Court sentences 15 in exam cheating scandal in Hoa Binh

Defendants listen to the verdict on May 21 (Photo: VNA)

Thirteen out of the 15 defendants were charged with “abuse of power while performing their official duties” to inflate the exam scores of students.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, 54, former head of the Testing and Quality Assurance Unit under the provincial Department of Education and Training was given eight years in jail for “abuse of power while performing official duties".

Khuong Ngoc Chat, 39, former head of the Internal Political Security Division under the provincial Department of Public Security; Diep Thi Hong Lien, former vice head of the Testing and Quality Assurance Unit; and Nguyen Khac Tuan, an official of the unit were sentenced to six, three and five years in jail, respectively, for the same charge.

Do Manh Tuan, 41, former vice principle of Lac Thuy District Secondary and High School was given seven years in jail for receiving bribes and three years for abuse of power.

Ho Chuc, 45, former teacher of Thanh Ha High School in Lac Thuy district was sentenced to 30 months in prison for giving bribes.

Other defendants who are former education officials and teachers in the province were given 15 to 30 months either in jail or suspended for abuse of power while performing their official duties.

According to the indictment, the defendants have taken advantage of their positions and made use of their relationships to collude and intervene to raise the marks of candidates in the national high school exam in 2017 and 2018.

The intervention raised marks for 65 candidates who sat for the national exam in 2018 and one candidate who sat for the national exam in 2017.

Of the candidates benefiting from the scheme, 45 were forced to quit school after their exams were re-marked objectively, ten others could continue their university courses as their remarked scores were eligible for university admission.

Six other candidates did not attend university courses even though their re-marked scores met universities’ requirements, one candidate failed to get university admission while another candidate did not apply for any university or college.