What are details of the Draft on the Regulation for organizing examinations and issuing foreign language certificates? What are the standards for organizations conducting Foreign Language Proficiency Assessments in Vietnam?

What are details of the Draft on the Regulation for organizing examinations and issuing foreign language certificates?

The Ministry of Education and Training of VIetnam has just announced the Draft Circular on the Regulation regarding the organization of foreign language examinations and issuance of certificates according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam.

View the Draft Circular on the Regulation regarding the organization of foreign language examinations and issuance of certificates according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam... Download

The highlights of this draft circular on the regulation of organizing foreign language examinations and issuance of certificates include:

- Scope and Objects of Application:

- Standards for Organizing Units:

- Examination Organization Process:

- Coordination in Examination Organization:

- Inspection, Examination, and Handling of Violations:

- Reporting and Archiving Regime:

This Draft is currently open for feedback to be finalized and officially implemented.

What are details of the Draft on the Regulation for organizing examinations and issuing foreign language certificates?​ (Image from the Internet)

What are the standards for organizations conducting Foreign Language Proficiency Assessments in Vietnam?

According to Article 4 of the Draft Circular on the Regulation regarding the organization of foreign language examinations and issuance of certificates according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam Download, higher education institutions offering foreign language majors organizing foreign language proficiency assessments must meet 5 standards with 18 criteria.

The standards and criteria are finalized as of December 31 of the reporting year and completed no later than January 31 of the following year, as follows:

(1) Organization and Management

- There must be a dedicated department to conduct foreign language proficiency assessments, and the leadership of this department must have management capabilities, be responsible, honest, and objective.

- There must be at least one leader in the dedicated department with a minimum foreign language proficiency of B2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (or level 4 under the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam) in one of the languages taught in the national education system's curriculum, and must hold a master's degree or higher in one of the fields/specializations: Measurement and Evaluation in Education; Foreign Language, Literature, and Culture; Foreign Language Education Science.

- Specialists to create and grade exams: must have at least 30 individuals (for English) and 20 for other foreign languages, with a master's degree or higher in foreign languages within the group of Foreign Language, Literature, and Culture; or Foreign Language Education Science.

Exam authors/graders are only permitted to create/grade exams for formats that are equal to or lower than their certified foreign language proficiency level.

- There must be a team of technicians capable of utilizing IT equipment for examination organization and grading. Personnel specified in criteria 1, 2, and 3 of this standard must be public employees recruited, utilized, and managed according to the law on public employees, or contracted employees with a fixed-term contract of 12 months or more, working full-time at the Examination Organizing Unit.

(2) Facilities

- Must have sufficient examination rooms to conduct computer-based exams for at least 100 candidates. The exam rooms must ensure adequate lighting, tables, chairs, boards or projectors; a shared clock visible to all candidates; and a fire prevention and control system.

- Must have a metal detector or handheld scanner to check items and equipment candidates are allowed to bring into the exam room.

- Must have a computer system including servers, computers for candidates, UPS equipment, backup power supply, and auxiliary equipment to ensure technical requirements for computer-based testing for at least 100 candidates per session; must have equipment/solutions to ensure network security and exam content security (in case transport of exam content over the internet network).

Computers in the exam room should be arranged at suitable distances or separated by partitions to ensure candidates cannot see the content on other candidates' screens.

- The test and grading rooms, and the server area containing test organization data must have a surveillance camera system that records the entire examination process. The camera monitoring screen is placed in the examination director's office.

(3) Examination Organization Software

- Must have a user-friendly interface, easy to install and use; capable of disconnecting from unrelated external applications and devices;

- Allows candidates to log into the software to take the exam using a personal exam account;

- Must include functions: photographing candidates and entering them into the exam data; countdown timer; preview next question, statistics on answered questions; automatic grading of multiple-choice tests; automatic logout and save candidates' work and results when exam time is up; functions for grading speaking and writing skills; data backup function.

(4) Website for Examination Organization Task

- Provides information on exam format, sample exams, exam schedule announcements, list of candidates violating regulations, banned from exams; publishes rules, examination organization processes;

- Allows candidates to register for exams, check exam results;

- Supports units using certificates in checking and verifying candidates’ exam results and certificates. The check function must provide the following information: Candidate's full name, date of birth, ID number, candidate photo during examination, exam date, exam result, certificate number, level achieved.

(5) Exam Papers, Exam Question Bank

- Exam papers must be accurate, scientific, coherent, and clear; follow the structure of the foreign language proficiency assessment format issued by the Ministry of Education and Training, and be created based on random extraction from a standardized question bank; in the same examination round, each candidate gets a different exam code.

- Between two consecutive exams, the reading and listening content should not overlap by more than 25%; the speaking and writing sections should not overlap.

- The question bank is developed according to the process in Appendix 1 of this Circular and must ensure a sufficient number of questions to generate at least 70 exam papers. Questions used for examinations may only be reused after a minimum of 2 years.

- Each year, the question bank must be supplemented with at least 10% more exams than the minimum exam requirement in criterion 5.3. Exam organizing units can share the question bank and exam papers for examination purposes.

What are regulations on regulations and Process on Organizing Foreign Language Proficiency Evaluation Examinations?

According to Article 5 of the Draft Circular on the Regulation regarding the organization of foreign language examinations and issuance of certificates according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam Download, the regulations and process for organizing examinations are as follows:

- Examination organizing units must develop and publicly announce their examination organization regulations and process on their website 30 days before application.

- The regulations and processes of examination organization of units must ensure security, safety, objectivity, fairness, and seriousness; clearly assign responsibilities to segments participating in examination organization; have efficient anti-cheating measures.

- Contents of the regulations and examination organization process must include:

+ The processes of organizing the exam and tasks, rights of participating organizations and individuals (preparing for the exam, conducting exam registration, exam supervision, grading...);

+ Time frames within the examination organization;

+ Regulations on the responsibilities and rights of candidates;

+ Security and anti-cheating measures for the exam;

+ Publication, reporting, and archiving regimes;

+ Inspection, monitoring, incident handling, and violation handling tasks.

- Time frames within the examination organization task:

+ Announcing the list of exam candidates, list of candidates not eligible to take the exam: No later than 7 days before the exam date;

+ Publishing exam results: No later than 15 days after the conclusion of the final exam session;

+ Announcing re-evaluation results (if any): No later than 10 days after the end of the re-evaluation registration period.

- The examination organizing unit is responsible before the law for all operations before, during, and after the exam, including accountability to the state management agencies and society for the quality of exam papers, examination organization implementation, examination regulations, and processes.