Solution to 'cool down' the 10th grade entrance exam in Vinh city

PV: Sir, the examadmissionEntering grade 10 always receives the attention of parents, students and schools. How will the entrance exam for grade 10 be organized this year and what should be noted?

Mr. Dao Cong Loi:On March 19, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 608/QD-UBND approving the enrollment plan for grade 10 high school in Nghe An province, enrollment for grade 10 Phan Boi Chau Specialized High School, grade 10 ethnic boarding high school and grade 6 ethnic boarding middle school for the 2024-2025 school year.

According to this announcement, the entrance exam for grade 10 in Nghe An will be conducted by examination and selection. The examination will be implemented for schools with the number of students registering for the first choice exceeding the enrollment quota for the 2024-2025 school year; selection will be conducted for the remaining schools.

Particularly for schools under the Project "Piloting the construction of advanced kindergartens and general schools following the international integration trend in Nghe An province, period 2021-2030", admission will be based on the selection method for classes implementing advanced models and entrance exams for the remaining classes.

To facilitate students and junior high schools, the Department of Education and Training will maintain the same method as last year for the entrance exam to grade 10 of high school this year, with only one small adjustment: Not including international language certificates in the admission criteria.

In addition, in this exam, I would like to note the following important points: First, the application process, exam results processing, and admission approval are all done online on the VNEDU platform. Second, after completing the exam, knowing the quality of the test, candidates can change their high school preferences. This ensures the rights of candidates and increases their chances of admission.

Candidates should also note that this year's 10th grade entrance exam is the last exam of the old program. From 2025 onwards, the exam will follow the 2018 General Education Program, and there will certainly be many innovations in both content and format.

Reporter: For many years now, Nghe An has maintained stability in the subjects of the 10th grade entrance exam. The Department of Education and Training has just announced the exam structure. So how will the review guidance be implemented, sir?

Mr. Dao Cong Loi:This year's 10th grade entrance exam is scheduled to be held on 2 days (June 5 and 6, 2024) with 3 exams: Math, Literature and Foreign Language (English or French). Of which, the written exam for Math and Literature (120 minutes) and the Foreign Language exam is organized in the form of objective multiple choice (60 minutes). The test results of the candidates on the multiple choice answer sheet are graded by computer software.

As I have shared, to create a stable mentality for candidates, the structure of the entrance exam for grade 10 has not changed much. The exam must be accurate, clear, educational, differentiate students' levels, and be suitable for the time allotted for each subject.

According to this year's exam structure, the exam must require 4 levels: recognition, understanding, application and high application. Of which, recognition and understanding levels: 50 - 60% of the total score; application and high application levels: 40 - 50% of the total score.

Immediately after the exam structure is issued, we will have documents requesting the Department of Education and Training to direct secondary education institutions to carefully study the Department's documents on instructions for the entrance exam to grade 10, the document on announcing the exam structure to develop a review plan and guide students to review. The review plan for each subject has content, duration, and organization form suitable to the ability, level and wishes of students, the specific characteristics of the exam subject, and the actual conditions of the school and locality. During the review process, pay attention to training students in test-taking skills according to the specific characteristics of the exam subject.

The Department also encourages localities and schools to organize mock exams to gain experience, adjust exam content, review methods and test-taking skills for students to help them achieve the best results in the upcoming entrance exam.

Reporter: This school year, Nghe An has more than 53,000 candidates taking the exam, an increase of more than 7,000 candidates compared to previous years. Among them, Vinh city is the "hottest" locality. So what does the education sector think about this reality?

Mr. Dao Cong Loi:This year, the total number of 9th grade students in Vinh city is 6,271, an increase of 811 students compared to the previous school year. This is a sudden increase compared to the past few years.

Currently, in addition to specialized schools, in Vinh city there are 3 public schools: Huynh Thuc Khang High School, Ha Huy Tap High School and Le Viet Thuat High School and the quota for public schools in Vinh each year is less than 2,000 students. And this is really a big pressure for students during each admission season.

To increase the enrollment target for grade 10 in the 2024-2025 school year, this year, the Department of Education and Training will instruct high schools to arrange a minimum class size of 45 students. In areas with a sudden increase in grade 9 students, grade 10 will be added.

For Vinh city alone, 3 more classes will be added to 3 public schools, Huynh Thuc Khang High School, Le Viet Thuat High School and Ha Huy Tap High School each. In addition, the Department will also enroll 10th grade students at Vinh University Practice High School and Pedagogical College Practice High School each with 3 classes. Thus, this year, the industry has added 15 more public 10th grade classes.

Through monitoring in previous years, nearly 800 city students participated in the exam and studied at schools near Vinh.

Therefore, this year we will also consider increasing the enrollment quota for grade 10 for public high schools near Vinh city such as Nguyen Duy Trinh High School, Nghi Loc 3 High School (Nghi Loc district), Thai Lao High School, Le Hong Phong High School, Pham Hong Thai High School (Hung Nguyen district).

This not only increases opportunities for Vinh city students but also will not take away the rights of students in the local area.

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Mr. Dao Cong Loi - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Education and Training

With those measures, it is certain that the pressure of entering public grade 10 will be reduced for Vinh city students and parents, grade 9 students can rest assured about the opportunity to enter public grade 10.

PV: Not only this year, the increase in students in Vinh city will also take place in the coming years. Currently, according to the statistics compiled by the city's Department of Education and Training, if calculated from 2020 - 2021 to now, the number of students in Vinh city has continuously increased and after only 4 years has increased to 2,000 students. This number will continue to double and 2.5 times in the next 3 years with the number of 9th grade students in the whole city being more than 9,000 students.With this rapid increase in students, has the education sector anticipated the difficulties and has any solutions to solve the "hot" problem of 10th grade enrollment?

Mr. Dao Cong Loi:The need to study in public schools is a legitimate need of students and parents. Implementing the direction of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Education and Training is currently coordinating with the Vinh City People's Committee to remove difficulties and obstacles to implement the project to build the second facility, Huynh Thuc Khang High School in Nghi An commune. The project will be built in Kim Binh hamlet, Nghi An commune with an area of ​​about 2.35 hectares, with a scale of 36 classes, meeting the needs of children in the northern communes of the city and neighboring areas.

In the coming time, we will direct high schools to strengthen their facilities and build more classrooms where possible to increase the number of students. In addition, when Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted moves to a new location, the Department will work with Vinh City to implement a plan for Dang Thai Mai Middle School to take over Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted and develop Dang Thai Mai Middle School into a school that combines middle and high school levels.

In addition, Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted and Vinh University High School for the Gifted will gradually increase the number of classes, creating learning opportunities for students in Vinh city.

In the coming years, when implementing the Vinh city expansion project, Vinh city People's Committee will coordinate with the Department of Education and Training to receive high schools of Cua Lo town (2 schools) and Nghi Loc 3 high school. On that basis, it will continue to balance and regulate students in all levels. At the same time, increase investment in facilities for high schools to meet the development requirements of Vinh city.

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Mr. Dao Cong Loi - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Education and Training

In fact, in the current economic conditions, meeting students' needs is still inadequate. Therefore, we need to continue the policy of socialization and people sharing the burden with the state. Currently, in addition to public schools with advantages in professional quality and staff, we continue to pay attention to and expand the scale of non-public schools to create a strong rise of this type and attract students to study. When the quality of non-public schools increases, the size of classes and the number of students can be increased.

PV: Thank you!