The Ministry of Public Security issued four-month arrest and search warrants against Nguyen Khac Tuan, 37, an employee of the Division of Examination and Quality Management under the Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training; and the 39-year-old Do Manh Tuan, Vice Rector of Lac Thuy district’s Ethnic Boarding High School. They were both accused of abusing power. 

A day earlier, Hoa Binh province officially launched an investigation into allegations of cheatings in the high school exam, making it the third locality in the spotlight after Son La and Ha Giang provinces. 

Colonel Pham Hong Tuyen, Director of Hoa Binh Police Department, told the press on August 2 that the probe was initiated because of suspicions of abuse of power to interfere with the scores of the students’ multiple-choice tests. 

Both of the two are members of the high school exam’s multiple-choice test scoring team, of which all five members were summoned to the police for investigation, said Nguyen Duc Luong, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Education and Training on the same day. 

Luong also revealed another name in the group: Nguyen Quang Vinh, head of the department’s examination and quality management division; however, refused to disclose the names of the other two. 

He said that the department on July 28 detected some “issues” in the scoring process of the multiple-choice tests which involved the computers used for marking. 

Doubts over the high school exam result in Hoa Binh were raised after the province announced that it had 27 students scoring nine points and beyond in maths, accounting for 4.7 percent of the country. The rate was suspiciously high given that there were only 100 students achieving nine plus in a much easier maths test last year, accounting for 0,46 percent of the national total. 

Before Hoa Binh, Son La and Ha Giang provinces were found to have had severe cheatings in which the scores of hundreds of students were raised higher than their real results. Five education officials in the two localities have been arrested so far.-VNA