Vietnam high school graduation exam plagued by fraud scandal and waning university role

Representative Pham Van Hoa has repeatedly urged the abolition of Vietnam’s high‑school graduation exam, citing a recent case at Le Trực High School in Quảng Trị where two exam board teachers were indicted for abusing their positions and nine students were implicated. He referenced earlier scandals, including the 2018 Ha Giang case in which 114 students received inflated scores, and similar cheating incidents in Sơn La and Hòa Bình, describing the manipulation of answer sheets as sophisticated and hard to detect.

At the same time, the exam’s importance for university admissions is eroding. Data for 2024‑2026 show a sharp rise in participation in separate university entrance exams such as the HSA, V‑ACT, TSA and SPT, with thousands of candidates and an increasing number of universities relying on these results. Consequently, the traditional high‑school graduation score is losing its dominant role in college admissions, prompting calls for systemic reform.