Grade 10 Admissions: Why are scores so low still accepted?

During this time, many provinces and cities announced the admission scores for public grade 10 for the 2025-2026 school year. In some localities, many high schools announced very low admission scores, even some schools had a total of only 2.5 points for 3 subjects. From here, public opinion raised the question of whether these schools should organize entrance exams for grade 10 or not?

For example, the benchmark score for grade 10 in the 2025-2026 school year at Nam Dan 2 High School (Nghe An) is 2.5 points. Similarly, many high schools in Dak Lak province (old) have unusually low entrance scores, the lowest of which is only 2.5 points, such as Hai Ba Trung High School (old Buon Ho town).

Causes

Even though the benchmark score was very low, even the total of 3 subjects was only 2.5 points, the candidate was still admitted to public grade 10. What is the reason?

According to many teachers, the 2018 GeneralEducation Program is being applied uniformly nationwide in the direction of teaching and learning to promote students' qualities and abilities; in each class period and lesson, it is necessary to ensure the required goals of knowledge, skills, abilities, etc. that need to be achieved. However, the results of the 10th grade entrance exam in some localities partly show that teaching and learning have not achieved the required goals of the new program.

Nam Dan 2 High School ( Nghe An ) announced that it would lower the admission score for grade 10 to 2.5 points (3 subjects), causing a stir in public opinion.

Photo: Contributor

Thus, teachers' teaching methods also need to be reviewed and students' learning needs to change to meet the goals of the 2018 General Education Program. As a leader of the Department of Education and Training of Dak Lak (formerly), said, some schools have low benchmark scores because they have a large number of students from ethnic minority villages and hamlets. Therefore, the quality of education in these schools will be focused on.

In addition, the fact that students with low scores are still admitted is also due to the lack of enrollment quotas for grade 10, or in other words, "supply exceeds demand". When the number of candidates applying to a school is lower than the enrollment quota, it leads to a situation where some schools fill their quotas without considering input quality factors.

Should entrance exams for grade 10 be held in all schools?

From the fact that candidates still pass the entrance exam with very low scores, the question is whether it is necessary to organize a costly, time-consuming, and pressure-producing 10th grade entrance exam in schools where the demand for 10th grade admission is not high?

Should localities, depending on the actual situation, facilities, and teaching staff, conduct admission tests or exams or combine admission tests with admission tests? Admission tests ensure that the entire learning process of students (at least 4 years of junior high school) is evaluated without causing pressure. Of course, admission tests cannot be a perfect method, but compared to exams to "fail" a few students, there are many more positive points such as: reducing exam pressure, reducing extra study, saving a large amount of money...

If the conditions of the facilities, classrooms, and teaching staff do not allow the school to enroll all junior high school graduates into public grade 10 to continue studying at high school, then the entrance exam for grade 10 will be organized.

In fact, the quality of the admission test cannot be compared with the quality of the entrance exam. However, with the entrance exam for grade 10 with very low standard scores as mentioned above in some schools, the quality is no better than admission by selection method.

Assessing student learning is a process, assessing the final output is important.

Admission methods for grade 10 according to regulations

According to Circular 30/2024/TT-BGDDT on the Regulations on Secondary School and High School Admissions issued by the Ministry of Education and Training in December 2024, the regulations on grade 10 admissions are stipulated as follows:

High school admissions are held once a year.

High school admission is organized according to one of three methods: selection, entrance exam, and combination of selection and entrance exam. In which, selection is based on the training results and learning results of the school years according to the general education program at the junior high school level or the continuing education program at the junior high school level of the admission subject. If a grade is repeated, the results of the repeated year of that grade will be used.

Entrance exam: implemented according to the provisions in Article 13 of the regulations issued with Circular 30/2024/TT-BGDDT. Combining entrance exam with admission: implemented in combination according to the above provisions.

As in Ho Chi Minh City (old), from the 2024-2025 school year, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training will simultaneously implement the admission and entrance exam methods for grade 10 depending on the locality. Accordingly, the Department will organize the entrance exam for grade 10 for students graduating from junior high school in Thanh An island commune, Can Gio district (old). These students can register for admission to Thanh An Junior High School - High School located in Thanh An commune (old). If they want to study high school at other high schools outside the island commune, they will have to take the entrance exam like students from other localities.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tuyen-sinh-lop-10-vi-sao-diem-qua-thap-van-trung-tuyen-185250705120425991.htm