Mongolia curriculum

Overview

Mongolia's general education runs for 12 years under the Ministry of Education and Science (MES), which sets national curriculum standards, approves textbooks, and runs the country's state examinations through the Education Evaluation Center (EEC). The current 12-year structure (grades 1-12) replaced an earlier 11-year system through a transition that began with the 2008 intake and phased in grade by grade as that cohort moved up. It is organised into three stages: primary education (grades 1-5), lower secondary education (grades 6-9), and upper secondary education (grades 10-12). The first nine years, primary plus lower secondary, make up Mongolia's compulsory "basic education." Upper secondary is not compulsory, but most students who finish lower secondary continue into it, since it leads toward Mongolia's unified university entrance exam, EYESH, which decides admission to higher education. EYESH has its own programme file with its subjects, scoring and registration; this file covers only the general school structure, curriculum standards and day-to-day assessment that come before it.

Who it covers

Compulsory education covers grades 1 to 9, roughly ages 6 to 15, for every school-age child in Mongolia. A non-compulsory pre-primary stage (kindergarten) is available from around age 2 to 5 under the same ministry, but it is not part of compulsory schooling. Entry to grade 1 is generally set at age 6. Upper secondary (grades 10-12) sits outside compulsory education, but it is the normal next step for a student who completes lower secondary, since EYESH and most higher-education and vocational routes expect a completed upper-secondary education.

Structure

Primary education (grades 1-5)

Five years of compulsory schooling building basic literacy, numeracy and foundational subject knowledge under MES's national core curriculum. Grade 5 ends with a state examination in Mongolian language, mathematics and science, which checks whether a student has met the required standard for this stage before moving into lower secondary.

Lower secondary education (grades 6-9)

Four further years of compulsory schooling, continuing under the same national curriculum at a deeper level and adding subjects such as history, geography, biology, physics and chemistry as a student moves through the grades. Grade 9 ends with the Basic National Examination, which assesses four areas: Mongolian language (including the traditional Mongolian script) and literature, mathematics, a chosen subject from history, science or social studies, and a foreign language (English or Russian). Passing this examination is required to progress from lower secondary into upper secondary.

Upper secondary education (grades 10-12)

Three non-compulsory years that most students who pass the Basic National Examination go on to complete. The curriculum continues at a more advanced level, and grade 12 ends with a further state examination administered by the Education Evaluation Center. Completing upper secondary is the normal route into EYESH, Mongolia's unified university entrance exam, covered in its own programme file.

Curriculum standards

MES issues one national core curriculum covering preschool through upper secondary, rather than leaving subject content to individual schools or provinces. The current version was the product of a nationwide revision carried out by MES in 2019, which rewrote the curriculum across all grades to reduce repeated topics between grades, improve how learning builds from one grade to the next, and align subjects with more recent approaches to teaching, such as problem-solving-based learning in mathematics and social science, inquiry-based learning in science, and project- or product-based learning in design and technology. This revised curriculum was rolled out nationwide from the 2019-2020 academic year. A further revision is already in motion: Government Resolution No. 176 of 2024 approved a "Concept of Preschool and General Education Curriculum" as the policy basis for the next curriculum update, though the detail of that update was not available from the sources used for this file.

Assessment approach

Day-to-day assessment in Mongolian schools is continuous and school-based. Separately, the Education Evaluation Center administers state examinations at three fixed points in the system: grade 5 (Mongolian language, mathematics and science), grade 9 (the Basic National Examination, described above), and grade 12. These state examinations are distinct from EYESH, the unified university entrance exam: the grade 9 and grade 12 state exams check whether a student has met the standard to progress to the next stage of schooling, while EYESH is a separate exam students sit, by subject choice, specifically to apply for university or college admission.

After school

Finishing lower secondary and passing the Basic National Examination is what allows a student to move into upper secondary. Finishing upper secondary and its grade 12 state examination is what allows a student to sit EYESH, Mongolia's unified university entrance exam, which decides admission to higher education based on the subjects a candidate chooses to be tested in. EYESH's subjects, registration process and scoring are covered in its own programme file, not repeated here.

Preparation tips

• Confirm which grade-level state examination applies before treating it as the finish line: grade 9's Basic National Examination gates entry to upper secondary, while EYESH after grade 12 is the separate exam that gates university admission.

• For the grade 9 Basic National Examination, plan around all four assessed areas together (Mongolian language and literature, mathematics, one of history/science/social studies, and a foreign language) rather than focusing on only one subject.

• Treat the choice of foreign language (English or Russian) and, at upper secondary, subject options as decisions worth making early, since they carry through to the Basic National Examination and can affect EYESH subject choices later.

• Check with the school or local education authority for the current academic-year calendar and any term changes, since Mongolia's school calendar has been adjusted in recent years (for example, changes to term breaks).