Abnormal 10th grade exam scores in Thai Binh: Errors discovered but... nothing done

Mr. Dang Xuan Phong - Deputy Director of Thai Binh Department of Education and Training - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

At the press conference providing information on the results of the 10th grade entrance exam for the 2024-2025 school year after the inspection organized by the People's Committee of Thai Binh province on the morning of August 20, Mr. Dang Xuan Phong, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Thai Binh, informed about the exam marking process and the cause of the error.

According to Mr. Phong, after the exam ends, the essay and multiple choice tests are gathered in one location.

Essay tests are sent to the grading committee for grading. Multiple-choice tests that do not require grading are sent to the multiple-choice grading committee for grading.

"Here, there are mainly essay tests, this is the step that leads to errors. When receiving essay tests, the marking committee proceeds to mark the tests, the marking work is supported by the marking support software.

The marking and marking takes place in an isolated area protected by the police and provincial inspectors with the principle of working absolutely independently and being responsible to the chairman of the examination council.

Therefore, any interference from the outside or information from the inside must be carried out in accordance with regulations through the inspection secretary and the provincial police. Even equipment and necessities brought in to serve the working team are strictly controlled," said Mr. Phong.

Mr. Phong said that after the marking department finishes the marking, the essay test is transferred to the marking committee to mark the test papers and calculate the scores.

After completing the marking, the marking committee hands over the completed marking sheets to the secretariat to combine the marking sheets and score (return the test sheets).

The return of the score is only done after the marking is completed and the scores are entered into the software.

After successfully matching the scores on the software, the secretariat will check and print the score sheet. From the software, the secretariat will randomly match at least 20% of the essay tests by hand. If there are any errors, a report will be made to the chairman of the examination board to determine the cause and handle it.

After the inspection is completed, the exam results will be announced as planned. Thus, the end of the inspection process is to publish the exact score sheet of the candidates, along with the registration number, the examination council, then notify the results to the candidates after organizing the review and approval of the admission results.

"The inspection conclusion pointed out that the error in the 'returning of essay test papers' stage was in the secretariat and the test paper matching department, this department has about 30 people," said Mr. Phong.

Errors were discovered but no records were made and no corrective measures were taken.

According to the inspection conclusion, during the process of checking the score of the essay test, the number of test papers that were checked for match by hand was only 0.71%, not ensuring at least 20% of the essay test papers as prescribed.

When errors were discovered (some exam papers were off-beat), the secretariat did not make a record but only recorded information about the candidates with errors and forwarded it to the head of the exam steering committee.

However, the head of the exam steering committee did not clearly identify the cause and take measures to correct the error by checking the matching of the secretariat, which is not in accordance with regulations.

The inspection team manually matched 100% of the essay exams (no re-scoring of the exams was performed), determining that 2,997 exams were out of sync, causing incorrect scores for 2,750 exams.

The cause of this violation is that the head of the secretariat and related individuals of the secretariat did not fully perform their responsibilities in performing their official duties.

Director of the Department of Education and Training of Thai Binh Nguyen Viet Hien - head of the exam steering committee and the secretariat were irresponsible, did not inspect and supervise and did not promptly report to the Provincial People's Committee about unusual incidents at the exam.

Initially, at the stage of reviewing the essay test, the provincial inspectorate determined the responsibility of the civil servants and public employees of the secretariat in performing the assigned tasks and powers in the 10th grade entrance exam.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Hien is responsible as head of the Department of Education and Training, head of the exam steering committee.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bat-thuong-diem-thi-lop-10-o-thai-binh-phat-hien-sai-nhung-khong-lam-gi-20240820142814036.htm