Modified National High School Examination test results of 56 candidates in Hoa Binh Province from July of last year will not be recognised, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) announced on Tuesday.

Students read the guidelines for the National High School Examination. 

MoET rescored 140 tests from 56 students and concluded that their original scores were all modified upward.

The final marks had gaps ranging by between 0.2 and 9.25 points from their actual scores. The maximum score on each individual test is 10. A total score of one student was raised as high as 26.45 points.

All of the modified test results will be dismissed.

MoET asked the provincial Department of Education and Training to enter the new test results into its exam management system and notify universities and colleges where students with fraudulent scores are enrolled.

“This situation has had a negative social effect,” said Mai Van Trinh, head of MoET’s Department of Quality Control.

He added that students who cheated would be strictly handled and only rescored test results announced by MoET were accepted.

On Monday, the Investigation Police Agency under the Ministry of Public Security asked the Supreme People’s Procuracy to prosecute three people accused of abusing their positions to manipulate students’ results in last year’s National High School Exam.

They are Nguyen Quang Vinh, former head of the Division of Examination and Quality Management under the Hòa Bình Department of Education and Training; Nguyen Khac Tuan, the division official and Do Manh Tuan, vice principal of the Lac Thuy District Boarding Secondary School and Boarding High School.

The police investigation revealed that Vinh directed Tuan to change some students’ multiple-choice tests before the answer sheets were sent to the MoET.

The abnormally high test results from the province, as well as from Ha Giang and Son La, triggered public outcry.

Since 2015, the high school graduation and university entrance exams have been combined into one national exam.

Candidates take tests in maths, literature, foreign language, natural sciences (including physics, chemistry and biology) and social sciences (history, geography and citizen education). All the tests are multiple choice except for literature. — VNS