Circular No. 05/2021/TT-BGDĐT Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of the Examination Regulations for High School Graduation issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020 of the Minister of Education and Training

CIRCULAR

Amending and supplementing some articles of the Examination Regulations for High School Graduation issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020 of 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. 69/2017/NĐ-CP dated May 25, 2017 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 the Circular amending and supplementing some articles of the Examination Regulations for High School Graduation issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020 4. Amending and supplementing Clause 2 of Article 14 as follows:

Article 1. Amending and supplementing some articles of the Examination Regulations for High School Graduation issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020 of the Minister of Education and Training as follows:

1. Amending and supplementing point a Clause 2 Article 8 as follows:

"a) Members of the Examination Board: The Chairman is the Director of the Department of Education and Training (or Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training in special cases); Vice Chairmen are Deputy Directors of the Department of Education and Training, leaders of departments responsible for secondary education management, continuing education at the high school level, and final high school graduation examination work within the Department of Education and Training; members are leaders of certain departments under the Department of Education and Training and Principals of general schools; among them, the standing member is the leader of the department responsible for final high school graduation examination work within the Department of Education and Training (commonly referred to as the Examination Management Department);"

2. Amending and supplementing point a Clause 2 Article 9 as follows:

"a) Graduates of high school, students who have completed the high school curriculum but have not graduated in previous years, graduates of vocational secondary schools participating in the examination, and students of continuing education are arranged to take the examination together with high school students of grade 12 in the year of the examination (referred to as grade 12 high school students) at certain examination centers decided by the Director of the Department of Education and Training, ensuring that at least 60% of the examinees are grade 12 high school students in total number of examinees at the examination center (in special cases, opinions from the Ministry of Education and Training must be sought); the list for arranging examination rooms is made according to the provisions of point a Clause 1 of this Article;"

3. Amending and supplementing Clause 3 and Clause 4 Article 10 as follows:

"3. In each area where the Examination Board organizes the examination process (including printing and copying examination papers, invigilation, marking subjective examination papers, grading, and re-grading), there must be one fixed telephone placed in the common working room/on-duty room or in a separate room ensuring security and safety (at examination centers, if it is impossible to arrange a fixed telephone due to force majeure, the Chairman of the Examination Board decides to arrange a mobile phone without video recording function, without memory card, and without internet connection function and sealed when not in use). Only the calling/receiving functions of the telephone are used to communicate with the Examination Board and the Examination Steering Committee at various levels; all communications through the telephone must be conducted with the speaker on and heard publicly. At examination centers, in some necessary cases, one computer can be arranged in the on-duty room of the examination center and ensure that the computer is only connected to the internet when transferring quick reports to the Examination Board. During the use of telephones and computers, records must be kept and witnessed and confirmed by inspection officers at each area."

4. In each area where the Examination Board conducts invigilation, grading, and re-grading, there must be equipment for storing and preserving information transmission devices of those performing tasks there; these items must be sealed and managed/supervised by police officers."

4. Amending and supplementing Clause 2 and Clause 3 Article 12 as follows:

"2. Examination conditions:

a) The subjects specified in point a Clause 1 of this Article must meet the criteria of being evaluated as having at least average conduct grades and not being classified as poor in academic performance in grade 12; for learners who do not need to be classified in conduct grades and learners studying independently with guidance under the continuing education program, there is no requirement for conduct grades;

b) The subjects specified in point b Clause 1 of this Article must hold a Junior Secondary School Graduation Certificate and must meet the criteria of being evaluated as having at least average conduct grades and not being classified as poor in academic performance in grade 12; in cases where they did not meet the examination conditions in previous years due to poor academic performance classification in grade 12, they must register and participate in the end-of-year examination for certain subjects with average scores below 5.0 points (at the general school where they studied grade 12 or the registration school), ensuring that when replacing the subject's average score with the test score to recalculate the annual average score, they meet the examination conditions regarding academic performance classification as stipulated; in cases where they did not meet the examination conditions in previous years due to weak conduct classification in grade 12, they must be certified by the People's Committee of the commune where they reside on compliance with policies and laws and local regulations to be recognized by the general school where they studied grade 12 as meeting the examination conditions regarding conduct classification as stipulated;

c) Subjects who have graduated from vocational secondary schools as specified in point c Clause 1 of this Article must ensure that they have studied and passed the required amount of high school cultural knowledge according to the provisions of the Education Law and current guiding documents of the Ministry of Education and Training;

d) All examinees must register for the examination and submit all required documents within the deadline.

3. Registration for examination subjects:

a) For recognition of high school graduation: high school students belonging to the subjects specified in point a, b Clause 1 of this Article must take four subjects, including three independent subjects of Mathematics, Vietnamese, Foreign Language, and one combined subject chosen by the examinee; continuing education students belonging to the subjects specified in point a, b Clause 1 of this Article must take three subjects, including two independent subjects of Mathematics, Vietnamese, and one combined subject chosen by the examinee. Continuing education students may also register for the Foreign Language subject to obtain results for admission purposes;

b) Students belonging to the subjects specified in point c Clause 1 of this Article may register for independent examination subjects, combined subjects, or components of combined subjects."

5. Amending and supplementing Clause 2 Article 15 as follows:

"2. In one examination period, each examination subject/subject has an official examination paper and a backup examination paper meeting the requirements stipulated in Clause 1 of this Article; each examination paper has an answer sheet attached, and for subjective examination papers, there is additional marking guidance."

6. Amending and supplementing Clause 1 of Article 16 as follows:

"1. Unpublished examination papers and answers belong to the list of state secrets classified as "Top Secret". Unused backup examination papers are automatically declassified after the completion of the examination supervision work of the examination period."

7. Amend and supplement Clause 7 of Article 17 as follows:

“7. Examination question-setting process:

a) Drafting, reviewing, refining examination questions and answers; for subjective examination subjects, there will be additional marking guidelines: The examination question-setting team is responsible for ensuring that the examination questions and answers for the assigned examination papers/subjects comply with the requirements stipulated in Article 15 of this Regulation for both the main examination and the reserve examination. For multiple-choice examination questions: The secretary uses software to randomly select multiple-choice questions from the examination question bank constructed according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, and provides these to the examination question-setting team leaders (with the presence of the Chairman of the Examination Question-Setting Council and the examination question-setting team leaders) as a reference for drafting the examination questions;

b) Reviewing examination questions: According to the assignment of the Chairman of the Examination Question-Setting Council, the reviewer is responsible for reading, solving, and evaluating the examination questions based on the requirements stipulated in Article 15 of this Regulation, and proposing revision plans if necessary; the reviewer's evaluation opinions are reported to the Chairman of the Examination Question-Setting Council, serving as a basis for the Chairman to refer to during the examination question approval process;

c) Finalizing examination questions: Based on the opinions of the reviewers, all members of the examination question-setting team refine and finalize the examination questions, sign them, and submit them to the Chairman of the Examination Question-Setting Council for approval. For multiple-choice examination questions, after being approved by the Chairman of the Examination Question-Setting Council, the secretary mixes the examination questions into different versions and provides them to the examination question-setting team; all members of the examination question-setting team review each version of the examination questions and answers; then, the examination question-setting team leader signs and submits them to the Chairman of the Examination Question-Setting Council for approval before printing.”

8. Amend and supplement Point c of Clause 3 of Article 18 as follows:

“c) Examination question bags must be stored in locked safes, cabinets, or iron boxes sealed and continuously guarded 24 hours a day; the key is kept by the Head of the Examination Question Transport and Handover Team; the Head of the Examination Question Transport and Handover Team may authorize in writing the person in charge of the transport team or group to keep and hand over the keys to the Examination Point Leaders. In cases where it is impossible to transport using locked and sealed safes, cabinets, or iron boxes, the Department of Education and Training must develop a secure transportation plan for the examination questions and report to the Ministry of Education and Training before implementation;”

9. Amend and supplement Point a of Clause 3 of Article 20 as follows:

“a) Composition: The Examination Point Leader is a school principal; one Deputy Examination Point Leader is a school principal or subject team leader from the school hosting the Examination Point, responsible for infrastructure; other Deputy Examination Point Leaders are principals or subject team leaders from other schools; the Examination Point Secretary is either a member of the Examination Council Secretariat or a teacher from the host school; the invigilator is a teacher from the host school or a junior high school within the province; the examination room supervisor is a teacher from the host school; security personnel and service staff are employees of the host school; medical staff and police officers (or military control officers in special cases);”

10. Amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 23 as follows:

“2. The Chairman of the Examination Council must implement security measures for examination papers as prescribed in Article 19 of this Regulation; there must be police officers and the Head or Deputy Head of the Examination Council Secretariat guarding the storage room continuously 24 hours a day until the transfer to the Subjective Examination Paper Marking Team and Multiple Choice Examination Question Grading Team is completed.”

11. Amend and supplement Article 26 as follows:

“Article 26. Examination Marking Board

1. Composition:

a) The Head of the Examination Marking Board shall be concurrently held by the leadership of the Examination Council; the Deputy Head of the Examination Marking Board shall be the leaders of the departments under the Department of Education and Training and general education schools; among them, the Deputy Head in charge of daily operations shall be the leader of the Examination Management Department or the department responsible for managing secondary education/continuing education under the Department of Education and Training;

b) A Deputy Head with expertise corresponding to the examination paper to be marked shall concurrently serve as the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team;

c) The Examination Marking Board shall have at least two Marking Teams under the management and direction of the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team; each Marking Team shall have a Team Leader and marking officers who are civil servants, public officials, or teachers currently teaching the subject corresponding to the examination paper being marked; members of the Secretariat and the Shuffling Committee of the Examination Council shall not participate in marking;

d) Police, security guards, medical personnel, and service staff.

2. The Head of the Examination Marking Board shall oversee the marking work and be responsible to the Chairman of the Examination Council for the procedures, progress, and quality of the subjective examination marking; he has the authority to change or suspend the marking process for members who are negligent, violate the Examination Regulations, or make numerous errors in their assigned tasks; he shall also be responsible for checking and verifying when irregularities occur.

3. The Deputy Head of the Examination Marking Board shall be responsible for the results of the implementation of his duties and powers as assigned or delegated by the Head of the Examination Marking Board.

4. The Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team shall be responsible to the Chairman of the Examination Council and the Head of the Examination Marking Board for the management and organization of marking the subjective examination papers according to the Examination Regulations; he shall perform the following tasks:

a) Develop a marking plan, organize discussions on marking guidelines, answers, grading scales, and joint marking; organize exchanges and draw lessons during the marking process; organize summary meetings and draw lessons after completing the marking of all subjective examination papers;

b) Propose to the Head of the Examination Marking Board to change or suspend the marking process for marking officers who are negligent, make numerous errors, or violate the Examination Regulations;

c) Be authorized by the Team Leader of the Marking Team to carry out certain tasks within the authority of the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team, depending on the actual implementation of the marking process at the Examination Council.

5. The Team Leader of the Marking Team shall assist the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team in managing and organizing the marking process at the assigned Marking Team and perform tasks within the authority of the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team when authorized.

6. Members of the Examination Marking Board shall comply with the assignments of the Head, strictly adhere to the provisions of the Examination Regulations; marking officers shall follow the direct management of the Team Leader of the Marking Team and the instructions of the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team."

12. Amend and supplement Article 27 as follows:

“Article 27. Marking Subjective Examination Papers

1. General Provisions on Marking Subjective Examination Papers:

a) Marking shall be conducted according to the marking guidelines, answers, and grading scales of the Ministry of Education and Training; the examination paper shall be marked out of 10 points; the decimal part of the total score of the entire paper shall be rounded to two decimal places; each paper shall be independently marked by two marking officers from different Marking Teams;

b) The Secretariat of the Examination Council shall hand over the shuffled papers and marking sheets to the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team;

c) The Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team shall organize the dissemination of the Examination Regulations, discuss the answers and marking guidelines with all Team Leaders of the Marking Teams and marking officers, and conduct joint marking of at least ten subjective examination papers; thereafter, organize independent marking in separate rooms according to the marking procedure. For Examination Councils with thirty thousand or more candidates, the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team or the Team Leader of the Marking Team authorized by the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team may implement joint marking according to each Marking Team or group of Marking Teams;

d) The distribution of papers to marking officers shall be done through a lottery system using ballots.

2. First Marking Process:

a) The Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team or the Team Leader of the Marking Team authorized by the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team shall organize the lottery and distribute the original paper bags to each marking officer;

b) Before marking, the marking officer shall check each paper to ensure it contains the correct number of pages and shuffling marks, and cross out all unused blank portions of the paper left by the candidate;

c) In case of discovering that the paper does not contain the correct number of pages or shuffling marks; the paper was written on scratch paper; the paper was written on paper different from the exam paper; the paper has writing from two or more people, written in two or more colors, written in red ink, pencil, or contains unrelated writings or drawings; the paper is torn or suspected to have been marked, the marking officer shall report and hand over these papers to the Team Leader of the Marking Team for submission to the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team for handling;

d) During the first marking, apart from the crosses on the unused blank portions of the paper, the marking officer shall not write anything on the candidate's paper or the paper bag; partial scores, total scores, and comments (if any) shall only be recorded on one marking sheet for each paper; on the marking sheet, clearly record the name, signature, and stamp of the marking officer; once a paper bag is completed, the marking officer shall hand it over to the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team or the Team Leader of the Marking Team authorized by the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team for transfer to the Secretariat of the Examination Council.

3. Second Marking Process:

a) After the first marking, the members of the Secretariat of the Examination Council shall remove all marking sheets; then, they shall hand over the paper bags to the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team or the Team Leader of the Marking Team authorized by the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team to organize the lottery for the second marking, ensuring that the paper bags are not returned to the same marking officer who marked them in the first round;

b) The second marking officer shall directly record the score on the candidate's paper (the score for each small point must be recorded on the left margin of the paper next to the marked point) and on the marking sheet;

c) Once a paper bag is completed, the marking officer shall hand over the marked paper bag and marking sheet to the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team or the Team Leader of the Marking Team authorized by the Head of the Examination Subject Marking Team for transfer to the Secretariat of the Examination Council.

4. Consensus on Scores

The Head of the Department receives examination papers and marking sheets from the Examination Board Secretariat and directs the Marking Teams to uniformly score the examination papers. Only record individual question scores and total scores on the designated position on the answer sheet after reaching consensus on the scores. The process of reaching consensus on scores is as follows:

1.  Handling results of two (two) markings:

b) Handling results of three (three) markings:

5. Entering scores for subjective examination papers:

a) The Score Entry Team belongs to the Examination Board Secretariat, with the Team Leader appointed by the Examination Board Secretariat leadership or member; the Score Entry Team consists of at least two separate groups, each group consisting of at least three people;

b) The Score Entry Team performs entering scores for subjective examination papers in two independent rounds, ensuring that each round is carried out by a different group on the Examination Support Software under the witness and supervision of the inspector.

13. Amend Clause 1 of Article 38 as follows:

“1. Examinees who have taken all prescribed subjects but have not graduated from high school and have not been disciplined with cancellation of examination results may retain their examination scores for recognition of high school graduation in the following consecutive examination period. Subjects eligible for retained scores include:

a) Independent subject achieving 5.0 points or higher;

b) Combined subject achieving 5.0 points or higher and all component subjects of this combined subject achieving over 1.0 point;

c) Component subject of a combined subject achieving 5.0 points or higher.”

14. Amend Point b of Clause 1 of Article 40 as follows:

“b) Winning individual and team awards in experimental and practical examinations in Physics, Chemistry, Biology; cultural performances; sports; national defense education games; science and technology competitions; international letter-writing contests organized by the Education sector in collaboration with specialized sectors at provincial level or above for high school students. For individual awards: winning first, second, or third place nationally or first place provincially or Gold Medal is awarded 2.0 points; winning encouragement award nationally or second place in national science and technology competition or second place provincially or Silver Medal is awarded 1.5 points; winning third place provincially or Bronze Medal is awarded 1.0 point. For team awards: only national-level awards are counted; the number of players, athletes, performers in team awards is specified according to the specific regulations of the Organizing Committee of each event; the bonus points for individuals in team awards are implemented as stipulated for individual awards in this point. Individuals who win multiple awards in different competitions are only entitled to the highest bonus point level.”

15. Amend Clause 2 of Article 46 as follows:

 “2. Model Certificate of Completion of General Education Program as prescribed in Circular No. 18/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated June 29, 2020 issued by the Minister of Education and Training on the Model Certificate of Completion of General Education Program.”

16. Amend and supplement Article 49 as follows:

“Article 49. Inspection and Examination, examination

1. The Director of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education and Training decides to establish inspection and examination teams for directing and organizing the examination period and inspecting and examining the stages of the examination at localities; in necessary cases, this shall be decided by the Minister of Education and Training.

2. The Director of the Inspectorate of the province appoints persons to participate in the Provincial Steering Committee and assigns personnel to participate in the inspection and examination of the stages of the examination at the locality according to the instructions of the Chairman of the People's Committee of the province.

3. The Director of the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Training decides to establish inspection and examination teams for preparing for the examination, supervising the examination, marking the examination, re-examination, and recognizing high school graduation results of the Department of Education and Training; in necessary cases, this shall be decided by the Director of the Department of Education and Training.

4. The Ministry of Education and Training guides the work of inspection and examination of examinations in accordance with the provisions of the law.”

17. Amend and supplement Clause 3 of Article 54 as follows:

“3. Suspension of examination:

a) For candidates who violate any of the following offenses: Having been warned once but still continuing to violate the examination regulations during the examination session at the level of warning or warning; bringing prohibited items as stipulated in Article 14 of this Regulation into the examination room/waiting room or when moving between the examination room and waiting room; taking the examination questions out of the examination room or receiving answers from outside the examination room; writing or drawing on the answer sheet irrelevant to the examination; engaging in aggressive behavior or threatening those responsible for the examination or other candidates; failing to comply with the guidance of supervisors or waiting room managers when moving within the examination area and during waiting time;

b) The Examination Supervisors record the incident, seize evidence (if any), and report to the Head of the Examination Station to decide on the suspension of the examination. If the Head of the Examination Station does not agree, it shall be reported to the Head of the Examination Board to make the decision. Candidates suspended from the examination must hand over their examination papers, questions, and rough drafts to the Examination Supervisors, and must leave the examination room immediately after the decision is made and may only leave the examination area after the examination session ends;

c) Candidates suspended from the examination in any year will have all their examination results in that year canceled.”

18. Amend and supplement Article 56 as follows:

“Article 56. Responsibilities of the Ministry of Education and Training

1. Direct the organization of the examination; decide on special case handling plans due to natural disasters, epidemics, and other unusual situations.

2. Establish a National Steering Committee to direct the organization of the examination.

3. Direct the organization of inspections and examinations of the implementation of the Examination Regulations.

4. Develop examination questions for the annual examination.

5. Compare examination results with the average grade of the twelfth grade for candidates in the examination year.”

Article 2. Repeal Point c Clause 1 of Article 40 of the High School Graduation Examination Regulations issued together with Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGDĐT dated May 26, 2020 of the Minister of Education and Training.

Article 3. Effectiveness

1. This Circular takes effect from April 27, 2021.

2. Relevant ministries and sectors; People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities; Director of the Military Academy - Ministry of National Defense; Director of the Police Academy - Ministry of Public Security; Directors of provincial Departments of Education and Training; Director of the Department of Education, Science and Technology of Bac Lieu Province; Directors of universities; Principals of university-level institutions; Principals of colleges training early childhood education majors are responsible for implementing this Circular./.