Six secondary schools in HCM City have stated they will conduct aptitude tests to enroll students for Grade 6 in the 2025-2026 academic year: Tran Dai Nghia Secondary-High School, Tran Quoc Toan 1 Secondary School, Ho Lu Secondary School, Binh Tho Secondary School, Nguyen An Khuong Secondary School, and Nguyen Huu Tho Secondary School.

Eligible candidates must have completed primary education in HCMC and scored at least 9/10 in both Vietnamese and Mathematics in their final Grade 5 assessments.

Tran Dai Nghia will admit 350 students citywide.

Three schools in Thu Duc City (Tran Quoc Toan 1, Hoa Lu, and Binh Tho) require candidates to have completed primary education in Thu Duc City or elsewhere but currently reside in Thu Duc.

Nguyen An Khuong Secondary School recruits students from Hoc Mon District or those who completed primary education elsewhere but now reside in the district.

Nguyen Huu Tho Secondary School recruits students who completed primary education and currently reside in District 7.

High competition ratio

A total of 3,536 students have registered for aptitude tests at the three Thu Duc City schools. Specifically:

Tran Quoc Toan 1 Secondary School has received 1,236 applicants while it has only 315 seats for Grade 6, which means a competition ratio of 1:4.

Binh Tho Secondary School has 1,094 applicants for 280 spots, with a ratio of about 1:4.

Hoa Lu Secondary School has 1,203 applicants for 245 spots, with a ratio of nearly 1:5.

The competition ratios for these three schools in 2025 are higher than in 2024, when 2,837 students applied. Last year, Tran Quoc Toan 1 had 1,025 applicants for 315 spots (ratio: 1:3.3), Hoa Lu had 1,116 applicants for 385 spots (1:2.9), and Binh Tho had 696 applicants for 280 spots (1:2.5).

Nguyen An Khuong, Tran Dai Nghia, and Nguyen Huu Tho Secondary Schools have not yet announced applicant numbers or competition ratios, but they are expected to be high.

This is the second year Nguyen An Khuong and Nguyen Huu Tho has held aptitude tests. Last year, Nguyen An Khuong admitted 245 students from 724 applicants (ratio: 1:2.94), while Nguyen Huu Tho admitted 500 students from 1,652 applicants (ratio: 1:3.3).

Tran Dai Nghia Secondary-High School has a history of intense competition. In 2024, it had 4,301 applicants for 350 spots, resulting in a record-high ratio of 1:12.2. In the 2023-2024 school year, it admitted 525 Grade 6 students with about 4,800 applicants, yielding a ratio of around 1:9.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van To Secondary School (District 10) will admit 300 Grade 6 students for its integrated and enhanced English programs. Admission requires completion of primary education, a Grade 5 “excellent student” title, and at least three years of “outstanding student” titles in primary school.

The school gives privileges to applicants who have international English certificates such as PET, KET, FLYERS, TOEFL Primary, or Pearson PEIC (PTE Young Learners) at the Quickmarch level. Admission will be based on final Vietnamese and Mathematics scores from Grades 3, 4, and 5.

HCMC is projected to have 124,108 students applying for Grade 6 in 2025.

New policy

HCM City has officially abolished the enrollment scheme based on administrative boundaries, using route maps to ensure school access near home.

Grade 1 and 6 students are admitted to schools nearest to their “current places of residence”.

Under the new policy, districts and counties will develop flexible admission plans based on three factors: the distribution of schools in the area, the number of school-age children, and students’ “current places of residence” data from the education sector’s database. 

A digital GIS mapping system will calculate students’ travel distances, disregarding administrative ward boundaries, to ensure students can attend schools near their current residence and align with local conditions.

For schools located on boundaries between localities, the admissions steering committee will devise suitable plans to facilitate students attending schools close to their current residence.

Admissions will be processed via https://tuyensinhdaucap.hcm.edu.vn, using identification codes, with all information extracted from the education sector’s database.

District and county admissions steering committees will clearly define prioritized groups, establishing a legal basis for classification.

Meanwhile, “hot” schools are allowed to use both selection and testing to enroll students. They can conduct admissions based on a combination of primary school academic and behavioral performance and aptitude test results. 

Local secondary schools must meet two criteria: a history of applicant numbers exceeding admission quotas in recent years and a proposal from Thu Duc City, district, or county People’s Committees to the HCM City Department of Education and Training.

Thuy Nga