Circular No. 05/2010/TT-BGDĐT Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the High School Graduation Examination Regulation issued together with Circular No. 04/2009/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2009, of the Minister of Education and Training.

CIRCULAR

Regarding amendments and supplements to certain provisions of the examination regulations for high school graduation secondary

education, issued together with Circular No. 04/2009/TT-BGDĐT

 of March 12, 2009, by the Minister of Education and Training

_________________

Pursuant to Decree No. 178/2007/NĐ-CP dated December 3, 2007, of the Government, stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of ministries and ministerial-level agencies;

Pursuant to Decree No. 32/2008/NĐ-CP dated March 19, 2008 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Education and Training;

Pursuant to Decree No. 75/2006/NĐ-CP dated August 2, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Education Law;

At the proposal of the Director of the Department of Testing and Quality Assurance,

The Minister of Education and Training decides:

Article 1. Amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Examination Regulations for High School Graduation, issued together with Circular No. 04/2009/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2009, by the Minister of Education and Training, as follows:

1. Point b Clause 1 Article 10 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"b) For schools located in mountainous areas, remote regions, border areas, islands, divided territories, areas with inconvenient transportation, difficult economic conditions, and lacking facilities and infrastructure that do not meet the requirements set forth in point a Clause 1 of this Article, the Department of Education and Training shall select an examination organization plan and report and explain it to the Ministry of Education and Training in writing."

2. Point a Clause 3 Article 10 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"a) In each cluster of schools, the list of candidates shall be arranged in the following steps:

- Step 1. Arrange according to the foreign language subject (excluding candidates from regular secondary education), in the following order: English, Russian, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, and substitute subjects;

- Step 2. Arrange the list of candidates who must take the foreign language subject and candidates from regular secondary education (if any) in alphabetical order by candidate name."

3. Point a Clause 4 Article 18 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"a) Duties:

- Inspect all facilities, necessary procedures, security, public order, fire prevention and firefighting conditions; review the leadership team, secretaries, and invigilators (in terms of quantity and quality) of the Examination Board to ensure the examination proceeds safely and strictly;

- Receive and securely store examination papers, organize invigilation, and perform other tasks to ensure invigilation operations;

- Collect and securely store answer sheets; prepare records and files as required; hand over all answer sheets, records, and invigilation files to the Department of Education and Training;

- Supervise and urge members of the Examination Board and candidates to comply with the Examination Regulations;

- Manage funds according to current financial regulations."

4. Point a Clause 5 Article 18 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"a) Chairman of the Examination Board:

- Direct and be responsible for all activities of the Examination Board;

- Organize training for members of the Examination Board and candidates on the Examination Regulations, ensuring they understand and implement examination rules at various educational management levels;

- Assign invigilators in examination rooms impartially and rigorously, adhering to the principle that two invigilators in one room must teach different schools; an invigilator cannot oversee more than one subject in one room; two invigilators cannot oversee the same room more than once;

- Examine and decide or propose disciplinary measures for those violating the Examination Regulations and examination rules at various educational management levels;

- Report directly and implement handling plans when incidents specified in Article 17 of these Regulations occur, after consulting with members of the Examination Board;

- Hand over all sealed answer sheets and invigilation files to the Director of the Department of Education and Training."

5. Segment 2 Point d Clause 5 Article 18 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"- Outside-room invigilator:

+ Monitor and supervise candidates and invigilators in examination rooms to ensure compliance with the Examination Regulations in the area assigned by the Chairman;

+ Perform other necessary tasks to support invigilation as assigned by the Chairman."

6. Clause 6 Article 18 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"6. Principles of operation of the Examination Board: All participants in organizing examinations must study and understand the Examination Regulations; under no circumstances may they bring or use personal communication devices in the examination area during examination sessions."

7. Clause 7 Article 21 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"7. For the optional part (if any) of the examination paper, candidates may only complete one of the two optional parts; if candidates complete both optional parts, they will be considered to have violated the rules and neither part will be scored."

8. Point a Clause 2 Article 25 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"a) The marking code unit must keep confidential all information related to the marking codes of subjective examination papers and perform the following tasks:

- Assign marking codes, cut the marking codes, seal the marking code ends before handing over the papers to the Chairman of the Marking Board or Deputy Chairman authorized by the Chairman;

- Hand over the marked papers to the Chairman of the Marking Board or Deputy Chairman authorized by the Chairman;

- Safeguard the marking code ends; handle technical issues related to marking codes as requested by the Chairman of the Marking Board or Deputy Chairman authorized by the Chairman;

- Hand over the sealed marking code ends to the Chairman of the Marking Board or Deputy Chairman authorized by the Chairman after the Marking Board has completed scoring based on the marking codes;

- Perform other tasks assigned by the Chairman of the Marking Board."

9. Point d Clause 2 Article 25 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"d) Before examiners mark subjective examination papers, the Head of the Marking Team shall organize for team members to study the marking guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education and Training and conduct joint marking of at least 15 papers to ensure consistency among all examiners in implementing the marking guidelines. Jointly marked papers must be scored immediately after agreement, with "jointly marked" noted along with the signature of the Head of the Marking Team and at least two examiners.

If there are unresolved questions or discovered errors in the marking guidelines within the marking team, a record shall be made requesting guidance from the Chairman of the Marking Board from higher authorities; under no circumstances should the marking guidelines and grading criteria be changed without authorization."

10. Clause 1 Article 26 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"1. All candidates have the right to request a re-examination of their examination papers if the examination score is lower than the average score of the subject in Grade 12 by 1.0 point or more."

11. Clause a, Clause 2, Article 26 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"a) Candidates must submit a request for re-examination within seven days from the date of public announcement of the examination results;"

12. Point b, Clause 2, Article 26 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"- The Department of Education and Training at the locality shall be responsible for receiving and transferring the list and requests for re-examination of multiple-choice examination papers of candidates to the provincial Re-examination Board; transferring the list of candidates requesting re-examination of subjective examination papers to the provincial Re-examination Board that marked the subjective papers."

13. Point a, Clause 7, Article 26 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"- Adjust the examination score when the re-examination score differs from the previous marking score by 1.0 point or more for the Literature subject and by 0.5 point or more for other subjects. Conclude the new examination score;"

14. Clause 1, Article 41 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"1. The Minister of Education and Training shall issue a decision to establish inspection teams of the Ministry to supervise and urge the implementation of the Examination Regulations throughout all stages of the examination at localities and units organizing the examination."

15. Clause 3, Article 47 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"3. Develop plans for organizing invigilation and carry out all preparatory work for invigilation at the locality:

- Establish invigilation boards based on the number of candidates and the facilities of schools and school clusters;

- Receive floppy disks containing lists of candidates registered for each foreign language subject from secondary schools;

- Prepare candidate lists according to school clusters (if organized in clusters);

- Prepare candidate lists according to examination rooms;

- Prepare lists of examination rooms according to invigilation boards;

- Hand over candidate lists according to examination rooms and candidate admission cards to invigilation boards."

16. Article 49 is amended and supplemented as follows:

"Article 49. Universities, academies, colleges, and specialized secondary schools

1. Implement directives and assignments of the Ministry of Education and Training; coordinate with localities to organize the high school graduation examination well.

2. Select staff and lecturers to participate in the examination according to the mobilization of the Ministry of Education and Training. 3. Arrange travel expenses and accommodation expenses for all staff and lecturers of the unit participating in the examination."

17. Clause 6, Article 50 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"6.

a) Check all registration files and related examination files, examine candidates' eligibility for the examination, confirm candidates' status, and decide not to allow candidates to take the examination if they do not meet the conditions and have valid files;

b) Prepare candidate lists for each foreign language subject, hand over floppy disks containing those lists to the Department of Education and Training for room allocation;

c) Safeguard complete examination registration files and candidate lists according to the regulations of the Department of Education and Training; promptly present them for inspection, verification, and required corrections (if any); d) Make admission cards for candidates registering at the school and hand them over to the Department of Education and Training."

Article 2. Abolish Clause 2, Article 10 and all contents related to the School Cluster Work Committee in the High School Graduation Examination Regulations issued together with Circular No. 04/2009/TT-BGDĐT dated March 12, 2009, of the Minister of Education and Training.

Article 3. This Circular takes effect from April 10, 2010.

Article 4. The Head of the Office, the Director of the Testing and Quality Assurance Department, Heads of relevant units under the Ministry of Education and Training; Chairpersons of Provincial People's Committees; Directors of Departments of Education and Training; Directors of universities and academies; Principals of colleges; Principals of boarding secondary schools directly under the Ministry of Education and Training are responsible for implementing this Circular./.