Ha Giang province’s exam cheating scandal revealed

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered the Ministry of Public Security to open an investigation into the recent high school exam scandal in northern mountainous Ha Giang province.
Ha Giang province’s exam cheating scandal revealed ảnh 1Students discuss over the last test (Photo: VNA)
Ha Giang (VNS/VNA) – Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc has ordered the Ministry of Public Security to open an investigationinto the recent high school exam scandal in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.

So far, Vu Trong Luong, Deputy Chief of theExamination and Quality Management Division under the provincial Department ofEducation and Training, has been arraigned for his part in the scandal.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET)reported the shocking news at a press conference on July 17, while alsoconfirming more than 300 test results of 114 students would be adjusted.

Following the abnormally high test results inthe province, on July 14, an inspection team led by Mai Van Trinh, head of theAuthority of Examination and Quality Management under MoET, started re-gradingall students’ answer sheets.

The inspection revealed that, bar the literaturetest, all eight others which were taken as multiple-choice test showed signs ofcheating.  

A total of 102 maths test results were adjusted,as were 85 in physics, 56 in chemistry, 52 in English, eight in biology, eightin history and three in geography and 52 in English.

Several students ended up with results more than20 marks higher than they should have received. Some even ended up 29.95 marksbetter off.

Nguyen Cao Khuong from the Ministry of PublicSecurity said Luong was mainly responsible for scanning answer sheets into acomputer then sending the database of results to the MoET.

He then took advantage of his position todownload the database of tests to his personal computer.

According to the inspection team, from 12pm to2.38pm on June 27, Luong was in charge of transferring two boxes of multiplechoice answer sheets and a computer to the provincial Department of Education andTraining. In only two hours, he broke the seal, pulled answer sheets out andaltered answers.

Till now, no other individual has been found tobe Luong’s accomplice. However, it seems impossible he could have altered allthe answer sheets in the period as it took the inspection team of 10 peopleeight hours to do the same thing. “We are conducting further investigations,”said Khuong.

He added that the database of the 2017 nationalhigh school examination results was still on Luong’s computer, which hevoluntarily handed to law enforcement.

Tran Duc Quy, Vice Chairman of the provincial HaGiang People’s Committee, said they were unable to ensure the examination’ssecurity.

“There are things we cannot control despite ourefforts to tighten management. Our limited capacity created loopholes for thefraud to happen,” he said.

“However, we tried to re-grade and announce thereal test results for examinees. Ha Giang province’s education sector, however,has learnt a salutary lesson,” he added.

Vu Van Su, Director of the provincial Departmentof Education and Training, said that they would take responsibility for theincident.

“We worked all night to reach the finalconclusion and reveal the real result in the effort to regain the belief of HaGiang’s people,” he said.

The national high school examination has beenheld for four years. The result is used to determine if a student graduatesfrom high school and gets into their dream university or not.

Since 2017, the multi-choice form has been appliedto all tests except for literature. In 2018, MoET tightened the exam’s securityby stamping bags of answer sheets with signatures of supervisors anduniversities’ representatives.

“What happened in Ha Giang province was terriblebut it does not mean we need to change the examination which is approved of bya lot of people. In the years to come, the ministry will come up with solutionsto improve it,” said Trinh.

The last examination was taken by 5,400 Ha Giangstudents. In the top 11 students nationwide with highest scores, the provincecontributed three. Regarding the physics test, 65 students scored nine orhigher, accounting for 67 percent. The abnormal result triggered social uproar.-VNS/VNA 
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