The Ministry of Education and Training confirmed that there would be major disruption if it recruited additional candidates who lost their places.

In 2018, 222 candidates from Ha Giang, Hoa Binh and Son La had their national high school exam scores raised, of which 94 were admitted to 26 universities. In April, 82 of these candidates were forced to drop out of school due to not having enough points to pass the entrance exam or having enough points but violating the admission regulations of the police force.

However, universities have no plans to increase enrollment quotas for 2018, because students have already completed almost a full school year. This has left many students who are missing 0.05 points feeling regretful and indignant at having "lost their place unjustly".

On May 11, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, Director of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education and Training), said that the loss of opportunities for candidates to enter their desired majors due to candidates with inflated scores taking up their places is an irreversible consequence. If we continue to try to fix it, it could disrupt the admissions system.

Director of Higher Education Department Nguyen Thi Kim Phung. Photo: Duong Tam

Ms. Phung commented that candidates who "lost their place" due to cheating on exams are similar to candidates who passed the entrance exam but did not enroll, because if these candidates did not register, other candidates would have more opportunities.

"In 2018, there were more than 22,000 candidates who passed the entrance exam but did not enroll. That shows that the 82 students whose scores were raised and who were forced to drop out of school are a small number. If the solution is to let the 82 candidates with similar scores take their place, what will have to be done to solve the problem for the 82 candidates with lower wishes?", Ms. Phung asked, saying that it will create a domino effect with all the candidates' wishes.

Similar to the 22,000 candidates who passed the entrance exam but did not enroll, if another 22,000 candidates were allowed to enroll, in the context of some students registering up to 48 wishes, Ms. Phung affirmed that it would cause great disruption in the entire system.

Mr. Mai Van Trinh, Director of the Department of Quality Management (Ministry of Education and Training), commented that as long as there are exams, there will be cheating and what needs to be done is to minimize the negative impacts. Regarding the shocking cheating case in 2018, Mr. Trinh said that the Ministry of Education and Training has handled violations in accordance with regulations.

In response to the question of why the Ministry did not cancel the altered test scores to avoid causing public outrage, Mr. Trinh said that social phenomena in life cannot be handled by one sector, but require the coordination of legal, judicial, and executive agencies. Regulations are the concretization of the law, and to handle them according to the law, evidence is needed. Currently, the investigation agency is still working to prove that candidates and related people have violated the law.

Regarding the fact that 51 candidates whose scores were raised are still allowed to continue studying at universities, the Ministry of Education and Training said that according to regulations, higher education institutions are autonomous and responsible for enrollment work in accordance with regulations. The handling of violations related to candidates' high school exam results is not only applied by regulations but also by a number of other legal documents and university enrollment plans.

"Enrollment is under the autonomy of higher education institutions, so the handling of candidates whose scores have been lowered is primarily under the authority of the school. Higher education institutions have the right and responsibility to handle the situation, not passively waiting for instructions from the Ministry," a representative of the Ministry of Education and Training emphasized, giving the example of a school under the police force that has proactively handled the situation according to their rights and responsibilities.

Currently, candidates who are admitted based on their academic records, unrelated combination of qualifications, or have an assessment score not lower than the admission score, are being investigated by schools and are temporarily allowed to continue studying. When the investigation agency has a final conclusion, any candidate found to have participated in the cheating process will be dealt with according to the law.

The Ministry of Education and Training stated that it will strictly handle and consider expelling candidates who cheat in the national high school exam.

In 2018, 222 candidates from three provinces, Ha Giang, Hoa Binh and Son La, had their scores raised. Of these, 39 candidates from Ha Giang are still studying at 23 universities. For Hoa Binh and Son La, the assessment results showed that 108 candidates had their scores lowered. After reviewing, one candidate from Hoa Binh failed to graduate, 13 candidates did not enroll in school and 94 candidates were admitted to 26 schools.

Of the 94 candidates who had enrolled, 82 had their results canceled because they did not have enough points to pass the exam or had enough points but violated the admission regulations of the police force. 12 candidates were allowed to continue studying at 10 universities because they registered for admission based on their 12th grade results, the subjects with lower scores were not included in the admission group or were included in the admission group but still had enough points to pass the exam. Thus, 51 candidates whose national high school exam scores were lowered in 2018 were still allowed to continue studying.