How has grade 6 admission been over the past 10 years?

(Dan Tri) - In 10 years, the Ministry of Education and Training has changed the regulations for grade 6 admission 3 times.

In the 2014-2015 school year , Hanoi added 22,000 students to grade 6.

At Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, about 4,000 candidates applied for the 6th grade entrance exam, an increase of nearly 1,000 students compared to the previous school year. The school's quota is 200. The competition ratio is 1/20. The level of competition and pressure is comparable to that of university.

The conditions to take the exam are 4 years of elementary school with excellent academic performance, good conduct, and a total score of 19 points or higher in Vietnamese and math at the end of semester II of grade 5.

To win a place in grade 6 at Ams school, many parents have their children practice for the exam from grade 2 and take many rounds of mock exams at famous exam preparation centers.

That was the last year that junior high schools nationwide held sixth grade entrance exams.

In fact, from Decision 12 in 2006 to Circular 02 in 2013 on promulgating regulations on secondary and high school admissions, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has stipulated that one method of secondary school admission is selection.

Students take the 6th grade entrance exam in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Huyen Nguyen)

In April 2014, the Ministry continued to issue Circular 11 , once again stipulating that the secondary school admission method is based on selection.

In November 2014, the Ministry issued Directive 5105 on rectifying the situation of extra teaching and learning in primary education, including the requirement "Do not organize student surveys at the beginning of the school year, do not organize entrance exams for students entering grade 6".

But in that year's admission season, localities still followed the old practice, which was to hold entrance exams for high-quality secondary schools, autonomous public schools, and non-public schools.

In March 2015, the Ministry issued Official Letter 1258 providing more specific guidance on 6th grade enrollment for secondary schools with the number of registered students exceeding the quota.

In this dispatch, the Ministry stated: "Circular 11/2014/TT-BGDDT dated April 18, 2014 of the Minister of Education and Training promulgating the Regulations on junior high school and high school admissions stipulates: "Junior high school admissions by examination method".

In implementing the above policies and regulations, if an educational institution has more students registering for grade 6 than the enrollment quota, the Department of Education and Training shall direct these educational institutions to base on current regulations to develop appropriate enrollment plans and submit them to local authorities for consideration and decision; absolutely do not organize entrance exams for students to grade 6.

At that time, answering the press, the leader of the Ministry of Education and Training affirmed "no" to entrance exams for grade 6 for all types of schools, including non-public schools.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City asked for separate mechanisms for Ams school and Tran Dai Nghia school but were not approved.

On April 17, 2015, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training approved a plan for three schools, including Nguyen Tat Thanh, Luong The Vinh and Marie Curie, to enroll 6th grade students by combining admission with student capacity assessment and organizing intellectual games to test IQ and EQ.

But that same night, the Department sent an urgent document requesting all junior high schools in the city to enroll students in grade 6 by selection, strictly prohibiting entrance exams, absolutely not surveying students at the beginning of the year, and not dividing into classes.

At the same time, the separate enrollment plan of the above 3 schools was canceled.

During the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years , all secondary schools nationwide did not conduct entrance exams for grade 6 in any form, meaning there were no surveys, no capacity assessment tests, no IQ or EQ tests...

The only admission method of the schools is the selection process. In addition to academic records, the schools have additional criteria such as cultural, artistic, and sports awards, online math and English competitions, and extracurricular certificates.

The criteria for academic records have also become stricter, requiring academic results for all five years, not just the fifth grade as before. Students must be perfect from the first year of primary school to have a chance to be admitted to a "key school".

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter in 2018, representative of Luong The Vinh Secondary School said that in two years of implementing the admission process, the school received about 4,000 applications each year. 1/4 of those applications were applications with 10 points in math and Vietnamese in all 5 years of primary school.

In these 1,000 perfect profiles, 1/3 of the profiles have enough awards for excellent students at all levels, extracurricular activities, swimming competitions, and internet competitions.

School admissions committees question the authenticity of primary school transcripts.

In February 2018, the Ministry issued Circular 05 , amending Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular 11, allowing schools with more students registering for grade 6 than their quota to use the admission method combined with testing and assessing students' abilities. This is considered a "freeing" regulation for school enrollment.

From the 2018-2019 school year to the 2024-2025 school year , "key schools" will organize entrance exams to assess admission capacity. Most schools will use academic records as admission criteria, preliminary selection criteria, or calculate scores according to a certain percentage.

In draft Circular 30, the Ministry maintains the revised provisions in Circular 05 mentioned above.

However, on January 8, Circular 30 was officially issued, removing this content, stating only one line about the secondary school admission method: "examination".

In terms of form, the regulations on secondary school admission methods in Circular 30 are similar to Circular 11. That is, besides examination, there are no other methods prescribed for admission to grade 6.

Two days after the announcement of Circular 30, the Ministry issued Official Dispatch 114 , requesting the Departments of Education and Training of provinces and cities to urgently develop and publish principles and criteria for admission to grade 6 in accordance with the actual conditions of each locality so that students, parents, teachers and schools can clearly understand and be proactive in enrollment work.

In which, the document clearly states: for secondary schools with the number of registered students exceeding the assigned quota, the Department of Education and Training guides schools to conduct student capacity assessment according to the forms prescribed in the student assessment regulations such as: question and answer, writing, presentation, practice, experiment...

Thus, with the guidance in Official Dispatch 114, secondary schools are still allowed to enroll students by combining admission with capacity assessment as usual.

For the past 10 years, the phrases "entrance exam" and "exam" have not been used by schools anymore, instead they have been used "test and assessment of capacity".

With the same regulation "Middle school admission is carried out by examination", admission to grade 6 according to Official Dispatch 114 in 2025 as instructed by the Ministry is completely different from admission to grade 6 according to Official Dispatch 1258 in 2015 also instructed by the Ministry.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/tuyen-sinh-lop-6-da-dien-ra-nhu-the-nao-trong-10-nam-qua-20250112235922519.htm