After public opinion was "in turmoil" because the Ministry of Education and Training no longer had regulations allowing the organization of tests, capacity assessments or surveys to enroll 6th grade students in special secondary schools, today, January 10, the Ministry of Education and Training had another response.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training), said: The newly issued Circular No. 30/TT-BGDDT continues to stipulate that the secondary school admission method is based on selection, along with regulations assigning the Departments of Education and Training to provide specific guidance on selection criteria, ensuring that the selection process is fair, objective, transparent, and appropriate to the local situation.

Accordingly, the Departments of Education and Training must develop a set of admission criteria applicable to all schools; at the same time, have separate criteria guidelines for schools that, after implementing admission according to general criteria, still have more students meeting the requirements than the school's assigned quota.

"The specific criteria are not only the requirements in the admission application but also need to directly assess students in many different forms such as: questions and answers, writing, presentations, practice, experiments, academic records, products, and student activities (these forms have been prescribed in the Circulars promulgating student assessment regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training) or tests and assessments of student capacity (in the spirit of regulations in Circular No. 05/2018/TT-BGDDT) to ensure that admission is carried out fairly, publicly, transparently, and in accordance with practical conditions as prescribed in Circular 30," Mr. Thanh explained.

The role of selection must be noted.

According to Mr. Thanh, previously, Circular No. 11/2014/TT-BGDDT stipulated that junior high school enrollment was conducted annually by examination. This regulation ensures that junior high school enrollment is carried out smoothly, effectively, and practically for the level of education that requires 100% of students to enroll according to the goal of universal education.

By 2018, in the face of the fact that there were a number of prestigious secondary schools with a large number of students enrolling, making the admission based on general criteria unable to meet the enrollment target, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular No. 05/2018/TT-BGDDT stipulating: "Enrollment of secondary schools by admission method. In cases where the number of students enrolling in grade 6 is greater than the enrollment target, the Department of Education and Training shall guide the implementation of the enrollment plan by admission method or combining admission with testing and assessing students' abilities".

At the time of issuing Circular No. 05/2018/TT-BGDDT, the Ministry of Education and Training also clearly stated that testing and assessing capacity is different from an exam, meaning that when conducting admission to a secondary school, if the number of students meeting the requirements of the general admission criteria still exceeds the school's assigned quota, the school can combine testing and assessing capacity to supplement the admission criteria applied to the number of students who have met the requirements of the general admission criteria, instead of organizing an entire exam with many subjects for 100% of students applying to the school.

However, through the implementation in recent years, some schools have implemented enrollment mainly based on organizing "testing and evaluating student capacity" as an entrance exam for 100% of students applying to the school; the role of "admission" in the method combined with "testing and evaluating student capacity" as prescribed in Circular No. 05/2018/TT-BGDDT has not been properly implemented.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh noted: "For enrollment at any secondary school, according to the principles of Circular No. 30, it is necessary to carry out the task of universalization in the area. That is also the basis for the Department of Education and Training to develop enrollment criteria to ensure accurate, fair, public and transparent enrollment requirements."