New regulations cause the number of candidates in Ho Chi Minh City exempted from the Foreign Language exam to decrease dramatically.

The Departmentof Education and Training (GD&DT) of Ho Chi Minh City has just announced data on candidates exempted from the Foreign Language exam in the 2025 high school graduation exam.

Accordingly, only more than 1,700 12th grade students in Ho Chi Minh City are exempted from the Foreign Language exam, a sharp decrease compared to more than 13,000 candidates last year. This is the lowest level in the past 4 years.

The main reason for this decline was explained by Mr. Ho Tan Minh, Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, due to changes in the regulations for the 2025 high school graduation exam.

The number of candidates in Ho Chi Minh City exempted from the Foreign Language exam has decreased sharply.

According to the new regulations, candidates are only exempted from the Foreign Language exam if they have a foreign language certificate from the list of 20 certificates recognized by the Ministry of Education and Training . Of these, 12 are English certificates, the rest are certificates of other languages ​​such as Russian, French, Chinese, German and Japanese. The condition is that candidates must achieve at least level B1 (according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam).

Compared to last year, when about 67,000 candidates nationwide were exempted from the Foreign Language exam (with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City accounting for the highest number), the number of candidates exempted from the exam this year has decreased sharply, especially in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Mr. Minh, in the past, Foreign Language was a compulsory subject along with Math and Literature. However, many candidates already had a Foreign Language certificate and did not need to take the exam to get university admission scores, so they registered for exemption to reduce the pressure. But in this year's graduation exam, Foreign Language has become an optional subject. Candidates who do not need to take the exam and do not have a satisfactory Foreign Language certificate will not choose this subject.

In addition, previously, candidates could convert foreign language certificates, such as IELTS 4.0 or higher, into 10 points in the graduation exam. However, the new regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training have removed this provision, making it impossible for candidates to easily achieve high scores in Foreign Language without having to take the exam.

Mr. Minh said that reducing the number of candidates exempted from the exam is understandable. Candidates who want to apply for university admission with English subject combinations, but whose certificate scores are not high enough, will have to take the exam to get better results. Currently, many universities require candidates to have IELTS 5.0 or higher or equivalent certificates for admission.

Mr. Nhan

Source: https://tienphong.vn/quy-che-moi-lam-so-thi-sinh-tphcm-duoc-mien-thi-ngoai-ngu-giam-dot-bien-post1740824.tpo