Opinions of educators still vary about whether Vietnam ought to do away with the separate high school final and university entrance exams next year and institute a ‘2-in1’ exam.

Van Nhu Cuong, Headmaster of Luong The Vinh People Founded High School in Hanoi:

I think that there is no logical basis for using the resultsof the latest high school final exam to decide whether to institute the ‘2-in1’ exam, because the goals of the high school final exam and university entrance exams are quite different. We could not say we could successfully organise a motorbike race just because we had been able to organise examinations for motorbike licences.

When there is only one exam instead of two, the single exam will be the ‘life-and-death’ one. Therefore, I believe that incidents of cheating will increase while examination boards will also be under heavier pressure from people in positions of power who want their children and relatives to pass the exam. Several proctors have been reportedly threatened because they disciplined students who violated exam regulations. This activity will only increase if there is one exam.

Dang Dinh Dai, Headmaster of Nguyen Gia Thieu High School in Hanoi:

With the latest high school final exam organised in so strict a manner, I absolutely think that we can organise the 2-in-1 exam beginning next year.

The seriousness of the exam could be seen in both the invigilation and marking of exam papers. No serious wrongdoings have been reported.

I have heard that some supervisors at some examination boards loosened the discipline in exam rooms. However, I think that this is unavoidable in some cases, because supervisors are just people.

I am listening for news to find out if there are problems with the current mechanism of marking exam papers (teachers of provinces mark exam papers of students in other provinces). However, it is quite a normal thing that opinions of different jury members are different.

Nguyen Van Ben, Director of Bac Kan Education and Training Department:

After the recent high school final exam, I think that we are still unready to organise a single exam. I know that invigilation has been carried out in different ways in different localities. Examinees have been able to copy each other.

I think that inspectors from the Ministry of Education and Training could be ‘bought’ easily. In some localities, inspectors are invited to drink beer, or given ‘envelopes’, or taken to karaoke shops.

I know some localities have percentages of students passing the exam of 80-90 percent. Does this means that nearly all the students in the localities are able to study at university?

The university entrance exam should be maintained as the serious and definitive exam.

Phan Thi Thu Ha, Deputy Director of the Dong Thap Education and Training Department:

64 percent of Dong Thap’s students passed the high school exam. We were very serious and strict with the exam and the exam result truly reflected the ability of examinees. We believe that with the current way of organising exams, we can organise the 2-in-1 exam scheme from next school year.

Thu Thuy-Lan Huong