Flexible admission plan for primary level

The 2025-2026 school year is the third year that the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has applied the Geographic Information System (abbreviated as GIS digital map) to the primary school admissions. Based on the experience gained from the previous 2 school years, this year the admission methods and subjects are more flexible, meeting the maximum demand for places to study of the people.

Increase cross-line opportunities

In the 2023-2024 school year, GIS maps were first piloted for allocating primary school places for students in Thu Duc City, District 8 and Tan Binh District. Thanks to this support tool, the allocation of school places is close to the actual needs of the people, especially convenient for commuting due to the shortest distance from home to school.

On that basis, in the 2024-2025 school year, GIS maps will be expanded to cover the entire city. Depending on local conditions, Thu Duc City and 21 districts will combine the use of GIS maps and other admission methods to allocate study places near students' residence.

This year, the primary school admission continues to use the GIS map system combined with updating students' personal information on VNeID to allocate study places. Accordingly, the allocation is not based on ward administrative boundaries but prioritizes the current place of residence, creating conditions for students to study at schools near their homes, ensuring accuracy and synchronization on the general management system of theeducation sector.

One of the new points of this year's primary admission is that the admission criteria have been expanded to include: current residence, place of study at the previous level (5-year-old kindergarten for admission to grade 1, grade 5 for admission to grade 6), and parents' workplace. At the same time, there are solutions for special cases such as children of workers and students living in border areas.

Students of Mac Dinh Chi Secondary School (Tan Binh District) on the school's inauguration day, late April 2025. Photo: THU TAM

In Tan Phu district, Head of the Department of Education and Training Phan Si Dat informed that students who wish to study in areas other than their residential areas (subject 2) will be considered for schools that are still able to accept students, with priority given to students who have completed preschool and primary school programs in Tan Phu district, whose father or mother works in the district, whose current residence according to VNeID is in border areas or special cases with legitimate reasons.

Similarly, in District 3, students are considered for admission outside their designated area based on the following priority order: students whose parents are civil servants or public employees working in District 3; students whose current residence according to VNeID is in the border area between District 3 and neighboring districts but not more than 1,000m; students whose parents work in organizations or businesses headquartered in District 3.

Non-priority cases will be considered for admission last based on the schools' capacity and the decision of the Primary Admission Steering Committee. In District 8, primary admission will prioritize students in grades 1 and 6 who currently reside in District 8, and then consider students who do not actually reside in the area.

Cross-district admission only applies to students who have registered on the city's general admission system, have completed preschool and primary school programs at schools in District 8; have a parent working at an agency or organization located in District 8; students whose current residence according to VNeID is in a border area; students who have transferred provinces.

Carefully examine student abilities

According to the plan to mobilize children to go to school in the 2025-2026 school year announced by the People's Committee of Thu Duc City and districts, this year the number of junior high schools recruiting students for grade 6 based on student capacity assessment remains stable compared to the 2024-2025 school year. Specifically, the whole city has 6 schools recruiting students for grade 6 based on student capacity assessment, including: Tran Quoc Toan 1 Junior High School, Hoa Lu Junior High School, Binh Tho Junior High School (Thu Duc City), Nguyen Huu Tho Junior High School (District 7), Tran Dai Nghia Junior High School - High School (District 1) and Nguyen An Khuong Junior High School (Hoc Mon District).

Of which, only Tran Dai Nghia Secondary and High School has the survey questions created by the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, the remaining schools are created by the Department of Education and Training. Students who participate in the survey but are not admitted to secondary schools that enroll in this form will still be considered for admission to the remaining public secondary schools according to the initial enrollment plan of districts and Thu Duc City.

In addition to the 6 schools that conduct student capacity assessments, some “hot” secondary schools still maintain the admission method based on students’ learning results in primary school. Nguyen Du Secondary School and Huynh Khuong Ninh Secondary School (District 1) plan to admit students with a final exam score of 20 points in 2 subjects: Vietnamese and Math.

Similarly, Van Don Secondary School (District 4) admits 15% of the total number of 5th grade students of each primary school based on the total score of 3 subjects: Math, Vietnamese, English at the end of the 5th grade school year; students with excellent results from grades 1 to 5 in primary school.

Secondary schools: Nguyen Van To (District 10), Le Quy Don (District 3), Hong Bang (District 5), Le Van Tam (Binh Thanh District), Nguyen Du (Go Vap District) are expected to admit students to grade 6 according to the same admission criteria as the previous school year.

Source: https://ttbc-hcm.gov.vn/linh-hoat-phuong-an-tuyen-sinh-dau-cap-1018654.html