VietNamNet Bridge – After invigilators were violently criticized for their “silly mistakes”, they have argued that they have to bear too heavy responsibility, while the remuneration is too low.
A lot of troubles occurred at the HCM City Industry University’s exam room No 28, located at the Huynh Van Chinh primary school in Tan Phu district in HCM City. Nguyen Xuan Hoan, Deputy President of the university, said that many of the invigilators were the teachers of the primary school.

“Most of the invigilators were primary school teachers, who did not have experiences in invigilation. They felt too hard pressure and they made mistakes,” Hoan said.

Troubles also occurred at other exam rooms in Khanh Hoa and Binh Dinh provinces--invigilators signed on the wrong positions on examinees’ exam papers. As a result, the Ministry of Education and Training had to organize another exam for the students.

Talking about his duties, an invigilator in District 10 said that she had to get up at 5 am in the morning, had a quick breakfast before she must be present at 6 am at the exam room. Though invigilators had to be present very early at the exam room, they had to do everything very quickly, because there was too much to be done.

“A lot of young invigilators were so tense that they mangled the names of the examinees, or they wrong wrote down the recording numbers of students,” she said. “It would not be a surprise if invigilators signed on wrong positions on exam papers. As invigilators had to get up early and did not have breakfast before going to exam rooms, they could not work in the best conditions”.

“H”, an invigilator for the Hoa Sen University, said that invigilators have to take responsibility for a big volume of works: from writing down the recording numbers of students; examining and preserving exam question papers; listing of examinees and list the students who give exam papers to proctors. If invigilators are not really carefully, they would easily make mistakes. In these cases, they would be disciplined and forced to resign from the post of invigilator.

No one wants to become invigilator

While invigilators have to bear hard pressure and undertake a big volume of works, they cannot get high remunerations. University lecturers say they really do not want to work as invigilators, while university students, who are asked to work as invigilators, say they are not self-confident enough to take such a heavy job.

A student-invigilator revealed that she was shaking like an aspen leaf when she was at the exam room. If she did not fulfill the task, she would be expelled from the school.

The remuneration levels for invigilators are different, ranging from 300,000 to 650,000 dong per person.

Most of universities and junior colleges consider the invigilation as a duty of lecturers and students. Therefore, they only offer modest remunerations for invigilators. Meanwhile, schools have to pay higher to the invigilators they hired

Dr Ly Van Xuan, Head of the Education Division of the HCM City Medical and Pharmaceutical University, said that the school’s lecturers are not allowed to go on business on exam days. “They need to fulfill their duties or invigilators before leaving for business trips,” he said.

Universities complain that they always meet difficulties in arranging the workforce that serves in the enrolment season. A lot of schools said they have to begin looking for invigilators six months before the exam days.

Dr Pham Tan Ha, Deputy President of the HCM City University for Social Sciences and Humanity, also said that the school will not find voluntary invigilators, and it always has to ask lecturers to take the invigilation.

At a university in HCM City, a thick pile of petition papers, where lecturers ask for the permission to not intend the enrolment works of the school was seen on the table of the president several days before the exam days.

Tien phong