-vao-su-pham-185250414204807302.htm