Circular No. 03/2019/TT-BGDDT dated March 18, 2019 of the Ministry of Education and Training on amending and supplementing a number of Articles of the Regulations on National Examination and Graduation issued with the Circular No. 04/2017/TT-BGDDT dated January 25, 2017 of the Minister of Education and Training amended and supplemented by the Circular No. 04/2018/TT-BGDDT dated February 28, 2018 of the Minister of Education and Training

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Circular No. 03/2019/TT-BGDDT dated March 18, 2019 of the Ministry of Education and Training on amending and supplementing a number of Articles of the Regulations on National Examination and Graduation issued with the Circular No. 04/2017/TT-BGDDT dated January 25, 2017 of the Minister of Education and Training amended and supplemented by the Circular No. 04/2018/TT-BGDDT dated February 28, 2018 of the Minister of Education and Training

Pursuant to the Law on Education dated June 14, 2005 and the Law on amendments thereto dated November 20, 2009;

Pursuant to the Law on Higher Education dated June 18, 2012;

Pursuant to the Government s Decree No. 69/2017/ND-CP dated May 25, 2017 on organization, functions, tasks, and entitlements of the Ministry of Education and Training;

Pursuant to the Government s Decree No. 75/2006/ND-CP dated August 02, 2006, elaborating and providing guidance on the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Education; the Government s Decree No. 31/2011/ND-CP dated May 11, 2011 on the amendments to the Government s Decree No. 75/2006/ND-CP dated August 02, 2006, elaborating and providing guidance on the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Education; the Government s Decree No. 07/2013/ND-CP dated January 09, 2013 on amendments to Point b Clause 13 Article 1 of Decree No. 31/2011/ND-CP;

At the proposal of the Director of Education Quality Control Authority;

The Minister of Education and Training issues the  Circularon amending and supplementing a number of Articles of the Regulations on National Examination and Graduation issued with the Circular No. 04/2017/TT-BGDDT dated January 25, 2017 of the Minister of Education and Training amended and supplemented by the Circular No. 04/2018/TT-BGDDT dated February 28, 2018 of the Minister of Education and Training

Article 1. To amend and supplementa number of Articles of the Regulations on National Examination and Graduation issued with the Circular No. 04/2017/TT-BGDDT dated January 25, 2017 of the Minister of Education and Training amended and supplemented by the Circular No. 04/2018/TT-BGDDT dated February 28, 2018 of the Minister of Education and Training

1. To amend the Clause 1 of Article 2 as follows:

"1. The National High School Graduation Examination (NHSGE) result is used for considering a student’s graduation of high school, assessment of secondary education quality, and enrolling in higher education institutions or vocational education institutions.”

2. To amend the Clause 2 of Article 4 as follows:

"2. Examination content: within the high school program, especially grade 12."

3. To amend the Clause c and Point d Clause 1 of Article 6 as follows:

“c) Members: heads of agencies affiliated to the Ministry of Education and Training; heads of some universities, academies, colleges that provide teacher training; heads on Internal Political Security Authority and relevant units affiliated to the Ministry of Public Security;

d) Secretary: Officials of relevant units affiliated to the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Public Security.”

4. To add the paragraph below  to Point a Clause 2 of Article 8 as follows:

“- Members of the Secretariat of the examination center (hereinafter referred to as “Secretariat”) must not participate in the header preparation board, the grading boards and the regrade board.”

5. To amend the Point b Clause 2 and Point b Clause 3 of Article 8 as follows:

“b) Tasks and entitlements of the Secretariat:

- Receive and manage data about registered candidates; issue candidates’ numbers, divide candidates into examination rooms; prepare documents and forms to be used at examination centers and in examination rooms;

- Receive and store written exam papers and multiple choice exam papers in sealed bags;

- Send the written exam papers in sealed bags to the header preparation board;

- Receive and store the written exam papers without headers in sealed bags sent by the header preparation board;

- Send the written exam papers in sealed bags to the written exam paper grading board; send the multiple-choice answer sheets (hereinafter referred to as “answer sheet”) in sealed bags to the multiple-choice test grading board and perform relevant tasks;

- Receive and store the headers of exam papers in seal bags from the header preparation board after the written exam papers are graded;

- Manage documents relevant to the written exam papers and answer sheets. Issue a record on grading of written exam papers (if any);

- Manage the data about the exam results and perform other tasks assigned by the chairperson of the examination center.”

“b) Tasks and entitlements of the header preparation board:

- Receive written exam papers in sealed bags to the Secretariat;

- Remove the headers from the exam papers, protect the confidentiality of the header numbers;

- Protect the headers while the papers are being graded;

- Send the papers without headers in sealed bags to the Secretariat;

- Send the headers in sealed bags to the Secretariat after the papers are graded.”

6. To amend the second paragraph of Point a Clause 2 Article 9 as follows:

“Free candidates and continuing education students shall do the exam together with 12 graders at examination centers divided by the director of the Departments of Education and Training; the list of candidates in examination rooms shall be made in accordance with Point a Clause 1 of this Article.”

7. To amend the Clause 7 Article 17 as follows:

“7. Exam question creation process

a) Each questing creation team shall create the questions, adjust the questions and answers, and provide grading instructions (for both official and backup questions) for a subject. The creation, appraisal, adjustment of exam questions and answers, and grading instructions shall meet the requirements in Article 15 of this document.

The standardized multiple-choice question bank developed in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training is an important source of reference to create multiple-choice questions following these procedures:

- The President of the Board of question creators shall assign a secretary to randomly choose questions from the question bank and send them to the question creation team leaders;

- Question creation team leaders shall assign their members to appraise each question;

- Members of each question creation team shall work together, adjust each question and put together a question sheet in accordance with Article 15 of this document. After the final adjustment is made, the team leader shall sign the question sheet and send it to the President of the Board of question creators;

- Members of the Board of question creators shall mix the questions to create multiple versions of question sheets;

- The question creation team shall examine each version, answers and grading instructions thereof, and sign on every version.

b) Exam question review:

- Question sheets shall be reviewed by independent reviewers. Reviewers shall try to answer the questions and assess the questions in accordance with the requirements in Article 15 of this document; propose necessary adjustments or corrections;

- Comments of reviewers are a basis for the President of the Board of question creators to decide whether to approve the questions.”

8. To amend the title of Article 19, the contents of Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 19 as follows:

“Article 19. Storage, use of question sheets, and storage of exam papers at examination centers

1. The question sheets and exam papers shall be stored in separate cabinets. The cabinets storing question sheets and exam papers shall be sturdy, locked and sealed; the seal shall bear the signature of the head and deputy of the examination center; the cabinet keys shall be held by the head of the examination center. The process of breaking the seal shall be witnessed by a police officer and the person who sign on the seal. The time of breaking the seal, reason for breaking the seal, the state of the seal shall be recorded in writing. The record shall bear the full names and signatures of the head of the examination center and the witnesses.

2. The area where the question sheets and exam papers are stored shall be guarded 24 hours per day by the police and ensure fire safety. The rooms where question sheets and exam papers are stored shall be safe and well built, have surveillance cameras to record activities therein 24 hours/day; guarded by the police 24 hours/day with 01 official (the deputy head of the examination center or the secretary) working the night shift while question sheets and exam papers are being stored in the rooms.”

9. To amend the Point m Clause 1 Article 22 as follows:

“m) After the transfer, the exam paper bag and the exam paper collection note of each examination room shall be sealed by the secretary and two proctors. The seal shall be put on at the center of the opening of the bag. The deputy of the examination room shall put his/her signature and full name on the seal. Two proctors shall sign on the edge between the seal and the bag, and put a stamp on the seal (use the stamp of the educational institution used as the examination center), then put duct tape along the edge of the bag and over the seal. The secretary of the examination center and two proctors shall sign and write their full names on the delivery record;”

10. To amend the Clause 2 Article 23 as follows:

“2. The rooms, cabinets, boxes and containers in which the exam papers are stored shall be safely locked and sealed. The seal shall bear the signatures of the key holder and the inspector. The keys to the exam paper storage rooms shall be held by the grading board manager; the keys of cabinets and containers storing written exam papers shall be held by a secretary of the written exam paper grading board; the keys of cabinets and containers storing multiple-choice answer sheets shall be held by a secretary of the multiple-choice test grading board. The rooms where written exam papers and answer sheets are stored and graded shall have fire safety equipment, surveillance cameras working 24 hours/day and guarded by the police 24 hours/day. The opening and closing of the rooms, cabinets and containers in which the exam papers are stored shall be witnessed by the police and the inspector."

11. To amend the Article 26 as follows:

“Article 26. Grading multiple choice answer sheets

1. Universities and colleges assigned by the Ministry of Education and Training shall preside over the grading of answer sheets.

They shall appoint their employees to participate in the grading board in accordance with Clause 2 of this Article, except for those whose relatives are candidates in the same administrative division.

The Ministry of Education and Training shall directly inspect the performance of every task of the multiple-choice test grading board in accordance with this document.

Departments of Education and Training shall provide necessary facilities, computer systems, photo scanners and other devices as instructed by the Ministry of Education and Training; cooperate with the police and security guards in security protection; advise the People’s Committees of the provinces about necessary budget for organization of multiple-choice test grading.

2. Multiple-choice test grading board

a) The multiple-choice test grading board shall be established under the decision of director of the Department of Education and Training. The multiple-choice test grading shall work under direction of the Steering Committee for the National High School Graduation Examination (hereinafter referred to as “Steering Committee”)

b) Composition of the multiple-choice test grading board:

- The head of the university or college shall be the manager of the multiple-choice test grading board. The manager of the multiple-choice test grading board shall coordinate the grading and take responsibility to the head of the Steering Committee for the grading quality and punctuality; is entitled to change or suspend members that are irresponsible, violate examination rules or make multiple mistakes during the performance of their tasks; has the responsibility to investigate in case of suspicion as requested by the supervision team.

- The position of deputy manager of the multiple-choice test grading board shall be held by managers of departments of the university or college;

- The multiple-choice test grading board is divided into several teams, including:

+ Secretary team: the position of leader of the secretary team shall be held by a vice-leader of the grading board; members of the secretary team shall be managers and lecturers of the university or college. The secretary board shall assist the grading board managers in preparing documents serving the grading; delivery of test papers from the examination center; opening and closing test paper bags; storage of test papers in the grading room; supervision of the grading process and performance of other tasks assigned by the grading board manager.

+ Grading team: the position of grading team leader shall be held by a deputy manager of the multiple-choice test grading board; members of the teams are technicians of the university or college and up to 02 external technicians from Departments of Education and Training of other provinces (if requested by the university or college). The technicians shall have deep understanding of information technology and the multiple choice test grading software.

+ Supervision team consists of at least 03 people (01 team leader and 02 team members): The leader is the department manager or internal inspector of the university/college; the members are public employees of the university/college.

The supervision team shall work independently from other teams. The supervision team has the responsibility to closely supervise the grading of answer sheets, the storage of test papers in the grading room. In case of suspicion, the supervision team shall request the grading board manager to suspend the grading and carry out an inspection before proceeding.

c) Members of the multiple-choice test grading board shall perform the tasks assigned by the board manager, comply with provisions of this document; members of the teams shall comply with requests of their team leaders.

4. General regulations on grading answer sheets

a) Members of the multiple-choice test grading board and people performing relevant tasks must not bring pencils, erasers and other banned items in the grading rooms; must not change the answer sheets in any shape or form or for any reason.

b) The technicians shall follow the grading procedures. Any suspicion shall be promptly reported to the grading team leader and the grading board.

c)The answer sheets shall be scanned and graded by machines and software provided by the Ministry of Education and Training.

d) Processing test papers:

- After all of the answer sheets are scanned, the scanned images encrypted by software shall be copied to 03 CDs or DVDs;

- Identification of scanned images: After all of the answer sheets are scanned, the images encrypted by software shall be copied to 03 CDs or DVDs;

- After all of technical errors of the answer sheets are fixed, the error fixing data encrypted by software shall be copied to 03 CDs or DVDs.

During each of the three steps, the CDs or DVDs shall be bagged and sealed in the presence of the supervision team and the police. This process shall be recorded. 01 CD/DVD shall be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training; 01 CD/DVD shall be held by the chairperson of the examination center; 01 CD/DVD shall be held by the grading board manager. The use of these CDs/DVDs is subject to approval by the Steering Committee.

dd) After completion of the tasks specified in Point d of this Clause, the grading team shall break the seal of the CD, make a record, and enter the data into the grading software under supervision of the police and the supervision team; the score of each answer sheet of each subject shall be converted into the scale from 1 to 10 and rounded to the nearest one hundredth. The codes of question sheets and subjects in the files of the Ministry of Education and Training shall be uniformly used. The grading board shall update and report the processing of answer sheets to the Ministry of Education and Training.

a) As soon as the grading is completed, the official files and test results (exported from the software in the format required by the Ministry of Education and Training) shall be copied to 03 CDs/DVDs, which shall be sealed under supervision of the supervision team and the police. This process shall be recorded in writing. 01 disc shall be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training, 01 disc shall be held by the chairperson of the examination center and 01 disc shall be held by the grading board manager.”

12.To amend the Article 29 is amended as follows:

“Article 29. Regrade board

1. The Department of Education and Training shall establish a regrade board. Composition of the regrade board:

a) The position of regrade board manager shall be held by a head of the examination center. During an examination, the regrade board manager must not concurrently hold the position of the written exam paper grading board manager or grading team leader;

b) Heads of the Department of Education and Training or high schools shall hold the position of deputy managers of the regrade board; heads of the Department of Education and Training or Examination Department thereof shall hold the position of standing deputy manager of the regrade board;

c) Regrade board members shall be qualified teachers that are teaching the same subject.

Teachers serving their internship and members of the Secretariat must not participate in the regrade board. A person must not regrade the exam paper he/she previously graded.

The regrade board shall find the mistakes such as incorrect scoring, regrade the exam papers as requested by candidates; submit the regraded exam papers to the chairperson of the examination center for decision.

2. The universities and colleges appointed by the Ministry of Education and Training to preside over the grading of multiple-choice test answer sheets shall issue the decision to establish the multiple choice test regrade board, the composition of which shall comply with Point b Clause 2 Article 26 of this document. A person who has participated in the multiple-choice test grading board must not participate in the multiple-choice test regrade board.

The regrade board shall find the mistakes and technical errors made during processing of answer sheets, and regrade the answer sheets as requested by candidates.

The regrade board manager shall approve and transfer the regrade results to the chairperson of the examination center for notification to the candidates.

3. The regrade shall be held at locations prepared by the Department of Education and Training, which have to satisfy the conditions specified in Article 23 and Article 26 of this document.”

13. To amend the third paragraph of Point b Clause 3, Clause 5 and Clause 6 of Article 30 as follows:

“3. Regrade procedures:

- Regrade tasks shall be performed in the presence of at least two people and under supervision of inspectors. The connection between the candidates, their candidate numbers and header numbers must be strictly kept confidential.”

"5. Regrade of multiple choice tests:

a) Multiple choice tests shall be regraded as follows:

- The regrade board and the Secretariat shall extract and bag the answer sheets the regrade of which is requested by the candidates, seal the bag and give it to the regrade board manager;

- The seal of the bag shall be broken in the presence of every member of the regrade board and the inspector. If there is more than one bag, all of the answer sheets in one bag shall be regraded and put in a sealed bag before the next bag is opened;

- Regrade board members shall compare each answer on the answer sheet to the scanned images;

- Every difference found must be investigated; the result before and after regrade (from the software) shall be printed and archived;

- The regrade board shall make a record on the regrade results, which has to bear the signatures of the manager and every member of the regrade board, the supervision team and the inspector.

b) The supervision team shall directly continuously supervise every step of the regrade process.

c) Regrade data include: technical error correction record; official regrade result of every answer sheet (copied to 03 CDs/DVDs, which are subsequently sealed and signed on by the regrade board manager, 01 of which is sent to the Ministry of Education and Training, 01 is given to the chairperson of the examination center for archiving updating on the database of the grading software, 01 is held by the regrade board manager).

d) The regraded scores approved by the regrade board manager shall be the official scores of the candidates.

6. Reporting regrade scores

Regraded scores shall be submitted by the regrade board manager to the chairperson of the examination center for decision. The chairperson of the examination center shall update the regraded scores on the examination management software in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training; send the data to the Ministry of Education and Training and send the results to candidates.

If the score is changed after regrade, a certification of regraded score shall be issued to the candidate and the score certification issued before regrade shall be revoked and destroyed.”

14. To amend the Point c Clause 2 of Article 36 as follows:

“c) High school students, continuing education students who have to undergo conduct assessment, continuing education students who are following a program that combines both intermediate vocational training and secondary education and have the vocational training certificate issued by the Department of Education and Training, educational institutions and vocational training institutions shall be eligible for extra points according to the classification of their vocational training certificates. To be specific

- For vocational training certificates with “Excellent” classification, intermediate professional education diploma with “Excellent” or “Very Good” classification: +2,0 points;

- For vocational training certificates with “Good” classification, intermediate professional education diploma with “Good” and “Average Good” classification: +1,5 points;

- For certificates and diplomas with “Ordinary” classification: +1,0 point.”

15. To amend the Point a and Point b Clause 1 of Article 37 as follows:

“a) The grade-point average (GPA) for high school students is calculated as follows:

b) The graduate point average (GPA) for continuing education students is calculated as follows:

16. To amend the Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 44 as follows:

“1. The chief inspector of the Ministry of Education and Training is entitled to decide establishment of inspectorates that will inspect the preparation and organization of the examinations, regrade and recognition of high school graduation at all examination centers and Department of Education and Training; such a decision may be made by the Ministry of Education and Training where necessary.

2. Chief inspectors of Departments of Education and Training shall decide establishment of high school graduation inspectorates in their; such a decision may be made by the Directors of Departments of Education and Training where necessary.”

17. To amend the Clause 9 Article 51 as follows:

“9. Cooperate with the Department of Finance and relevant agencies in proposing the budget for organizing the examination, including payments to employees and lecturers of universities, colleges and other units appointed by the Ministry of Education and Training to participate in organization of the examination (if any).”

18. To amend the Clause 2 Article 53 as follows:

“2. Establish a delegation of officials and lecturers to cooperate in organization of examination at local examination centers as appointed by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Payments to employees and lecturers of universities, colleges and other units appointed by the Ministry of Education and Training to participate in organization of the examination locally shall be covered by the local authorities.”

Article 2.

1.The phrase "department of education and training” is replaced with "department of education and training, department of education – science and technology " in Clause 2 of Article 1.

2. The phrase "in accordance with principles of national secret protection” " is replaced with "in accordance with legal regulations on national secret protection” in Point b Clause 3 of Article 17.

3. The phrase "Grading board " is replaced with " Grading board (written exam paper, multiple choices)" in Clause 3 of Article 23.

4. The phrase " Grading board" is replaced with " Written exam paper grading board" in Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3 of Article 8; the title of Article 24 and Clause 1, Clause 5 of Article 24; Point a Clause 1 of Article 27.

5. The phrase "Board manager " is replaced with "Grading board manager of written exam paper” in Point a and Point b Clause 1 of Article 24.

6. The phrase " Grading board manager " is replaced with " Grading board manager " in: Clause 2, Clause 3, the title of Clause 4, Point c Clause 4 Article 24; the title of Clause 1, Point a  Clause 1, Point b and Point c Clause 2 Article 27; Point e Clause 4 Article 49.

7. The phrase "Regrade board " is replaced with " Regrade board  of written exam paper” in: Clause 1, Point e Clause 3 Article 8; the title of Point b, the second paragraph of Point b Clause 3 Article 30.

8. The phrase "Regrade the exame" is replaced with "regrade of written exam paper" in the title of Clause 3 Article 30.

9. The phrase "Regrade board” is replaced with "Regrade board of written exam paper (written exam paper/multiple choice paper) " in the fifth paragraph of Point b Clause 2 Article 43.

10. The phrase "Head of  regrade board" is replaced with "Head of regrade board of written exam paper" in: Point a Clause 1 Article 27; Point a Clause 3 and the second, third and fifth paragraphs of Point b Clause 4 Article 30.

Article 3.This Circular shall take effect on May 03, 2019.

Article 4.Chief of Office, director of Education Quality Control Authority, heads of relevant units affiliated to the Ministry of Education and Training; Director of Training Department of the Ministry of National Defense and Director of Training Department of the Ministry of Public Security; Directors of Departments of Education and Training and Departments of Science and Technology; Principals and Directors of universities and institutions; principals of colleges that provide teacher training shall implement this Circular./.

For the Minister

The Deputy Minister

Nguyen Huu Do