The Hanoi Department of Education and Training announced on 9/3 that the two schools are Viet Hung High School in Dong Anh commune and a school on plot A11 in the Cau Giay new urban area.

Both schools are situated in densely populated, rapidly growing areas of the city, where the annual competition ratio for 10th grade often approaches 1/2. The high school in Cau Giay was initially expected to begin enrollment last year but was not ready.

The Department has not yet released the specific enrollment quotas for these schools. However, based on annual data and typical class sizes at this educational level, a public high school usually admits approximately 450-700 10th-grade students, forming 10-15 classes.

Students taking the 10th-grade exam in Hanoi in 2025. *Photo: Tung Dinh*.

Last year, the capital introduced two new public high schools, Do Muoi and Phuc Thinh, which admitted 900 10th-grade students through an "overflow" enrollment system. Eligibility for this system required candidates not to have secured a place in any public school option, to have an admission score of 12 or higher across the three subjects: Math, Literature, and Foreign Language, and it was applied without distinguishing between enrollment areas.

Currently, Hanoi has about 120 public high schools and over 100 private schools, in addition to other educational models such as self-governing public schools, jointly managed public schools, vocational education centers, continuing education centers, and international schools.

For many years, the capital has grappled with a persistent shortage of public high schools. The city's 10th-grade entrance exam is widely regarded as the most challenging nationwide, attracting over 100,000 candidates annually. Typically, only about 64% of these candidates secure admission to public schools, with this figure dropping to as low as 55% in some years.

By Thanh Hang