Minister Phung Xuan Nha accepts responsibility for violations in the national high school exam.

At the regular Government meeting in July, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha reported on the organization of the 2018 national high school exam and the handling of negative issues in the exam marking process in some localities.

Admitting shortcomings in organizing high school exams

Regarding the recent exam cheating in Ha Giang and Son La, Minister Phung Xuan Nha assessed it as very serious. The Ministry has reported to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and closely coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to handle the case in the spirit of strictly punishing violators.

“Here we make it clear that if violations occur, they must be strictly handled, but we should not deny the entire results of the national high school exam and hastily propose to abolish this exam as some opinions have suggested. Regarding the violations in some localities, with my responsibility, I accept responsibility,” Minister Phung Xuan Nha said.

According to Mr. Nha, the Ministry has seriously reviewed and found some shortcomings in the organization of the 2018 national high school exam such as: The exam questions are not really suitable for the requirements of the high school exam, there are questions with high difficulty. The multiple choice scoring software still has loopholes in security, which can be exploited to falsify exam results. The inspection and supervision work of the Ministry for localities has been strengthened, but there are still loopholes and not thorough.

Implementing the Prime Minister's direction, the Ministry will organize a summary, draw lessons, and propose solutions to overcome limitations.The Ministry will continue to supplement the test question bank as a basis for developing appropriate test questions, better meeting the requirements of the national high school exam; and perfect the test scoring software to enhance security and prevent the risk of cheating in test scoring.

In addition, the Ministry will improve the method of organizing exam marking, including considering centralized marking in clusters to improve honesty and objectivity; clearly defining the responsibilities of localities, universities and officials in charge of exam invigilation and marking; and strengthening the Ministry's supervisory and inspection role.

Minister Nha reiterated that in the past, exams were very difficult, with many exams and many exam periods held each year (nearly a month for candidates to take the high school graduation exam and three university entrance exams). Students from far away provinces had to go to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and some big cities to take the exams, which was very difficult, stressful, and costly in terms of time, effort, and money for candidates and the whole society. In addition, the negative aspects of exams in Ngo Hill and Phu Xuyen made public opinion very indignant.

Therefore, the Ministry of Education has developed a plan to reform the exam with the goal of overcoming shortcomings, ensuring honesty and objectivity, reducing pressure and costs for candidates, families and society.

According to the Minister, when developing the exam plan, there were many debates, such as whether to abolish the high school graduation exam and only organize university and college entrance exams. However, this cannot be implemented because it is against the Education Law. Moreover, if the exam is abolished, students will not study, the quality of education will decline, and students' learning results will not be internationally recognized.The Ministry's organization of university entrance exams is also not allowed because it violates the autonomy of schools as stipulated in the 2012 Law on Higher Education.

Minister Phung Xuan Nha said there was a proposal to hand over high school graduation exams to localities and university and college entrance exams to schools.However, if the organization of high school graduation exams is completely left to the localities, due to the disease of achievement, the exam results will be unfair when one province sets easy questions, another province sets difficult questions, one locality takes it loosely, another locality takes it strictly.

The Ministry has encouraged universities to organize their own exams, but in reality, very few schools can do it because it is costly in terms of resources and costs. Moreover, the widespread practice of exam preparation and extra teaching and learning is likely to reappear.

Most opinions agree on organizing a national exam to both consider high school graduation and serve as a basis for university admission.The Ministry has reported and received approval from the Government. This plan inherits the advantages and overcomes the shortcomings of the individual.c previous exams, ensuring continuity of the exam innovation roadmap, not causing disruption to teachers and students, in accordance with the law and general trends of the world.

According to Minister Nha, the Law on Education and the Law on Higher Education are being revised, the issue of exams and admissions is also being raised, but as analyzed, it is not advisable to abolish the national high school exam at this time. The Ministry will try to ensure that this exam is more substantial, accurately assessing the quality of education in localities.

"We will continue to improve so that the national high school exam in the coming years can be better organized," Mr. Nha said.

On June 25-27, 2018, more than 900,000 candidates nationwide took the national high school exam. On July 11, the Ministry of Education announced the exam scores, and the public was surprised when Ha Giang and Son La had a sudden increase in the number of candidates with excellent scores, while the average scores of the two provinces were among the lowest in the country. In Lang Son, the group of independent candidates who were mobile police also had many good scores.

The Ministry of Education then set up 3 working groups to 3 localities to verify signs of irregularities in the exam scores. The result was that Ha Giang had 114 candidates with more than 330 exams whose total score increased from 1 to 29.95. Mr. Vu Trong Luong and Nguyen Thanh Hoai, Head and Deputy Head of the Examination Department of the Department of Education were arrested for the crime of Abusing position and power while performing official duties.

In Son La, the working group discovered that 5 Department of Education officials had altered scores for both essay and multiple-choice tests. However, it is not yet clear how many multiple-choice tests were altered and how they were altered. The provincial police have initiated a case and prosecuted 5 suspects for investigation of the crime of “Abusing power and position while performing official duties.”

In Lang Son, the Ministry of Education's working group has not seen any signs of irregularities, even though 8 essay-based Literature exams have had their scores lowered.