Will suspending admissions for 6th grade at specialized high schools be shocking?

However, the way this long-standing, irregular situation is being handled seems to be shocking to many parents.

Parents are shocked and worried.

A parent in Thanh Xuan Trung ward (Thanh Xuan district) shared: "When I read the information that the enrollment for 6th grade at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted (which students and parents still commonly refer to as 'Ams School' - PV ) might have to stop this year, my whole family and I could only say one word: 'utterly shocked'."

To enter the 6th grade at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for Gifted Students, students must pass a rigorous entrance exam.

She said her child is in the second semester of 5th grade this year and has only one aspiration: to get into 6th grade at Ams High School. Because of this special aspiration, since 1st grade, her child has hardly had a single full weekend or summer break due to extra classes and tutoring to achieve this goal. From 3rd grade onwards, her child's schedule has become even more packed. Not only is the child struggling, but the whole family has to keep up with the pace.

If you study Ams High School's entrance exam methods over the past few years, you can see that getting into the 6th grade is truly a fierce "battle" that requires participants to clearly define their goals, have a strategy, and implement it systematically from the time their child enters the 1st grade.

For a long time, admission to the 6th grade at this school has been based on a special mechanism, even though it's not a specialized school because, according to the Education Law, there are no specialized schools or selective classes from the lower secondary level downwards. However, the lower secondary section within Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted has existed for decades, so parents have implicitly considered it a "specialized school," and the admission process is extremely competitive every year. To proceed to the entrance exam, students must pass a very rigorous academic record review. For example, in 2023, according to the admission guidelines, students had to achieve 167 points across 17 end-of-year tests, meaning they were only allowed a maximum of 3 scores of 9 (as in primary school), while all other scores had to be 10s to be eligible to register for the exam.

In 2022, according to the school's published list, out of more than 1,200 eligible candidates, all had perfect scores (10s), with scores of 9 rarely appearing on the application forms. In 2023, many parents were upset because their children had perfect scores but were still rejected in the selection round due to a lack of qualitative assessments such as "good performance" or "excellent performance".

In Ho Chi Minh City, the annual enrollment for 6th grade at Tran Dai Nghia Specialized High School attracts considerable attention from parents and students. For many years, the Department of Education and Training has conducted entrance examinations for this school's junior high school level through an assessment of English proficiency and knowledge in mathematics, Vietnamese, English, science , history, geography, etc. On average, the competition ratio for 6th grade at Tran Dai Nghia Specialized High School is around 1/8, with an annual enrollment target of approximately 500 students, resulting in around 4,000 applicants taking the assessment.

Therefore, following the news that the enrollment of 6th grade students into specialized high schools may have to stop this year because, according to regulations, specialized high schools are not allowed to have junior high school or non-specialized programs, parents with children planning to participate in the 6th grade entrance exam at Tran Dai Nghia Specialized High School for the 2024-2025 school year are very worried.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Chau, a parent of a 5th-grade student at Phan Dinh Phung Primary School (District 3), expressed her worry and frustration: "In our group of parents planning to enroll their children in the 6th grade at Tran Dai Nghia High School, we've been quite worried since yesterday. For over a year now, we've had a plan to prepare our children with the knowledge and skills needed for the entrance exam. But now, with the admissions period approaching, we've just learned that Hanoi - Amsterdam High School, similar to Tran Dai Nghia High School, is not allowed to admit 6th-grade students. We're very confused. If it has to be done, there needs to be a plan, at least until after this school year, to make sense."

Currently, there are two specialized high schools in Vietnam, located in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, that organize their own entrance exams for 6th grade.

Fierce selection process

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training believes that accepting all application forms would create an extremely intense competition ratio, as admission to specialized schools does not follow the same zoning system as admission to regular public secondary schools for grade 6. Therefore, setting application requirements helps to filter out unqualified candidates from the preliminary round, saving time for students and parents; and also reduces the burden and costs of organizing the exam, as the number of places in grade 6 at these schools is usually limited.

While the selection process was challenging, the entrance exam was even more intense, as it was a race between the "best students among the best."

After passing the first round, students will continue with three aptitude tests: mathematics, Vietnamese, and English, in a hybrid format of multiple-choice and essay questions. Every year, the exam questions surprise even teachers and professors due to their challenging difficulty... Without extra tutoring, problem-solving, and practice tests over a long period, it's impossible to achieve high scores.

A fifth-grade teacher in Dong Da District shared: "The questions in the exam are all advanced knowledge, but they require students to complete them extremely quickly. I calculated that students have 30 seconds to answer one difficult question. Without practicing this type of exam for a long time, it's impossible to meet such a high level of difficulty."

Professor Do Duc Thai, from Hanoi Pedagogical University and chief editor of mathematics in the 2018 General Education Program, also believes that the entrance exams for these specialized schools are becoming increasingly tricky.

"It doesn't make students smarter and it doesn't assess their intelligence," Professor Thai said, while strongly opposing the practice of requiring perfect scores on report cards to be eligible for exams, calling it a way to create "fake" students in education.

The views of the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Departments of Education and Training.

Speaking to the press on March 6th, a representative from the Hanoi Department of Education and Training stated that the Department had received a document from the Ministry of Education and Training and was developing a plan and methods for enrollment at the beginning of each school year, including preschool, grade 1, grade 6, and grade 10 for the 2024-2025 school year, to report to the Hanoi People's Committee in strict compliance with the law. At the same time, the Department was also researching and advising the city on proposing a special mechanism with appropriate solutions for enrollment in specialized high schools, based on meeting the aspirations of parents and students and ensuring the quality of education in key areas of the capital city.

The Department also stated that the implementation of the junior high school program within Hanoi High School for Gifted Students has been maintained for nearly 30 years and has achieved good results in producing high-quality students. The legal basis for organizing a high-quality junior high school system and training specialized students at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for Gifted Students is the Capital City Law, which allows Hanoi to "build a number of high-quality preschool and general education institutions in the area."

An official from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training stated that they are currently developing a plan for student enrollment in the first-grade classes for the 2024-2025 school year. The enrollment plan will be submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for approval, and the Department will announce it when official information is available.

Creating the main source of students for specialized high school classes?

Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for Gifted Students is piloting a junior high school system for high-level training and the development of specialized high school students, in accordance with Decision No. 5029/QD-UBND dated September 29, 2009, of the Hanoi People's Committee. The Hanoi Department of Education and Training assesses that in recent years, the junior high school system of Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for Gifted Students has excellently fulfilled its mission as the primary source of students for the specialized high school classes, achieving outstanding results in national and international student competitions.

In Ho Chi Minh City, in 2000, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City issued a decision to establish Tran Dai Nghia High School with a pilot model of enhancing English language instruction and students studying and living at the school all day. From its establishment, the school enrolled students in grade 6. In 2002, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City issued Decision No. 4072 allowing the conversion of Tran Dai Nghia High School into Tran Dai Nghia Specialized High School.

The principal of a junior high school in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, believes that organizing junior high school education within specialized high schools can be considered an advantage when implementing the 2018 General Education Program at the high school level, especially for specialized schools. Previously, under the 2006 General Education Program, students studying single subjects could clearly demonstrate their abilities in specialized subjects at the high school level. However, with the 2018 General Education Program, junior high school students study integrated subjects, so understanding their abilities to participate in specialized high school classes is somewhat limited. Therefore, training junior high school students within specialized high schools will help students become more familiar with and cultivate a high-quality pool of students for specialized high schools, as well as students who excel in city and national-level competitions.

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