VietNamNet Bridge - Nearly VND1 trillion is spent to organize national high-school final exams every year, a relatively high amount of money for Vietnam. 


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The national high school finals are too costly



At present, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) organizes one national exam every year for two purposes – recognizing students’ graduation of high school and choosing the best students for universities.

Some experts have once again called on to change the examination scheme and not organize the national high-school final exam, saying it is ‘too costly’ and ‘unnecessary’. 

Pham Vu Luan, when he was Minister of Education and Training, estimated that in 2014, the state budget had to spend VND400,000 for every student attending the national high-school finals. With 1 million examinees in 2014, the state had to spend VND400 billion on the exam.

Local authorities also have to spend money on the exam. Director of the Da Nang City Education & Training Department Le Trung Chinh said the city spends VND2 billion on average for one exam. 

Da Nang City has population of 1 million and 12,000 examinees only. The money other provinces, which have more students, such as Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Quang Nam, or in Hanoi and HCM City, would be much higher.

As such, the total cost for one high-school final exam could be up to VND700 billion, or VND1 trillion, according to Chinh.

MOET has reported that 97.57 percent of students passed the exam. The proportion of students passing the exams was over 99.9 percent in large cities. 

Dao Tuan Dat, a lecturer at the Hanoi University of Science & Technology and headmaster of Einstein High School in Hanoi, said that students just need to get a 10 score for all exam subjects to be eligible for graduation. 

For example, if a student has a GPA (grade point average) of 7.5, they need a 2.5 score for each exam subject to be eligible for graduation. With the exam questions under multiple-choice mode with four suggested answers, 2.5 scores is within reach.

According to Vo Duy Khuong, Vice Mayor of Da Nang City, VND1 trillion is equal to 2/3 of revenue from the environmental protection tax. 

Such a big amount of money is spent just to find 2.43 percent of students who fail the exam. 

Some experts have once again called on to change the examination scheme and not organize the national high-school final exam, saying it is ‘too costly’ and ‘unnecessary’. The national high school finals are not needed if nearly 100 percent of examinees can pass the exams.


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Mai Chi