Schools in Nghe An explain low 10th grade entrance scores

GD&TĐ - Information that Nam Dan 2 High School (Nghe An) announced the 10th grade admission score with only 2.5 points/3 subjects has attracted public attention.

2.5 points/3 subjects to be admitted to public school

Nam Dan 2 High School (Thien Nhan Commune, Nghe An ) announced that the second round of admission scores for grade 10 for the 2025-2026 school year is 2.5 points. Candidates only need 2.5 points/3 subjects (including priority and incentive points, if any) to be admitted. This information, after being shared on social networks, received many comments. Many of them said that "if the standard score is so low, there is no need to organize an entrance exam".

Mr. Pham Xuan Phu - Principal of Nam Dan 2 High School confirmed that the school's second round admission benchmark score was 7 points lower than the first round benchmark score (9.5 points) and is the lowest level ever.

Nghe An candidates take the 10th grade entrance exam in 2025. Photo: Ho Lai

According to the Principal of Nam Dan 2 High School, the drop in admission scores was predicted. Specifically, in the 2025-2026 school year, the school was assigned by the Nghe An Department of Education and Training to enroll 10 classes with 450 students. However, when the application deadline expired, the school only had 419 applications to take the entrance exam, so the Department adjusted the quota down to 400 and still held the entrance exam.

After the 10th grade entrance exam, because students were allowed to change their wishes, the number of applications to the school increased to 442. At this time, the school was "returned" to the quota of 450 10th grade students. After the first round of admissions, there was still a shortage of quotas, so the school announced additional recruitment.

“Because the number of remaining applications is not much, according to the admission regulations, candidates who do not violate the exam regulations and do not have a failing score will have their scores taken from top to bottom, taking any student who is accepted until the quota is met. After lowering the score to 2.5 points, there are currently 31 candidates who are eligible for admission. Of these, only 1 student has a score of 2.5 points. Currently, the school is still short of 12 students compared to the assigned quota.

Regarding the quality of this year's admission with the record low standard score, Mr. Pham Xuan Phu said that there is a big difference between the top and bottom groups. According to statistics, among more than 400 students entering the school this year, the number of students with an average score of 5 points per subject accounts for about 52% of the school's students, the top student is a student from Khanh Son Secondary School with 27.75 points.

Mr. Pham Xuan Phu added that in the 2024-2025 school year, the school's admission score was exceptionally high at 13.2 points when for the first time the school had 720 candidates registering for the exam (among them, there were quite a few students from Hung Nguyen district and the old Vinh city). The school's admission score last year was 13.2 points. In previous years, the school's admission score was only 7-9 points and was in the bottom group of the province.

The principal of Nam Dan 2 High School believes that “if the child is weak, the parents have to take better care of him/her.” If the student intake is low, the school and teachers have to work harder to teach and tutor them.

Benchmarks do not measure overall quality

In addition to Nam Dan 2 High School, many public high schools in Nghe An province also have much lower admission scores than previous years.

Nguyen Sy Sach High School (formerly Thanh Chuong district) announced the first round benchmark score as 5.75 points. According to teacher Tran Dinh Hien - the school's principal, he also admitted that "this is an unprecedentedly low score". However, the school still had to decide to set this benchmark score because the number of candidates taking the exam this year was much lower than last year. Accordingly, the school had 450 targets but only 411 students took the exam (after changing their wishes).

Along with lowering the maximum admission score, Nguyen Sy Sach High School also asked for the opinion of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training to recruit 42 additional students. The scope of recruitment is all students who have taken the 10th grade entrance exam in the province, even if they have not previously registered for the school. The school will take the admission score from top to bottom until the quota is full.

The admission scores for grade 10 of high school in the 2025-2026 school year in Nghe An are predicted to be lower than in previous years. Photo: Ho Lai

Similarly, Dang Thai Mai High School (Bich Hao Commune, Nghe An) also announced the recruitment of 15 additional students who have not been admitted to grade 10 of high schools in the province. Previously, the admission score to the school was only 10.75 points.

In the urban area of ​​the old Vinh City, Ha Huy Tap High School's admission score for the first round was 17.75 points, for the second round it was 17.5 points, while the admission score for the 2024-2025 school year was 21 points. Le Viet Thuat High School's admission score was 15.25 points, 6.4 points lower than the previous school year (21.65 points for the first round).

The drop in benchmark scores was also predicted, the reason being that the number of 9th graders in the province decreased by 5,000 students compared to last year. Meanwhile, the Department still maintains the enrollment target for 10th graders to avoid putting pressure on the first batch of students taking the 2018 General Education Program. In addition, it aims to stabilize the size of schools and teachers because it is expected that in the following years, the number of students will continue to increase.

Regarding the issue of many schools having low admission scores, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Head of Secondary Education Department, Nghe An Department of Education and Training informed: After students registered for the 10th grade entrance exam, the whole province had 11 public schools with a number of registered students lower than the target. However, the entrance exam is still organized for the purpose of assessing quality, and for students to take the exam to get a base score to enter specialized schools or change their wishes to another public high school in the province after finishing the exam. Therefore, in these schools, all students on the exam list must be taken to meet the enrollment target.

Regarding the 10th grade entrance exam, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung said that the exam results are an important measure to evaluate the quality of education in the whole province. Because the exam is the same for the whole province, there is differentiation, so there will certainly be a difference in scores between regions and schools.

However, the province's score distribution this year is quite good. In which, the average score for Literature is 7.17; Math is 5.66 and Foreign Language is 5.06. The average score of 3 subjects for the 10th grade entrance exam of the whole province is 17.89 points. This result also reflects the efforts in teaching, learning and exam preparation of schools and students. Nam Dan 2 High School alone has an average score of 3 subjects of 15.03 points, in which: Math is 4.68, Literature is 6.58 and Foreign Language is 3.74 points.

According to the Head of the Secondary Education Department, Nghe An Department of Education and Training, from the analysis of the score distribution, it can be said that the low benchmark scores of some high schools do not fully assess the quality of the exam as well as the quality of candidates this year in Nghe An province. The number of candidates admitted with very low scores is also extremely small. When organizing the entrance exam, it also creates motivation for students and secondary schools to compete and make efforts in teaching and improving quality.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/truong-hoc-tai-nghe-an-ly-giai-diem-chuan-vao-lop-10-thap-post738313.html