Nearly 16,000 Hanoi students exempted from foreign language graduation exam

The number of Hanoi students exempted from the Foreign Language exam and having their 10th grade graduation score counted this year is nearly 16,000 - the highest level since 2019.

According to statistics released on May 25 by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, the number of students exempted from the exam and having their 10th grade foreign language subject counted as graduation grade 10 in the city has increased continuously. In 2019, there were about 5,000 students in this category, and after four years, the number has increased to 15,991.

This year alone, the number of students exempted from the Foreign Language exam accounts for about 16% of the total number of candidates taking the high school graduation exam in Hanoi.

According to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training , candidates are exempted from taking the exam and scoring 10 foreign language subjects (English, Russian, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean) if they are members of the national team competing in international Olympics, or have a valid foreign language certificate, valid until June 27.

In particular, for English - the subject that nearly 90% of candidates take in the annual graduation exam, from 4.0 IELTS is considered as 10 points in the graduation exam. For other foreign languages, the regulations on conversion certificates are as follows:

Nearly 16,000 Hanoi students exempted from foreign language graduation exam

Nearly 16,000 Hanoi students exempted from Foreign Language graduation exam - 1

Every year, tens of thousands of candidates are exempted from the Foreign Language graduation exam. Ho Chi Minh City has about 6,000-8,000 students each year, and in some provinces such as Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho..., the number of students in this category fluctuates in the hundreds. Most of them have an international English certificate IELTS.

The conversion of 4.0 IELTS to a 10 in Foreign Language graduation has been controversial. Many experts say the conversion is reasonable, based on the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam, but many teachers say it is unreasonable because the nature of the graduation exam and IELTS is different.

However, most agree that very few candidates take the IELTS test to get a 4.0 to be exempt from the graduation exam, most of them use it for university admission and studying abroad.

This year's admission season, about 100 universities use international language certificates for admission. However, schools often convert certificate scores, then combine them with transcript scores and high school graduation exam scores for admission. Normally, candidates with 5.5 IELTS or higher are considered equivalent to 8-10 points in English. Therefore, calculating a graduation score of 10 for candidates with 4.0 IELTS almost does not cause inequality in university admission.