The most noticeable policies on education coming into force from the middle of April, 2018

1. Regulations on enrolment for pedagogical courses

This is the most noticeable content in the Circular No. 07/2018/TT-BGDDT, which comes into force from April 16, 2018, on changing name and amending the Regulation on enrolment for full-time undergraduate courses, and enrolment for full-time associate’s-degree courses in teacher education issued under the Circular No. 05/2017/TT-BGDDT. />
According to this Circular, high school graduates who want to enroll for teacher education programs provided by the education institutions that enroll candidates without consideration of their results obtained in the National high school graduation examination must meet specific admission standards. To be specific:

- Undergraduate courses:

+ they must have an excellent ranking in study results of the 12th grade; or 

+ have a good ranking or higher in study results of the 12th grade if they enroll for a training course for Music teachers, Art teachers or Physical education teachers.

- College or intermediate professional education level:

+ they must have a good ranking or higher in study results of the 12th grade; or 

+ have an average ranking or higher in study results of the 12th grade if they enroll for a training course for Music teachers, Art teachers or Physical education teachers (at college level) or Physical education and Sports teachers (intermediate professional education level).

2. Amendments to Regulation on national high school graduation examination

The Circular No. 04/2018/TT-BGDDT on amendments to the Regulation on national high school graduation examination and graduation certification issued together with the Circular No. 04/2017/TT-BGDDT officially comes into force from April 15, 2018.

 The following are the most noticeable contents of the Regulation, as amended.

- Exam papers will be marked by adopting the 10-point grading scale. If the final mark of an exam paper is the odd number, it shall be rounded to two decimal places (Currently, it shall be rounded to the nearest 0.25);

- The candidate who deliberately forges documents for enjoying priority policies in the exam, or allows another person to sit the exam for him/her, or performs other acts of exam malpractice, shall have his/her exam results cancelled and must abide by a competent authority’s decision on such malpractice. (Previously, he/she shall be banned from learning at any education institution in the same year and banned from sitting the graduation examination in two subsequent years); 

- The child of a person who is eligible for enjoying benefits provided for a sick soldier and suffers from the whole person impairment of 81% or greater shall have no mark added to his/her exam paper.

3. Higher education institutions’ determination of enrolment quota

This is the most noticeable content of the Circular No. 06/2018/TT-BGDDT, which is coming into force from April 15, 2018, on determination of enrolment quota for training courses in teacher education at college and intermediate professional education level, and that for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

According to this Circular, higher education institutions shall exercise their autonomy over determination of enrolment quota. (Currently, they must register annual enrolment quota with the Ministry of Education and Training). 

Then, higher education institutions must update the management software of the Ministry of Education and Training with the information concerning criteria for determination of enrolment quota, determined enrolment quota and enrolment results.

Higher education institutions are required to publish information about their preparations for ensuring educational quality, database and criteria for determination of enrolment quota, determined enrolment quota, enrolment plan, percentage of graduates getting jobs after graduation and other contents on their websites and the management software of the Ministry of Education and Training.

4. Changing enrolment quota in some military academies in 2018

The Circular No. 24/2018/TT-BQP on amendments to the Circular No. 17/2016/TT-BQP providing guidelines for enrolment at military academies and the Circular No. 42/2017/TT-BQP on amendments to the Circular No. 17/2016/TT-BQP. />
According to the Circular, Northern, Southern or military zone-based enrolment quota of some military academies shall be determined as follows:

- Military Technical Academy: 80% of candidates enrolled in this school have permanent residence in the North; the remaining 20% of those have permanent residence in the South;

- Nguyen Hue University shall base on entrance exam results to enroll candidates from military zones in the South according to the following percentage: Military zone 4: 03%, Military zone 5: 37%, Military zone 7: 35% and Military zone 9: 25%;

- Tran Dai Nghia University: 40% of candidates enrolled in this school have permanent residence in the North, the remaining 60% of those have permanent residence in the South;

- Military Academy of Logistics, Vietnam Naval Academy, Ngo Quyen University, Telecommunications University, Political University and the Army Officer College of Special Forces: 65% of candidates enrolled in each of these schools have permanent residence in the North, the remaining 35% of those have permanent residence in the South.

The Circular No.24/2018/TT-BTC is coming into force from April 15, 2018.

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