Candidates taking the 10th grade entrance exam in Dak Lak for the 2025-2026 school year - Photo: MINH PHUONG
In some places, candidates who scored less than 2 points per subject were still admitted to grade 10. This seemingly unbelievable number is ringing an alarm bell: Are we trading off the quality of generaleducation by opening the door to grade 10 for everyone without a suitable support and streaming mechanism?
Reasons why 10th grade benchmark scores "hit rock bottom"
Some of the reasons why the benchmark scores "hit rock bottom" in the 10th grade entrance exam as they are now include:
First, the gap in education quality between regions when synchronously implementing the 2018 General Education Program nationwide.
This is due to the difficult socio -economic conditions in many remote areas, leading to limited investment in infrastructure, lack of professionally trained teachers and lack of teaching equipment suitable for innovation requirements.
At the same time, students in these areas enter secondary school with a low input foundation and continue to face difficulties in the learning process due to a lack of a positive learning environment and inadequate support in the process of converting methods.
Meanwhile, urban students have advantages in terms of academic background, family conditions and support outside of school, thereby creating an increasingly large gap in educational quality between regions.
Second, the "gap" between curriculum - teaching - testing is getting bigger.
While teachers are required to move to competency-based learning and are still in the transition period for a comprehensive transition, the exam has approached the question-setting process with a student competency assessment approach. As a result, students who may be average in class may still get low scores because they are unfamiliar with the new exam format or exam pressure.
Third, the test may not reflect the correct competency orientation and be close to the program's requirements, or the number of basic-level questions may not be large enough to "save" the group of candidates with average ability.
Many exams still rely heavily on memorization, practice, and test-taking tips, and lack practical situations, which goes against the orientation of developing qualities and abilities in the new general education program. In particular, the exams do not ensure balance between regions, creating a clear disadvantage for students in rural and mountainous areas.
Fourth, the knowledge base of grade 9 students is heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the online learning period, which is a huge difficulty for students in remote and isolated areas.
Propose some solutions
To fundamentally solve the problem of "low scores still being admitted" but input quality is not guaranteed, it is necessary to synchronously deploy the following solutions:
First of all, it is necessary to immediately analyze the results of the 10th grade entrance exam in 2025 by region and exam candidates to evaluate the quality of students in different regions and clearly understand the causes and especially analyze the exam questions using modern test analysis methods to know the suitability, reliability and value of the exam.
From the above analysis results, it will be clear that the core cause of low scores of some groups of students is due to student quality or ineffective curriculum or teaching methods, testing and assessment methods, so that appropriate plans can be made for students in the following years.
At the same time, research the application of a combined admission method of examination and regional selection to suit the admission target, ensuring consistency and fairness for disadvantaged groups.
Second, it is necessary to compare learning data from grades 6 to 9 with entrance exam scores for grade 10 to identify learning trends and the stability or abnormality of results. On that basis, it is possible to build an "assessment deviation" index to review the quality of assessment in educational institutions, and at the same time, recalibrate student assessment standards to match the new general education program and goals.
At the same time, it is necessary to review and adjust the matrix and specifications of periodic tests in schools in the direction of approaching the capacity, enhancing the assessment of the actual process, and training teachers on testing and assessment techniques according to the requirements of the program. This is an important step to ensure fairness, transparency and accuracy in reflecting the capacity of learners - not only in terms of scores but also in terms of future orientation.
Third, it is necessary to have activities to assess students' abilities from grades 8 and 9, and at the same time deploy a set of tools to support self-assessment of career interests and preferences of learners, integrating career guidance activities and practical experiences in the main curriculum to proactively and remotely direct students to choose high school or vocational training that suits their abilities and strengths.
Candidates taking the 10th grade entrance exam for the 2025-2026 school year at Nam Dan 2 High School (Nghe An), with 2.5 points in three subjects, still passed the 10th grade of this public school - Photo: DOAN HOA
In the long term, it is necessary to develop a model of technical high schools that exist in parallel with current high schools, designed as high schools that integrate general education training and basic vocational skills (such as electricity - electronics, mechanics, high-tech agriculture, information technology...) suitable for regions to overcome the problem of the lack of vocational secondary schools in difficult, remote and isolated areas as at present.
After graduating from technical high schools, students can take university entrance exams or go straight to work with a vocational certificate. In particular, it is necessary to create a mechanism for horizontal transfer and connection between systems so that students studying at high schools can switch to vocational training and vice versa without having to start over.
Vocational secondary school students complete their cultural program to take the high school graduation exam. Establish a common data portal connecting academic records, abilities, strengths, and support counseling with appropriate roadmaps.
Difference between final score and exam score
Another core issue that has not been deeply analyzed in the picture of grade 10 admissions is the significant difference between the total subject scores at secondary school and the entrance exam scores.
Many students have average scores in their academic records that are good or excellent, but only score very low in the entrance exam. This shows the large gap between the school's assessment and the entrance exam results - which are highly discriminatory.
High academic scores but low test scores are not necessarily due to poor student performance, but may be due to the lack of standardized testing and assessment systems and lack of connectivity between levels. If not identified and addressed, the result is that the entire system will misjudge students’ abilities, leading to errors in streamlining and career orientation.
Streaming does not mean separating classes based on scores, but rather reorganizing the system so that each student has the opportunity to develop their abilities in an open and flexible way that can be transformed according to the learner's development ability. To do this, we need to change not only the examination process, but also the thinking behind school model design and long-term educational strategy.
Misunderstanding about streaming
Reality shows that many students only start thinking about vocational training or secondary vocational education after failing to pass the 10th grade exam. Streamlining then becomes a "passive solution", not an educational strategy.
This leads to three major problems: (i) streaming is misunderstood as eliminating weak students instead of orienting them according to their abilities; (ii) the lack of early ability identification tools makes it difficult for students and parents to know which path is suitable; (iii) there is no clear connection mechanism between high school - vocational school - continuing education center, so the learning path lacks flexibility.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khi-diem-chuan-vao-lop-10-cham-day-20250710090847797.htm
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