Solutions for candidates to choose subjects suitable for human resources

LITERATURE IS THE SUBJECT WITH THE MOST CANDIDATES REGISTERED , GERMAN IS THE LEAST

According to information from the Ministry of Education and Training, this year's high school graduation exam has 1,165,289 candidates registered to take the exam, an increase of nearly 98,000 candidates compared to 2024 (with 1,067,391 candidates registered to take the exam). Also from the above data, when arranged in descending order by the number of candidates for each subject, it can be seen that literature has the highest number of candidates registered, followed by math, these are two compulsory subjects. German and Russian are ranked last.

- Ảnh 1. — The Ministry of Education and Training has announced the number of candidates registering for the 2025 high school graduation exam and the percentage of elective subjects.

Specifically, the order and number of candidates registered for the subjects are as follows: literature (ranked 1st; with 1,151,687 candidates), mathematics (2nd; 1,145,449), history (3rd; 499,357), geography (4th; 494,081), English (5th; 358,870), physics (6th; 354,298), economic and legal education (7th; 247,248), chemistry (8th; 246,700), biology (9th; 72,669), agricultural technology (10th; 21,962), information technology (11th; 7,716), civic education (12th; 4,835), Chinese (13th; 4,366), industrial technology (14th; 2,428), Korean (15th; 561), Japanese (16; 500), French (17; 408), German (18; 171) and Russian (19; 103).

CANDIDATES CHOOSE SUBJECTS ACCORDING TO CAREER ORIENTATION

The 2024 high school graduation exam has 6 subjects, including 3 compulsory subjects: literature, math and foreign language. In addition, candidates choose one of 2 groups to take the exam, which are the natural science group (physics, chemistry, biology) and the social science group (history, geography, civic education ).

The 2025 high school graduation exam has 4 subjects, of which 2 are compulsory subjects: literature and mathematics. Candidates can choose 2 more subjects from the following subjects (foreign languages including English and other foreign languages), physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, technology ( agriculture , industry), history, geography, economic education and law. With this organization method, the percentage of candidates registering for each subject compared to the total number of candidates registering for the exam is reduced compared to the 2024 exam.

History (66.16% in 2024 - 42.85% in 2025), geography (66.02% - 42.40%), English (91.95% - 30.8%), physics (32.38% - 30.40%), chemistry (32.47% - 21.17%), biology (32.08% - 6.24%). As for civic education, in 2024 it is 54.68%, in 2025 it is 0.41% but there is an additional 21.22% for economics and law education.

In 2025, candidates will choose subjects based on their career orientation, so the exam results will certainly be more substantial and reflect the quality of the exam than in the previous years. For example, in 2025, 30.40% of candidates will choose physics, 21.17% will choose chemistry, and 6.24% will choose biology, in a ratio of 5:3:1.

Meanwhile, in 2024, the rate of all three subjects is 32% (the corresponding ratio is 1:1:1). Thus, it is possible that a significant proportion of candidates take the biology and chemistry exams only to avoid failing, not for career orientation. This is clearly reflected in some provinces and cities with the average ranking of chemistry and biology transcript scores ranked first and second, but with an average ranking of exam scores ranked 62nd and 63rd nationwide.

According to the above data, the subjects that will be included in the high school graduation exam for the first time in 2025 have very few candidates registering. Specifically, the subjects of agricultural technology (21,962 candidates - accounting for 1.88%), information technology (7,716 - 0.66%) and industrial technology (2,428 - 0.21%). According to education experts, this is because many candidates choose to study information technology but are afraid to take the exam because they do not have experience reviewing and taking the exam.

Regarding foreign languages, English is the most chosen subject with 358,870 candidates, followed by Chinese (4,366), Korean (561), Japanese (500), French (408), German (171) and Russian (103). It is worth mentioning that Russian and French were previously popular subjects in high schools, but in recent years, their popularity has decreased significantly, with over 100 candidates taking the exam nationwide.

3 FACTORS AFFECTING THE TREND OF CHOOSING SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The 2025 high school graduation exam will have 4 subjects, so the total number of exams for the entire exam will decrease from 6,106,348 in 2024 to about 4,026,157 in 2025 (expected). If we calculate the total number of natural and technological subjects (including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, technology) in 2024, it will be 2,080,191 exams, accounting for 34.07% of the total number of exams; in 2025, it is expected to be 1,851,222 exams, accounting for 40.13%, an increase of about 6% compared to the previous year. In contrast, the total number of social sciences and humanities exams (including literature, foreign languages, history, geography, civics, economics and law) in 2024 will be 4,613,409 exams, accounting for 65.93%; In 2025, there are expected to be 2,762,187 articles, accounting for 59.87% (down 6%).

These figures show that in 2025, TS will focus more on natural sciences and technology subjects than in 2024. This will be consistent with the trend of increasing demand for training in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects in higher education and vocational education.

However, this growth is quite low compared to the requirements, while subjects such as biology, information technology, and technology have very low numbers of candidates taking the exam. On the contrary, subjects such as history, geography, economic education, and law have high numbers of candidates taking the exam.

According to education experts, there are 3 factors that influence the trend of students choosing to study and take high-level social science subjects:

Firstly, the organization of the educational program, in which compulsory subjects and educational activities are more social and humanistic, with only mathematics being natural and logical.

Second, the total graduation exam score of the social science combination for many years is higher than the total exam score of the natural science combination (2 points higher).

Third, in recent years, universities have recruited many groups of students with social science subjects, including some technical majors. In addition, many high schools in mountainous areas have more social science classes than natural science classes.

SYNCHRONIZED SOLUTIONS FROM SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

In order for students to choose subjects and exams that are suitable for human resource needs (many workers are needed in science, technology, and engineering), there needs to be synchronous solutions right from junior high school.

For secondary school level, it is necessary to teach all subjects equally, improve the quality of teaching and learning of math, natural sciences and technology, create conditions for students to be interested in and invest in these subjects, instead of focusing on high school entrance exam subjects (most provinces and cities currently choose math, literature and English).

At the secondary level, organize quality career guidance activities so that when students enter high school, they can choose a combination of studies that is suitable for their career orientation and human resource needs. At the same time, implement post-secondary streaming based on students' actual career needs, not just based on academic rankings, and thus there will be a number of students with good academic performance who choose a career path early, and can go to university later.

According to some principals of junior high schools in mountainous areas, many students after graduating from junior high school and high school return to their hometowns to work for hire. This is a reality that many school administrators are very concerned about, because most of the students do not have professional or vocational qualifications.

High schools pay more attention and orient students to choose to study in natural science - technology combinations, so that students not only aim to study at university or vocational education, but also directly enter the labor market with the abilities in math, science, technology, information technology... to apply in life.

According to forecasts by education experts, some occupations that tend to increase the number of workers in the coming years are: science and technology - engineering, artificial intelligence, health care, banking and marketing...

The Ministry of Education and Training requires that the graduation exam questions for social sciences must gradually increase in difficulty (equal to natural sciences). When studying the education program in the South before 1975, it was found that over 80% of high school students chose experimental sciences (physics, chemistry, biology), and mathematics, while less than 20% chose literature (including literature in foreign languages and classical literature), because the literature department has very high requirements for literature, foreign languages, and philosophy. Thus, society also needs workers in the social sciences and humanities, but requires high quality and does not accept low quality.

Universities should link more effectively with technology, engineering and science businesses… to improve training quality, increase the employment rate of students and high income for workers in STEM professions to encourage students to study.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/giai-phap-de-thi-sinh-chon-mon-thi-phu-hop-nguon-nhan-luc-185250504201729002.htm