Officially promulgating the Regulations on High School Graduation Exams from 2025

(To Quoc) - On December 24, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong signed a Circular promulgating the Regulations on High School Graduation Exams. These Regulations will be applied from 2025 - the first year of organizing the High School Graduation Exam and university and vocational education admissions according to the 2018 General Education Program.

Accordingly, to prepare for the High School Graduation Exam from 2025 according to the 2018 General Education Program with the difference of focusing on assessing learners' capacity instead of assessing knowledge and skills like previous exams, the Ministry of Education and Training has actively prepared early, remotely and thoroughly.

The Ministry of Education and Training has carefully prepared and announced the high school graduation exam plan from 2025, issued the exam structure format, reference exam questions for all graduation exam subjects in a direction suitable for assessing students' abilities; trained teachers nationwide on exam questions, exam organization, technical training for localities; increased large-scale testing of the application of information technology in all stages of the exam...

The newly issued Regulation, in addition to inheriting the content of the Regulations that have been smoothly and stably implemented in recent years, especially in 2023 and 2024, has some notable new points.

The exam will be organized into 3 sessions, including: 1 Literature session, 1 Math session and 1 optional exam session. Candidates will be arranged according to the optional exam combination to optimize the exam room and score. Compared to previous years, 1 exam session and 2 exam subjects will be reduced, thereby reducing pressure and social costs while still ensuring the quality of the exam.

Using a combination of process assessment scores (report cards) and exam results in graduation recognition at a ratio of 50-50. The average score of the report cards of the years is calculated by weight. Increasing the rate of using process assessment scores (report cards) from 30% to 50% to more closely assess the learners' capacity according to the new Program. In addition, the report cards of grades 10 and 11 are also used (with a smaller weight than grade 12) instead of only grade 12 as before. This change has the effect of promoting teaching and learning right from when students enter high school.

Foreign language certificates are still used to exempt students from graduation exams but are not converted into 10 points in graduation recognition as before; the graduation score calculation formula does not include foreign language points in this case. This method continues to encourage foreign language learning but aims for greater fairness in graduation. For example, previously, students with an IELTS 4.0 certificate were also converted into 10 points like students with an IELTS 8.5 score.

Regarding incentive points: Eliminate the bonus points for vocational certificates for all candidates; eliminate the bonus points for IT certificates, foreign languages, and intermediate vocational certificates for candidates in ContinuingEducation . This content is to be consistent with the 2018 General Education Program, and at the same time create equality because students graduating from both formal and continuing education systems are all awarded the same type of graduation certificate.

Allowing foreign candidates to use Vietnamese certificates to be exempted from the Literature exam in the recognition of high school graduation. This content aims to create favorable conditions for the recognition of graduation for foreigners studying general education programs in Vietnam while still ensuring basic knowledge of Literature through studying Literature in class and taking exams to obtain Vietnamese certificates.

For the first time, the High School Graduation Exam has an additional method of transporting exam papers from the exam council's location to the exam printing locations of 63 provinces and cities via the encrypted and secure transmission system of the Government Cipher Committee.

This is an important step forward in applying technology to key stages of the exam organization process. This new method of delivering the original exam papers helps to quickly and promptly transfer the original exam papers, reducing the time and personnel required to transport the exam papers as the traditional method is currently applied; at the same time, this is also an early, remote and important preparation step in implementing the exam plan according to the announced roadmap for converting from paper-based exams to computer-based exams.

Also according to this Circular, candidates who have completed the General Education Program before 2025 but have not graduated from high school will take the exam according to the exam questions of the General Education Program issued with Decision No. 16/2006/QD-BGDDT, the Continuing Education Program issued with Decision No. 50/2006/QD-BGDDT and documents guiding the implementation of adjustments to teaching content of the Ministry of Education and Training.

For candidates who have a high school diploma and/or intermediate diploma and wish to take the 2025 High School Graduation Exam as a basis for admission registration, they can choose to take the exam according to the exam questions prescribed in or the exam questions prescribed in these new Regulations.

From 2026, the Ministry of Education and Training will organize the high school graduation exam with only one type of exam. Specifically, the exam will consist of 3 sessions: 1 session of Literature, 1 session of Mathematics and 1 session of an optional exam including 2 subjects from the following subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Economic and Legal Education, Information Technology, Industrial Technology (abbreviated as Industrial Technology), Agricultural Technology (abbreviated as Agricultural Technology), Foreign Languages ​​(English, Russian, French, Chinese, German, Japanese and Korean).

Source: https://toquoc.vn/chinh-thuc-ban-hanh-quy-che-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-tu-nam-2025-20241224174222057.htm