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 even a student with a score of 9/3 subjects could 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.

Input into the education sector has increased from the "bottom" to the top in the past 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" 4-5 points/subject to be admitted.

The education sector 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 so poorly that you can't pass other majors, you can 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.

That day, 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 National University) had to exclaim that he was "very worried" about the input of the teaching profession. Because the teachers' professional qualifications were not solid, it meant that the next generation of students would be worse.

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 admission to university of education at 17 points, college at 15 points and intermediate pedagogy 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 majors 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 pedagogical training majors at the two Foreign Language Universities under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Hue University have absolute benchmark scores in the 2025 enrollment season (Photo: NT).

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

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

Of the 6 majors that have the 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 quite difficult additional criteria. 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 series of majors with the highest standard score 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 the Chemistry Pedagogy major, the major with the highest admission score. Next, the Literature Pedagogy major has a admission score of 29.07.

The school's four other pedagogical majors have a benchmark score 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. If 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