A delegation of officials from the Ministry of Education and Training increased their inspections of graduation exams after a period of many shocking cheating cases - Photo: VINH HA
Behind the scenes of the "11 provinces join hands to score together" case
In 2011, a document on unified exam marking instructions from 11 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta leaked out, causing a stir in public opinion.
This record shows that these provinces and cities have "joined hands" to loosely grade the essay test of the high school graduation exam. Doubts about "loosely grading" to raise exam scores were revealed for the first time with evidence in black and white.
But few people know that the "handshake" originated from a sad incident that happened two years earlier.
Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nhi, director of the Department of Education and Training of Dong Thap province at that time, recalled: "It's been 16 years, but I remember clearly that the exam results of that year in my province were marked by examiners from Ben Tre province according to the "cross-marking" process.
When we received the report cards, our faces darkened. Many teachers and I cried."
" Dong Thap has more than 17,000 candidates taking the exam. In literature alone, there are nearly 500 exams with 0 points, 1,000 exams with 1 point, and 4,000 exams with 1.5 - 2 points. Nearly 70% of Dong Thap candidates' literature exams are below average.
"The test took 7-8 pages and was given 0 points. I was also a teacher before becoming a manager so I think that grading like that is not okay.
Dong Thap's exam results that year were not low, but exceptionally low. The province did not reprimand us, but we felt ashamed. That was an incident in my life that I will never forget," said Mr. Nhi.
Not only Dong Thap, the exam results of Kien Giang province (graded by Can Tho city) are similar. The two provinces with low exam results have sent a petition to the Ministry of Education and Training. Four directors of the Department of Education and Training including Can Tho, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Kien Giang had a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training.
The Dong Thap candidates’ test papers were sent to Tien Giang for re-evaluation. However, the results showed that only more than 40 candidates increased their scores by 0.5 points in literature. This number is insignificant compared to nearly 70% of candidates with below average scores.
The ministry’s inspectors at that time also assessed Ben Tre province’s grading as being stricter than other provinces. That year, Dong Thap’s high school graduation rate was 59%, higher than only three other provinces in the Mekong Delta.
According to Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nhi, in 2010, Dong Thap was assigned by the Ministry of Education and Training as the cluster leader to implement essay exam marking for the provinces of the Mekong Delta (except Long An).
From the previous sad incident, Mr. Nhi invited 12 department directors to Can Tho to meet to unify the scoring method, to avoid the case of overly strict scoring like in 2009. Mr. Nhi said this was not cheating, just unifying the scoring method to avoid repeating the strict scoring like the previous year. That year, the graduation rate of the provinces increased.
Cluster testing and cross-scoring were maintained until 2011. In this year, the minutes of unified marking instructions of 11 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta leaked out, causing a stir in public opinion.
Not only literature, but 11 departments have met and agreed on grading instructions based on the answers of the Ministry of Education and Training for all essay subjects of both high school and continuing education systems.
Recalling this incident, Mr. Nguyen Vinh Hien, former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said that the Ministry of Education and Training had to hold many meetings, including one that lasted until late at night, to clarify the matter and, more importantly, decide on a solution. In the end, the Ministry of Education and Training chose the option of recognizing the exam results, ensuring the rights of the candidates.
"Cluster testing and cross-grading" is a strong solution in the "two no's" era to prevent corruption in exams, but the case of 11 provinces "colluding" has shown that any solution has loopholes.
Examiner marking the literature exam, the only exam in essay format since 2017 - Photo: VINH HA
The truth inside the exam room
Two shocking cheating cases in 2012 and 2013 at the private high school exam site Doi Ngo (Bac Giang) and Quang Trung - Ha Dong High School (Hanoi) were discovered thanks to hidden cameras.
A camera angle from a house near the Quang Trung High School exam site in Ha Dong recorded a chaotic scene in an exam room during math and foreign language exams. Candidates freely exchanged and threw papers to each other, while the invigilators looked the other way.
At the private high school exam site Doi Ngo, the violation was even more serious. The officials, teachers, and employees at this exam site were all in agreement in solving the test questions, printing out multiple copies, and bringing the answers to the exam room for the candidates to copy.
The mass cheating incident was exposed when a candidate was asked to bring a pen with a recording device into the exam room and record the chaos in the exam room.
The cheating clip was posted on the Internet shortly after. The organizer who collected this evidence was teacher Nguyen Danh Ngoc. After teachers Do Viet Khoa (Ha Tay) and Le Dinh Hoang (Nghe An), teacher Nguyen Danh Ngoc was considered the "hero" against exam cheating that year.
In both the Quang Trung - Ha Dong High School case and the Doi Ngo private high school case, the Departments of Education and Training only disciplined officials, teachers, and employees. In the Doi Ngo case, 42 officials, teachers, and employees were disciplined.
Lessons from these two collective cheating cases have forced the Ministry of Education and Training to add a number of regulations to the regulations and guidelines for organizing graduation exams in the following years. These include allowing candidates to bring audio and video recording devices (but not transmitting information) for the purpose of recording evidence of exam cheating.
This regulation will be maintained for a very long time until the 2023 exam is canceled.
A series of officials were prosecuted for organizing exam cheating.
In 2006, a series of teachers and officials of the Department of Education and Training of Bac Lieu province were prosecuted for cheating in exams and fixing scores at the high school graduation and supplementary high school exam marking council. A teacher collected money from many parents at a price of 8 million VND/candidate to fix scores for the high school graduation exam.
In particular, the investigation showed that the leaders of the Department of Education and Training and the examination board had increased the exam scores of some candidates who did not meet the graduation score by 0.5 - 1.5 points to raise the graduation rate from 70% to 79%. 120 people were involved, including 40 people in the education sector, and 26 people were prosecuted in this fraud case.
12 years later, another exam cheating and score-inflating scandal has occurred, this time on a larger scale and involving more people. That was the shocking exam cheating scandal in Ha Giang, Son La, and Hoa Binh during the 2018 national high school exam.
At this time, the exam was assigned to the localities to take full responsibility for printing, invigilation, and grading. The grading process was loose, with loopholes in the multiple-choice grading software allowing some individuals to interfere and distort the exam results.
Among the hundreds of candidates whose results were raised, some had their total scores raised by up to 29.95 points compared to their actual scores. The cheating resulted in the prosecution of many officials, teachers in the education sector, and police officers.
After 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training's exam scoring software and exam scoring process will have adjustments to increase security.
The 2019 high school graduation exam is the year to "regain trust in society" by mobilizing thousands of cadres and lecturers from universities and colleges to work as inspectors in the exam in localities.
Thus, the graduation exams of the "two no" period that lasted more than a decade marked the fact that universities had to participate in general education exams.
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In the history of high school graduation exams, throughout the 50-year journey, there has been a arduous effort to innovate towards "real learning, real testing".
>> Next: The hardship of "real learning, real exams"
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/50-nam-ky-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-ky-5-nhung-vu-gian-lan-rung-dong-20250629094951965.htm
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