Decision No. 19/2006/QĐ-BGDĐT Amending and supplementing certain articles of the Examination Regulations for completion of secondary school and high school established by Decision No. 17/2002/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 5, 2002, and amended and supplemented by Decisions No. 13/2004/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 28, 2004, and No. 06/2005/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated February 17, 2005, of the Minister of Education and Training.

Pursuant to …;

Amending and supplementing some articles of the Examination Regulations for completion of lower secondary school and upper secondary school promulgated by Decision No. 17/2002/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 5, 2002, and amended and supplemented by Decisions No. 13/2004/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 28, 2004, and No. 06/2005/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated February 17, 2005 of the Minister of Education and Training.

secondary general education established pursuant to Decision No. 17/2002/QĐ-BGD&ĐT

dated April 5, 2002 and amended and supplemented by Decisions No.

13/2004/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 28, 2004, Decision No. 06/2005/QĐ

BGD&ĐT dated February 17, 2005 of the Minister of Education and Training

_________________________

THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Pursuant to the Education Law dated June 14, 2005;

Pursuant to Decree No. 86/2002/NĐ-CP dated November 5, 2002 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of Ministries and ministerial-level agencies;

Pursuant to Decree No. 85/2003/NĐ-CP dated July 18, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Education and Training;

The Minister of Education and Training promulgates this Circular amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Regulations on the procedures for recognizing diplomas issued to Vietnamese citizens by foreign educational institutions accompanying Decision No. 77/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT dated December 20, 2007 of the Minister of Education and Training.

Pursuant to …;

Article 1. Amending and supplementing some articles of the Examination Regulations for completion of lower secondary school and upper secondary school promulgated by Decision No. 17/2002/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 5, 2002, and amended and supplemented by Decisions No. 13/2004/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 28, 2004, and No. 06/2005/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated February 17, 2005 of the Minister of Education and Training, as follows:

1. Clause 3 of Article 9 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"3. The bonus points prescribed at Points a, b, and c of Clause 1 of Article 9 of this Regulation shall be retained during the period of study and shall only be added once per examination year. Self-study candidates who have already taken the graduation examination shall not be eligible for bonus points."

2. Point a of Clause 3 of Article 11 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"a) Having a parent who is an ethnic minority, residing in highland, remote, island, new economic zone, or particularly difficult commune areas, currently studying at upper secondary schools in their place of residence or other localities (excluding centrally governed cities) and at boarding schools for ethnic minorities at district level or higher."

3. Point c shall be added to Article 13 as follows:

"c) Students with visual impairments."

4. Article 16 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"Article 16. Examination Papers

1. The examination papers for the upper secondary school graduation examination must meet the following requirements:

a) The content of the examination paper must be within the scope of the Grade 12 curriculum currently in effect;

b) It must assess basic knowledge, the ability to apply knowledge, and practical understanding of students;

c) It must ensure scientific accuracy and pedagogical appropriateness;

d) It must differentiate student levels;

e) It must be suitable for the time allocated for each subject;

f) The examination paper must clearly indicate the number of pages and include the word "END" at the end of the paper;

g) Each examination paper will be scored out of 10 points. If the examination paper includes multiple questions, the number of points for each question must be clearly indicated on the paper.

2. In each examination session, each subject must have an official examination paper and a backup examination paper with equivalent requirements and content. Each examination paper must come with marking guidelines.

Students studying under the pilot upper secondary school curriculum track may take separate examinations. The content of the examination paper is based on the fundamental knowledge of the natural science and social science and humanities tracks. The examination paper consists of two parts: mandatory questions for all candidates and optional questions according to the specific program of each track.

3. Examination papers and marking guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education and Training that have not yet been published are classified as top-secret documents according to current regulations of the Prime Minister."

5. Clause 4 shall be added to Article 18 as follows:

"4. The duties of the exam review committee members are to solve and evaluate the examination papers according to the requirements set forth in Article 16 of this Regulation and they must individually bear responsibility for their evaluations."

6. Clause 2 and Clause 5 of Article 22 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"2. The number of leaders (Chairman and Vice Chairmen), secretaries, and invigilators of the Examination Board shall be determined by the competent authority according to the number of candidates taking the examination. At each examination venue, there must be a reserve invigilator equal to at least 10% of the total number of invigilators specified for each examination room."

"5. Each examination room shall accommodate no more than 24 candidates; the distance between two candidates in the same row shall be at least 1.2 meters; there shall be two invigilators inside the examination room; the number of invigilators outside the examination room shall be assigned by the Chairman of the Board according to the specific conditions of the examination venue but shall be at least one invigilator for every two examination rooms."

7. Point b of Clause 2 of Article 27 shall be amended and supplemented as follows:

"b) Organizing the marking of examination papers according to the annual guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Training. Each subjective examination paper, except those marked jointly, must be independently marked by two examiners, who record individual scores separately on personal marking sheets. The first examiner, apart from drawing diagonal lines on blank portions of the answer sheet, shall not make any other markings on the candidate's work. Component scores, total score, and comments shall be recorded on the marking sheet. The second examiner must write his/her name in the designated box, mark component scores in red ink along the margin of the examination paper next to the marked section. After both examiners have completed marking each paper, the team leader shall return the papers to the two examiners to reconcile and record the total score in both numerical and written form on the reconciliation sheet and on the examination paper; fill in the required boxes with full names and sign together. The score of the examination paper shall be recorded in red ink. If there is a change in the score, the original score shall be crossed out, the new score written in both numerical and written form, and both examiners shall sign to confirm the score change."

8. Clause 4 shall be added to Article 27 as follows:

"4. The marking of examination papers for subjects using the multiple-choice method shall be carried out according to the annual examination guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Training."

Article 2. Remove the phrase "graduation examination for lower secondary school" and abolish all provisions related to the graduation examination for lower secondary school stipulated in the Examination Regulations for completion of lower secondary school and upper secondary school promulgated by Decision No. 17/2002/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 5, 2002, and amended and supplemented by Decisions No. 13/2004/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated April 28, 2004, and No. 06/2005/QĐ-BGD&ĐT dated February 17, 2005 of the Minister of Education and Training.

Article 3. This Decision shall take effect fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette. All previous provisions contrary to this Decision shall be abolished.

Article 4. The Secretaries of the Office, Heads of the Department of Organization and Cadres, Heads of the Department of Planning and Finance, Directors of the Testing and Quality Assurance Agency for Education, Heads of the Department of Secondary Education, Chairperson of the Inspectorate, Heads of relevant units under the Ministry of Education and Training, Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities, Directors of Departments of Education and Training, Directors of Hanoi National University, Directors of Ho Chi Minh City National University, Principals of universities with specialized high school classes, and Principals of secondary schools training high school students under the Ministry of Education and Training shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.