Localities prepare for exams amid COVID-19 pandemic

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Localities nationwide have prepared various scenarios to hold 10th-grade entrance exams for students amid the COVID-19 outbreak, with some planning to hold the exams on schedule and others set to postpone them.

Quang Ninh was the first northern province to hold the 10th-grade entrance exam this academic year on June 1. 

Currently, there are no students and teachers under quarantine in the province. All examination staff and nearly 14,000 students have completed medical declarations and those in charge of keeping exam papers and answer sheets have been tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Lao Cai is also set to hold the exam early and more than 7,380 students will take it on June 2-3.

The provincial Department of Education and Training has required exam officials, teachers and students to strictly comply with regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control.

All exam locations have been sprayed with disinfectant and prepared backup exam rooms for students who have cough or fever and those identified as F2.

The department also asked the students’ families not to gather in front of the exam venues. Exam venues must encourage students who live far from the venues to take a rest at noon

By May 28, no students identified as F1 or F2 have been reported in the province. 

Pham Xuan Tham, head of the department’s Education Quality Management Division, said the department had issued guidelines to all exam venues to ensure health and safety for both teachers and students during the exam.

In Hanoi, the exam is scheduled to take place between June 10 and 11.

The city’s Department of Education and Training has required students in grades 9 and 12 not to leave the city from now until they complete the 10th-grade entrance exam and the high school graduation exam of 2021.

Educational officials, teachers, employees of schools who want to leave the city must have the leaders’ approval and must report back when they return. They must also complete medical declarations within 24 hours of returning to the city.

In Hoa Binh province, the provincial Department of Education and Training has announced plans to hold the exam between June 5 and June 7.

The department has required no more than 24 candidates in every exam room and a distance of 1.2 metres must be applied around each candidate.

In case social distancing is applied in the province, each examination room should arrange no more than 16 candidates and the seating arrangement for candidates must ensure a minimum distance of 2 metres between candidates.

The entrance exam in Dong Nai province will take place on June 4-5 as scheduled.

Do Duy Khanh, deputy director of the provincial education department, said more than 3,000 exam officials would be tested for the virus before the exam day.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, all localities have completed the curriculum and are preparing for the entrance exam to the 10th grade./.