Circular No. 02/2024/TT-BGDĐT Amending and supplementing certain articles of the High School Graduation Examination Regulation issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020, amended and supplemented by Circulars No. 05/2021/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2021, and No. 06/2023/TT-BGDĐT dated March 24, 2023, of the Minister of Education and Training.

CIRCULAR

AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS TO CERTAIN ARTICLES OF THE REGULATIONS ON NATIONAL EXAMINATION FOR GRADUATION FROM UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ISSUED TOGETHER WITH CIRCULAR NO. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT OF MAY 26, 2020, AS AMENDED AND COMPLEMENTED BY CIRCULARS NO. 05/2021/TT-BGDĐT OF MARCH 12, 2021 AND NO. 06/2023/TT-BGDĐT OF MARCH 24, 2023, ISSUED BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Pursuant to the Education Law dated June 14, 2019;

Pursuant to the Higher Education Law dated June 18, 2012; and the Law Amending Certain Provisions of the Higher Education Law dated November 19, 2018;

Pursuant to Decree No. 86/2022/NĐ-CP dated October 24, 2022 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Education and Training;

At the proposal of the Director of the Quality Management Department;

The Minister of Education and Training issues this Circular amending and supplementing certain articles of the Regulations on National Examination for Graduation from Upper Secondary School issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020, as amended and supplemented by Circulars No. 05/2021/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2021 and No. 06/2023/TT-BGDĐT dated March 24, 2023, issued by the Minister of Education and Training.

Article 1. Amend and supplement certain articles and appendices of the Regulations on National Examination for Graduation from Upper Secondary School issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020, as amended and supplemented by Circulars No. 05/2021/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2021 and No. 06/2023/TT-BGDĐT dated March 24, 2023, issued by the Minister of Education and Training:

1. AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING ARTICLE 3 AS FOLLOWS:

"Article 3. Examination Subjects

Organize five (5) examination subjects, including: three (3) independent subjects are Mathematics, Vietnamese, Foreign Language (English, Russian, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, and Korean); one (1) combined subject Natural Science (abbreviated as KHTN) consisting of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology; one (1) combined subject Social Science (abbreviated as KHXH) consisting of History, Geography, and Civic Education for candidates studying the general education program at upper secondary level or History and Geography for candidates studying the vocational education program at upper secondary level."

2. Amend and supplement Clause 3 of Article 12 as follows:

"3. Registration for Examination Subjects:

a) For recognition of upper secondary school graduation: candidates studying the upper secondary education program who fall under points a and b of Clause 1 of this Article must take four (4) examination subjects, including three (3) independent subjects Mathematics, Vietnamese, and Foreign Language, and one (1) combined subject chosen by the candidate; candidates studying the vocational education program who fall under points a and b of Clause 1 of this Article must take three (3) examination subjects, including two (2) independent subjects Mathematics and Vietnamese, and one (1) combined subject chosen by the candidate. Vocational education candidates may additionally register for the Foreign Language subject to obtain results for admission purposes. Candidates can register for a different Foreign Language subject than the one they study at their high school.

b) Candidates falling under point c of Clause 1 of this Article may register for independent examination subjects; for combined subjects, candidates may only register one (1) combined subject or individual subjects within the same combined subject."

3. Amend and supplement Point b of Clause 2 of Article 13 as follows:

"b) For candidates falling under point b of Clause 1 of Article 12 of these Regulations, in addition to the documents specified in Point a of this Clause, the registration documents must include: A confirmation letter from the high school where the candidate studied grade 12 or from the place where the candidate registered for the examination regarding the academic performance classification for students classified as having poor academic performance as stipulated in Point b of Clause 2 of Article 12 of these Regulations; a copy of the Certificate of Completion of Lower Secondary School; a confirmation letter of credit points (if any) issued by the principal of the high school where the candidate took the exam the previous year or by the Department of Education and Training where the candidate took the exam in another province;"

4. Amend and supplement Point c of Clause 4 of Article 13 as follows:

"c) The principal of the high school or the head of the unit where the candidate registers shall be responsible for guiding candidates in the registration process; collecting Registration Forms, entering information of candidates who register directly; reviewing and updating information about the academic performance of candidates at high schools; checking information from the national population database to confirm the preferential status based on permanent residence for candidates (implemented through the Examination Management System); organizing the review of registration files and publicly announcing those cases that do not meet the conditions for taking the examination as stipulated in Clause 2 of Article 12 of these Regulations at least 15 days before the examination date; managing registration files and transferring registration files and data to the Department of Education and Training;"

5. Amend and supplement Clause 1 of Article 14 as follows:

"1. Register according to the provisions of Article 13 of these Regulations and the annual organization guidelines for the national examination for graduation from upper secondary school issued by the Ministry of Education and Training. Candidates are responsible for keeping their login account and password confidential to access the Examination Management System. In case candidates forget their account and password, they should contact the registration location for assistance."

6. Amend and supplement Clause 4 of Article 14 as follows:

"4. Must comply with the following rules in the examination room:

a) Present the Examination Admission Card to the invigilator; sit in the seat marked with their registration number;

b) For the purpose of completing the examination, candidates are allowed to bring into the examination room: Writing pens; rulers; pencils; erasers; set squares; graph paper rulers; drawing tools; handheld calculators without word processing functions and without memory cards; Vietnam Atlas compiled according to the General Education Program 2006 (without any markings or additional content added);

Prohibited from bringing into the examination room: Carbon paper, erasing pens, alcoholic beverages; weapons and explosive, flammable materials; information-containing materials and devices (receiving and transmitting information, recording audio and video) or containing information for cheating during the examination;

c) Before starting the examination, candidates must fill in their registration number and personal information completely on the examination paper, answer sheet, National Examination Registration Form, and scratch paper. Upon receiving the examination paper, candidates must carefully check the number of pages and the quality of the printed pages; if any missing pages, tears, damage, smudges, or blurriness are found, they must immediately report to the invigilator in the examination room, no later than five (5) minutes from the start of the examination time.

d) During the examination period, maintain order; immediately report to the invigilator if someone copies one's work or intentionally interferes with one's work; do not exchange, discuss, copy others' work, allow others to copy one's work, use unauthorized materials for the examination, or make any gestures or actions that constitute cheating; if wishing to express opinions, raise one's hand to seek permission from the invigilator, and after obtaining permission, stand up to publicly present one's opinion. Do not mark or make personal symbols, do not write with pencil except for shading the boxes on the Answer Sheet; only write in one color of ink (red ink is not allowed).

đ) Shall not leave the examination room until the time limit for the multiple-choice examination has expired; for the essay examination session, candidates may leave the examination room and examination area after two-thirds (two-thirds) of the examination time has passed, but must submit the examination paper along with the question paper and rough work before leaving the examination room. In case of necessity, may only leave the examination room with permission from the invigilator and must be under the supervision of monitoring staff. The departure of candidates from the examination room and examination area in emergency situations must be supervised by police officers and monitoring staff until the end of the examination session, as decided by the Examination Venue Director.

e) Upon the signal to stop the examination, cease working immediately and preserve the integrity of the examination paper. When submitting the essay examination paper, clearly record the number of examination sheets submitted and sign the Examination Paper Collection Form; even if unable to complete the examination, candidates must still submit the examination sheet (for essay examinations) and the Answer Sheet (for multiple-choice examinations).

7. Supplement Clause 5 of Article 14 as follows:

"g) Candidates who only take the first and/or second component subjects in the combined examination, after submitting the Answer Sheet, shall leave the examination room and move to the waiting area until the end of the last subject examination time before being allowed to leave the examination area. During the movement to the waiting area and while in the waiting area, candidates must maintain order and strictly follow the instructions of the monitoring staff or waiting area manager. In necessary cases, may only leave the waiting area with permission from the waiting area manager and must be under the supervision of monitoring staff when outside the waiting area;

h) Candidates who only take the second and/or third component subjects in the combined examination must be present at the call for candidates to enter the examination room at least ten minutes before the distribution of the question papers to prepare. If candidates arrive earlier (more than fifteen minutes before the distribution of the question papers), they must wait in the waiting rooms;

i) Candidates who only take the first and third component subjects in the combined examination: Immediately after the end of the examination time for the first component subject, candidates must remain seated, maintain order, place the Answer Sheet so that the answer section faces down on the table surface at their seat, and keep the Answer Sheet intact during the waiting period for the next component subject examination.

8. Amend and supplement Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 16 as follows:

"1. Unpublished examination questions and answers belong to the list of state secrets classified as "Top Secret." Backup examination questions that have not been used automatically declassify upon the conclusion of the final examination session. The protection period for state secrets classified as "Top Secret" for examination questions of all examination sessions ends when the time limit for the multiple-choice examination has expired and two-thirds (2/3) of the time limit for the essay examination has passed.

2. The preparation and printing of examination questions (collectively referred to as making examination questions) must be carried out at a secure, isolated location and be strictly monitored by the police for security and safety throughout the examination question-making process until the end of the final examination session of the examination period. There must be sufficient security measures to prevent information leaks, fire prevention, and firefighting. The three-tier isolation of the Examination Question-Making Area is implemented as follows:

a) Tier 1 is completely isolated from the outside from the start of the examination question-making process or opening of the original examination questions for printing until the end of the final examination session. Before starting the examination question-making process, the Examination Question-Making Committee/Printing Committee must coordinate with the police to develop a security plan for the examination question-making process, ensuring that windows of all rooms are sealed and sealed by the police and the Examination Question-Making Committee/Printing Committee leadership to ensure that they cannot be seen from the outside;

b) Tier 2 is adjacent to Tier 1 and Tier 3, completely isolated from the outside until the end of the final examination session. Personnel assigned to Tier 2 are responsible for supervising all telephone communications; serving as the point of contact for external communication; controlling people and objects moving between Tier 3 and Tier 2;

c) Tier 3 is adjacent to Tier 2 and the outside. Personnel assigned to Tier 3 are responsible for maintaining security and order around the examination question-making area 24 hours a day; preventing unauthorized personnel or information transmission devices from entering the examination question-making area; recording logs of people and objects entering and exiting the protected area; requiring all individuals entering and exiting to wear identification cards issued by the Examination Question-Making Committee/Examination Committee;

d) The organization of security and safety measures for the examination question-making process shall be carried out according to the general guidance document jointly issued by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Public Security.

9. Amend and supplement Point b of Clause 2 of Article 17 as follows:

"b) Deputy Chairmen of the Board include Deputy Directors of the Quality Assurance Department, leaders of relevant units under the Ministry of Education and Training, leaders of higher education institutions, and leaders of provincial Departments of Education and Training;"

10. Amend and supplement Point a of Clause 1 of Article 18 as follows:

"a) The Printing Committee consists of: The Chairman, appointed by the Examination Board leader; the Deputy Chairman, a leader of the Provincial Department of Education and Training or a leader of a department within the Provincial Department of Education and Training; the secretary and members (including one member responsible for supervision) are civil servants or employees of the Provincial Department of Education and Training or secondary schools; security and safety personnel for the printing process are mobilized by the Provincial Police and the Provincial Department of Education and Training; medical and service staff are mobilized by the Provincial Department of Education and Training;"

11. Amend and supplement Clause 1 of Article 22 as follows:

a) Direct all examination activities at the Examination Venue; manage, use examination papers, and secure answer sheets at the Examination Venue; ensure that rooms not in use during each examination session must be locked and sealed before each session; assign tasks to other members performing duties at the Examination Venue;

b) Before each examination session: Specify certain methods for numbering registration numbers and distributing examination papers in examination rooms and organize for representatives of the Examination Board to draw lots for numbering registration numbers and distributing examination papers for the entire Examination Venue; organize for the Examination Board members and examination room supervisors to draw lots to assign examination supervision tasks, ensuring the principle that no Examination Board member supervises more than once in the same examination room during the examination period; ensure that all personal communication devices (if any) of those performing duties at the Examination Venue must be kept in the Examination Venue's duty room;

c) Arrange a safe location, at least 25 meters away from examination rooms, to store candidates' personal belongings and materials and items not allowed to be brought into examination rooms.

12. Amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 24 as follows:

"2. Examination paper storage rooms, marking rooms, cabinets, boxes, or containers holding answer sheets must be secure, sturdy, locked, and sealed; the seal label must bear signatures of the key holder, the Examination Board leader, and the police. Keys to examination paper storage room doors are held by Examination Board leaders; keys to cabinets, boxes, or containers holding subjective answer sheets are held by the Council Secretary performing duties at the Subjective Examination Board; keys to cabinets, boxes, or containers holding multiple-choice answer sheets are held by the Head of the Secretariat Team of the Multiple Choice Examination Board. Examination paper storage rooms, multiple-choice marking rooms, subjective marking rooms, places where the Council Secretariat and the Secretariat Team of the Multiple Choice Examination Board perform their duties in the marking area must have fire prevention and explosion protection equipment; security cameras must continuously monitor and record activities in the rooms 24 hours a day; there must be continuous police protection and monitoring 24 hours a day. When opening or closing examination paper storage rooms, marking rooms, and cabinets, boxes, or containers holding answer sheets, the presence of the Examination Board leader, secretary, police, and detailed logging must be witnessed.

13. Amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 25 as follows:

"2. The area for compiling examination results must ensure security and safety with sufficient firefighting equipment and continuous 24-hour police protection; it must not contain any information transmission or image capture devices; participants in the compilation process may not bring information transmission devices into the compilation area. Those working in the compilation area can only operate within the permitted space according to their assigned responsibilities and tasks. Specific rounds of work are as follows:

a) Inner round: A completely isolated enclosed area, including only direct participants in the compilation of subjective examination answer sheets and supervisors mobilized by the Department of Education and Training Director; windows of the rooms must be tightly closed and sealed by the police and the Compilation Board Leader; gaps leading outside must be sealed with durable, non-penetrable material. Daily, those in the inner round receive materials and food from the outer round;

b) Outer round: An area adjacent to the inner round and the outside, serving as the communication link between the inner round and the outside; includes guards, police, medical staff, and service personnel; equipped with one fixed telephone with recording function and external speaker under continuous 24-hour police control for communication with the Examination Council/Examination Steering Committee at various levels; all phone communications must be recorded, with external speakers on, logged with signatures of the person making the call and witnessed and confirmed by the police. Those working in the outer round are responsible for receiving materials and food from the outside and transferring them to the inner round; they also check materials and objects transferred from the inner round.

14. Supplement Clause 6 of Article 27 as follows:

"6. Rechecking subjective examination answer sheets:

a) Can only be carried out after completing the marking and entering scores into the software;

b) Matching on software: Match all entered score data of subjective examination answer sheets with candidate information data provided by the Compilation Board after completing the score entry task;

c) Checking the matching: After successfully completing the matching on the software, print verification forms from the software for the Examination Council Secretariat to manually randomly verify at least 20% of the subjective examination answer sheets; if errors are found, a report must be made and signed by the Examination Council Chair to determine the cause and take corrective measures;

d) Answer sheet bags opened and used during the matching process must be resealed; the seal labels of the answer sheet bags must bear signatures of those directly involved.

15. Amend and supplement Point b of Clause 1 of Article 35 as follows:

"b) Possess one of the foreign language certificates specified in the Appendix of this Regulation or foreign language certificates recognized by the Ministry of Education and Training equivalent to the six-level Vietnamese Foreign Language Proficiency Framework (level 3 or higher); the foreign language certificate must remain valid until the date of application for the examination.

16. Amend and supplement Article 49 as follows:

"1. The Inspector General of the Ministry of Education and Training decides to establish inspection teams to inspect and supervise the organization and implementation of examinations and inspection activities at local levels; in necessary cases, the Minister of Education and Training decides on inspection activities.

2. The Provincial Inspector appoints people to join the Provincial Examination Steering Committee upon the request of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman and conducts inspections according to the requirements of the Provincial Examination Steering Committee.

3. The Inspector General of the Department of Education and Training decides to establish inspection teams to inspect preparation, supervision, marking, review, and graduation certification activities of the Department of Education and Training; in necessary cases, the Department Director decides on inspection activities.

4. The Ministry of Education and Training guides inspection activities according to the law. 5. Organization and operation of inspection activities during the examination period follow the Ministry of Education and Training's guidance on inspection activities.

17. Amend and supplement Clause 1 of Article 58 as follows:

"1. Mobilize and create all necessary conditions for civil servants, officials, and teachers to participate in the examination according to the requirements and requests of the Ministry of Education and Training; direct and inspect the completion of teaching programs and student assessment at secondary schools; direct secondary schools to review and update information on students in grade 12 based on industry data within the prescribed time limit in the examination organization guidelines."

18. Amend and supplement Clause 1 of Article 60 as follows:

"1. Mobilize and create all necessary conditions for officials and teachers to participate in the examination according to the requirements and requests of the Ministry of Education and Training and the Department of Education and Training; complete the teaching program according to the directives of the Department of Education and Training; organize revision classes for students; guide students to obtain their Citizen Identity Cards no later than the end of the first semester of grade 12; organize knowledge level tests and academic classification for self-study individuals when assigned responsibility by the Department of Education and Training; update information on students in grade 12 based on industry data within the prescribed time limit in the examination organization guidelines."

19. Amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 61 as follows:

"2. Organize the implementation of tasks related to examination organization work assigned by the Minister of Education and Training. Mobilize and create all necessary conditions for officials, lecturers, and teachers to participate in the examination according to the requirements and requests of the Ministry of Education and Training."

Article 2. Replace the phrase “point n” with “point b” at point b Clause 1 Article 53 of the High School Graduation Examination Regulation issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020, amended and supplemented by Circular No. 05/2021/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2021, and Circular No. 06/2023/TT-BGDĐT dated March 24, 2023, of the Minister of Education and Training.

Article 3. Effectiveness

1. This Circular takes effect from April 22, 2024.

2. The Director of the Office, the Director of the Quality Management Department, the Heads of relevant units under the Ministry of Education and Training; the Chairmen of the People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities; the Directors of the Military Schools Bureau - Ministry of National Defense, the Directors of the Training Bureau - Ministry of Public Security; the Directors of Departments of Education and Training; the Presidents of universities, academies; the Principals of colleges recruiting Early Childhood Education majors shall be responsible for implementing this Circular./.