Pedagogy: From the era of "9 points in 3 subjects" to the fiercest playground in 2025

(Dan Tri) - The teaching profession was once considered a disaster when students with 9 points/3 subjects could still be admitted. Now, this profession is a playground where even good students have difficulty being admitted.

Going back to the 2010s, after a period considered to be at its peak, teacher input fell to what was considered a “disaster”, especially in 2017.

That year, some teacher training colleges had a benchmark score of only 9 points/3 subjects, meaning that for each subject, candidates only needed 3 points to pass.

The education industry's input has increased from the "bottom" to the top in the last two decades (Photo: Hoai Nam).

At the university level, that year the Ministry of Education and Training set a common minimum score for all exam groups of 15.5. Except for the top pedagogical schools with good scores, some universities with many conversion methods still "dodged" the score of 4-5 points/subject to be admitted.

Pedagogy is at the "bottom", while the "top" belongs to military, police, and medical schools, where scores of 29 or even 30 points are still failing.

During that period, in admissions consulting programs, when mentioning the teaching profession, there were "laugh-but-tear" situations.

At that time, parents, students and even admissions experts told each other, "If you study too poorly and can't pass other majors, then take the teacher training exam." It was bitter, but that was the reality when the teacher training entrance exam was "unbelievably low", so much so that many people "defaulted" that teaching was for weak students.

At that time, a series of education experts and teachers could not hide their pain when the quality of pedagogical input plummeted.

Before the pedagogical benchmark at that time, Dr. Tran Nam Dung, Vice Principal of the Gifted High School (at that time a lecturer at the University of Natural Sciences , Ho Chi Minh City National University) had to exclaim that he was “very worried” about the input of the teaching profession. Because the teachers had weak professional qualifications, which meant that the next generation of students would be worse off.

In order to ensure the quality of teacher training input and prevent the situation of "sweeping the little things" into pedagogy, in 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training set the minimum score without coefficient for the admission combinations to pedagogical universities at 17 points, colleges at 15 points and intermediate pedagogical colleges at 13 points.

Since then, along with the medical industry, every year the Ministry of Education and Training has issued a floor score framework for the pedagogical industry, fluctuating between 18-19 points depending on the year and industry.

In 2025, the general minimum score for university-level teacher training programs is 19 points, and for Music Pedagogy, Fine Arts Pedagogy, and Physical Education, it is 18 points. For college level, the admission threshold for Preschool Education is 16.5 points.

In fact, the benchmark scores at most teacher training colleges are now far and much higher than the floor scores set by the Ministry.

Whichever school has teacher training, the teacher training major has the highest admission score, which is obvious in recent years, especially in this year's admission season.

Four teacher training majors at the two universities of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Hue University have absolute admission scores in the 2025 admission season (Photo: NT).

This year, the education industry "swept" with a top standard score of 30/30, surpassing many professions to be at the top in most schools that train teachers.

The standard score for pedagogy is also far higher than the majors that are often at the top of the career rankings such as "first medicine, second pharmacy".

Of the 6 majors that have an absolute standard score of 30/30 this year, 4 are in the field of pedagogy. These 4 majors include English Pedagogy and Chinese Pedagogy at the 2 Foreign Language Universities of Hanoi National University and Hue University.

Not only that, Hue University also applies additional criteria that are quite difficult. For English Pedagogy, candidates must achieve an English score of 9.5 or higher, and a literature score of 8.5 or higher. For Chinese Pedagogy, candidates must achieve a perfect foreign language score of 10/10.

Besides these 4 majors with perfect scores, a series of pedagogical majors at many universities also have extremely high admission scores, far surpassing other majors.

At Hanoi National University of Education, the highest standard score for a series of majors this year is 29.06 in History Pedagogy, candidates must achieve a minimum of nearly 9.7 points/subject.

Along with that, there are a series of pedagogical majors with benchmark scores above 28 such as Mathematics Pedagogy, Literature Pedagogy, Physics Pedagogy, Chemistry Pedagogy, Geography Pedagogy...

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, this year, candidates must score at least 29.38 points to be admitted to Chemistry Pedagogy, the major with the highest admission score at the school. Next, Literature Pedagogy has a admission score of 29.07.

The school's four other pedagogical majors have benchmark scores above 28, including History Pedagogy, Geography Pedagogy, Mathematics Pedagogy and Physics Pedagogy.

At many other multidisciplinary universities, pedagogy is also the major with the highest standard score.

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, among 86 training majors, English Pedagogy has the highest standard score of up to 29.57 points, Technology Pedagogy 26.79 points.

The education sector is now a "playground" reserved only for good and excellent students (Photo: Hoai Nam).

At Thai Nguyen University, Can Tho University, Vinh University with diverse training fields, pedagogy is still the major with the highest standard score this year.

With scores for many pedagogical majors above 28, candidates are required to achieve at least 9.4 points/subject or higher. Based on the reference system of good scores from 8 to 9, excellent from 9 and above, it can be seen that many pedagogical majors now even good students "cannot play", and excellent students also have to compete fiercely to be admitted.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nganh-su-pham-tu-thoi-9-diem-3-mon-den-san-choi-khoc-liet-nhat-2025-20250829070013312.htm