According to Vinh, a gifted school should not merely function as a "high-quality" school that forces thousands of children into relentless exam preparation.

VietNamNet presents below the insights expressed by Prof. Vinh (Ministry of Education and Training) about the gifted school entrance examinations:

Following the 2026 10th-grade entrance exams for two university-affiliated gifted high schools in Hanoi, two very familiar yet thought-provoking images emerged concerning the gifted exam and, more broadly, the entire specialized school system.

The first image is the sight of students packing the school courtyards for the gifted exams. The crowds were immense not just for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, but also for Literature, History, Geography, and English.

The second image is a Mathematics exam paper that left many onlookers gasping: “The exams nowadays are so incredibly difficult,” or “Students today are truly brilliant.” However, perhaps we need to view these two images with greater caution.

If gifted schools are genuinely reserved for a small minority of students with exceptional abilities and specific passions for an academic field, then why is the volume of candidates so staggeringly high?

The answer is actually quite straightforward: A vast number of these students do not take the exam because they want a "specialized" education. They take it because they want a better school: a better environment, better peers, better teachers, better discipline, a stronger brand name, and better opportunities.

To put it bluntly, in the perception of many parents and students, gifted schools increasingly resemble high-quality public schools rather than genuine specialized training grounds.

Yet, these two concepts are fundamentally different.

A high-quality general education school is a place where many students can study well, develop well, and mature well. A true gifted school, conversely, must be narrower, deeper, and far more selective. It must be a haven tailored for a small minority of students who genuinely possess outstanding capabilities, harbor a true passion for academia, and stand ready to pursue a field at a much more rigorous level compared to the standard general curriculum.

When thousands of students must throw themselves into a test-prep race just to win a slot in a "better" environment, the problem no longer lies solely within the gifted schools. The larger issue rests in the fact that the standard general education system has yet to create enough good schools to give parents peace of mind and spare students from having to engage in such a frantic race.

The second image also demands a closer inspection. More difficult exam questions do not automatically mean students are becoming smarter; it could simply indicate that the test-preparation market is becoming increasingly professionalized.

When exam questions are pushed to an extreme difficulty level to rank and classify candidates, the test-prep market immediately adapts. Students drill earlier, longer, and more precisely according to specific question types. Consequently, the exams are made even harder. The race keeps escalating to another level.

Eventually, the question is no longer whether the children are genuinely passionate, whether they understand concepts deeply, or whether they possess unique talents. The question shifts to: Have they been trained early enough, long enough, and on the exact right test patterns?

Of course, without inherent capability, it would be difficult to train to such a level. However, if a child is truly brilliant and naturally gifted, they should not have to waste years of their life merely drilling for exams. That time could be better spent reading more deeply, executing fascinating projects, researching what they love, and discovering a wide-open world.

In other words, education should be used to nurture true talent, rather than merely optimizing the ability to take an exam.

This is not to deny the value of gifted schools. On the contrary, those who truly value gifted schools should think more seriously about what gifted schools are supposed to be.

If society needs more good schools, then more general schools should be improved. Gifted schools should not have to carry the entirely legitimate aspirations of parents and students.

If the goal is to nurture talent, then gifted schools must truly function as gifted schools: deeper and more demanding programs, higher academic pressure, greater requirements for research and self-study, and a different selection process.

If that happens, perhaps most students currently rushing into the gifted school race would no longer apply. Simply because they neither need nor want an environment that is so academically specialized, intense and pressuring.

Thuy Nga