VietNamNet Bridge – Being present at roll call or attending exams under the names of other students have become very popular services. Other supporting services, including the student card or doctor’s certificate forging, have also mushroomed.

The ad pieces can be seen on a lot of websites

High demand, high supply

All the services aim to help students play truant. Under the current regulations, if schools discover their students cheating at exams, they will stop the students’ study. However, the superficial regulations are not strict enough to control students.

There are a lot of reasons cited by students to explain why they cannot go to class or attend exams and they need someone to help them do these jobs.

In general, the highest demand comes from work-study students, who have to go to work all the time and have no more spare time to review for exams. In other cases, students do not want to attend the exams because the exam subjects are too difficult for them. Other students hire examinees because they want to be sure they would receive good marks.

DM, an in-service training student of the HCM City Economics University, said he has commended his study to two other students. The two boys have to go to finance accounting and management accounting classes, fulfill tests and attend semester-end exams.

“I have to work too hard until the evening, so I don’t have time for studying,” he explained, adding that he needs a university degree in accounting to find another better job.

According to DM, the service provider receives VND50,000 for every presence at the class. He does not have to write down the lectures, just needs to be present at the roll call. Meanwhile, DM has to pay VND200,000 for every exam.

If typing “hoc ho” or “thi ho” (study service, exam attending service) on Google, one would receive 70 million results, which include the ad pieces about the professional services on raovat..., rongbay..., kenhsinhvien websites, or even on Facebook.

The “service providers” even provide their contact addresses, their advantages and personal information for clients’ choice.

Analysts have noted that most of the “service providers” are university students. They have been gathering in the professional hired examinees’ clubs, making money monthly with their “job.”

Students nowadays not only can seek the help when they need someone to go to class for them or attend exams for them, but also can find the experts who write theses for them as well.

The website luanvanviet.net proves to be most famous among the fourth-year students, who are writing theses and preparing for the graduation. The service there has been provided in a professional way with quoted prices and simple payment method.

Each essay would cost VND500,000-1 million, depending on the number of pages. As for the exam attending service, the service fee would depend on the exam marks.

Slap on the wrist

Students said it is very easy to cheat lecturers at the exams. They are not required to show student cards at the mid-term exams. As for the semester-end exams, they can show forged student cards.

“In some cases, one just needs to dim the image on the card. You would not be prevented from attending exams just because of the dim photo,” a student said.

Meanwhile, schools tend not to impose heavy punishments on the violations. At Van Lang School, students would only have to have one-year study interruption. Other schools only serve strong warnings on the students who violate the regulations for the first time.

Lao Dong