Admission to grade 10: No bonus points

Specifically, this new draft has removed Clause 3, Article 7 of Circular 11/2014/TT-BGDDT issued on April 18, 2014 on regulations on secondary and high school enrollment:

“Subjects eligible for bonus points. The Department of Education and Training shall specify the subjects and bonus points for each type of subject eligible for the bonus regime.” This means that the Ministry will no longer assign the departments to specify the subjects and bonus points. Therefore, candidates entering grade 10 will not receive bonus points, including the scores for the general vocational exam at the junior high school level or the 9th grade excellent student contest in cultural subjects organized by the Department of Education and Training.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training) said that the Ministry is asking for opinions to remove this for practical reasons.

“We expect this because many places have reported that because of the extra points, the general vocational exam suddenly becomes a goal to strive for just to add points. While the meaning of studying and taking vocational exams is to make career guidance for students better, aiming to suit local conditions.”

According to Mr. Thanh, basically the Ministry of Education and Training still maintains the direct admission and priority policies.

A significant change is that instead of only requiring "Students who have won national or higher prizes in culture; arts; physical education and sports; science and technology competitions for high school students" as currently regulated, the draft amendment reads "Students who have won national and international prizes in culture; arts; physical education and sports; national science and technology competitions for middle and high school students".

Thus, students who are admitted directly must win national prizes in science and technology competitions, not just provincial prizes like now.