Why does Kim Lien High School, a top school, have a Japanese language benchmark score of 15.75?

According to the announcement of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, in 2025, Kim Lien High School has a standard score of 25.5 for 10th grade admission (average 8.5 points per subject), the highest among 115 public high schools in the city. However, the Japanese class has a standard score of 15.75, much lower than the general admission score for 10th grade.

Speaking to reporters, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, Principal of Kim Lien High School, explained that in the 2025-2026 school year, the school was assigned to recruit 90 students for the Japanese language class (an increase of 1 class compared to last year). However, to take the Japanese language class exam, students must ensure the condition of studying Japanese for 4 years in middle school, which are students with a clear direction in choosing Japanese as their first foreign language, so the source of recruitment is quite scarce. Not to mention, specialized high schools also have Japanese language classes, students have many options to register their wishes to apply to the schools.

Grade 9 students in Hanoi take the entrance exam to grade 10 high school this year.

Due to low recruitment sources and increased quotas, in order to ensure the rights of candidates as well as ensure the assigned quotas of the school, the benchmark score for the Japanese class at Kim Lien High School this year has decreased.

“However, only one candidate was admitted with a score of 15.75, the rest had scores of 20.5 or higher, many of them had scores of 24 or higher. If a candidate has a low score, the school will have a solution to support them, without affecting the overall quality of education in the Japanese class,” said Ms. Hien.

In addition, according to Ms. Hien, in 2024, the standard score for the Japanese class to enroll in Kim Lien High School is 41.25 points (an average of more than 8 points per subject to be admitted), 0.5 points lower than the standard score for the English class. Therefore, it is also possible that parents have the mentality that Kim Lien School had high scores last year so they "avoid" it to take another foreign language exam.

Along with Kim Lien High School, this year, Viet Duc High School was also assigned 90 quotas for 2 Japanese classes as a first foreign language. The admission score for Viet Duc's Japanese class is 23.5.

According to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, non-specialized foreign language programs organized at all high schools are English. The Japanese program (first foreign language) is organized at two schools: Kim Lien High School and Viet Duc High School.

There is also a French bilingual program and an intensive French and German program organized at Viet Duc High School.

The condition for students to register for admission to grade 10 Japanese as a foreign language is that they have studied 4 years of Japanese at junior high school.