How are national high school exams kept confidential?

Members participating in the test preparation must be completely isolated from the outside. The envelope containing the test for delivery, receipt, and transportation from the test preparation site to the outside must be made of durable, sealed, dark paper and tightly sealed, with no peeling edges, and have adequate labels and seals.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that the national high school exam will ensure that the candidates’ level is classified, meeting both basic requirements (for high school graduation) and advanced requirements (for university and college admission). The essay test clearly states the score for each question; the scores of the essay test and the multiple-choice test are converted to a 10-point scale.

In an exam, each subject has an official test and a backup test with equivalent levels; each test has marking instructions and answers attached. The test creation and printing of test papers are carried out in a safe, isolated location that is strictly protected throughout the test preparation period until the end of the last subject of the exam. There are adequate security and fire prevention equipment.

Illustration photo: citinews

Exam Council members are completely isolated.

To ensure confidentiality, members participating in the exam must be completely isolated from the outside world. Only in necessary cases and with written consent from the Chairman of the Exam Council or the Head of the Exam Printing Committee, are members allowed to contact the outside world by landline phone, with speakerphone, and recording under the supervision of security officers and police.

The list of test takers is kept confidential before, during and after the exam. People working in the quarantine area must wear badges and only operate within the permitted area, and are only allowed to leave the quarantine area after the last exam period. In special cases, with written consent from the Chairman of the Exam Board or the Head of the Exam Printing Committee, members are allowed to leave the quarantine area under police supervision.

The exam is in an envelope and contained in a sealed box.

The envelopes containing the exam papers for delivery, receipt, and transportation from the exam site to the outside must be made of durable, sealed, dark paper, tightly sealed, with no peeling edges, and have adequate labels and seals. The entire process of delivery, receipt, and transportation of the exam papers is supervised by the police. The envelopes containing the exam papers are securely stored in locked boxes and are sealed during the delivery and transportation process. Machinery and equipment at the exam site, whether damaged or unused, may only be taken out of the isolation area after the final exam period.

The National High School Exam Council is chaired by the head of the Department of Testing and Quality Assurance of Education (Ministry of Education). The exam writers and reviewers are lecturers from universities and colleges, researchers from research institutes, and teachers from high schools. Each exam subject has a test-writing team consisting of the Head of the exam subject and the exam writers. The security force consists of officers mobilized by the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Education. Those whose relatives are taking the exam during the exam year are not allowed to participate in the exam-writing council.

Exam principles

The test-making teams and other members of the Test-making Council work independently and directly with the leaders of the Test-making Council; those assigned a task are responsible for carrying out that task and are not allowed to participate in other tasks.

Each member of the Examination Council must be personally responsible for the content, ensuring the confidentiality and security of the examination in accordance with his/her responsibilities and the principle of protecting national secrets.

The Chairman of the Examination Council is responsible for organizing and managing all examination work and handing over examination papers to the National Examination Steering Committee; is responsible to the Minister of Education and Training for examination papers; and handles unusual situations regarding examination papers.

The exam printing department was also quarantined.

The Exam Paper Printing and Copying Board works in a centralized manner according to the principle of complete isolation from the time the exam papers are sealed until the end of the exam period of the last subject of the exam. The Head of the Exam Paper Printing and Copying Board is personally responsible to the Chairman of the Examination Council and before the law for receiving the original exam papers, organizing the printing and copying of exam papers, preserving and transferring the printed exam papers to the Head of the Examination Council's Transportation and Handover Board, witnessed by the Examination Council's Secretary and the police officer assigned to supervise and protect the exam papers.

The printing of exam papers is carried out according to the following process: Proofread the original exam papers, carefully check the test copies, and compare them with the original exam papers before printing. In case of detecting errors or questionable content in the original exam papers, it must be reported immediately to the Chairman of the Examination Council to request the National Examination Steering Committee to handle. Accurately control the number of candidates in each exam room, exam location, and exam subject to organize the distribution of exam papers, write the name of the exam location, exam room, exam subject, and the number of exam papers in each envelope containing the exam papers before packaging.

The exam papers are printed in turn for each subject; after printing, they are sealed and packaged according to the exam room, cleaned up, and then moved on to printing the exam papers for the next subject. During the printing process, the quality of the copies must be checked; test and damaged copies must be collected and stored as confidential documents.

Each subject at the testing site will have an envelope containing backup test papers (with all codes for multiple choice tests). After packaging the test papers for each subject, the Head of the Test Printing Department will manage the test paper envelopes; including the excess, damaged, blurred, bad, torn, and dirty prints that have been discarded.

The Examination Paper Transport and Delivery Board is responsible for receiving examination papers from the Examination Paper Printing Board, preserving, transporting and distributing examination papers to examination sites. The Head of the Examination Paper Transport and Delivery Board is concurrently the leader of the Examination Council; the members of the Board and the supervising police officers are decided by the Head of the unit in charge of the examination cluster.

Use the backup in case of an emergency.

At the Examination Council, the exam papers are kept in locked boxes, cabinets, or safes, sealed and guarded 24 hours a day; the keys to the boxes, cabinets, or safes are kept by the Head of the Examination Paper Transportation and Delivery Committee. During the transportation and delivery of the exam papers, there must be police supervision and a delivery and receipt record must be made. The exam papers at the examination site are kept by the Head of the examination site.

The official exam papers will only be distributed to candidates in the exam room at the correct time and subject as prescribed by the Ministry of Education. The backup exam papers will only be used in case of an unusual incident.

According to VnExpress