The Country in Numbers
6AM Class sparks controversy at a Vietnamese University. According to the new academic schedule, there will be 17 separate class sections a day at the university, with the first one starting at six in the morning, and the last one ending at 10:10pm. Each period is 50 minutes long and is followed by a ten-minute break. Classes after 6pm will not be followed by a break so as to be able to finish school as early as possible. While many students expressed strong opposition towards the new academic timetable, the school’s professor claims it only benefits students. Many students expressed their concerns and frustration towards the new class times. “Studying from 6am to 10pm can only result in hospitalization,” one of the comments claims. On the other hand, some students found it “normal” or did not seem to be concerned with the matter.
140 Exam papers were altered in a cheating scandal in Northern Vietnamese Province. Three education officials, who were tasked with scoring exam papers in Vietnam’s National High School Exam last year, received money from candidates to help alter answers on 140 test papers, police concluded after a months-long investigation. Results of the National High School Examination, held every year around June, are used to determine whether a student qualifies for graduation from high school and acts as a placement test for college and university entrance in Vietnam. In 2018, nearly one million candidates took part in the three-day exam, where they sat for tests in math, literature, foreign languages, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, and civics. When exam results were released in early July 2018, suspicion was quickly raised on whether cheating had occurred as test scores by some candidates from Ha Giang, Son La, Hoa Binh and Lang Son, all northern provinces, were unusually high. One confessed to receiving VND550 million for his involvement in the crime. Meanwhile, another admitted it was not the first time he had manipulated test scores of the national high school exam, having done so in the 2017.
5 Men were severely burned after they challenged one another to pour petrol over themselves during a drinking party in the South-Central city of Nha Trang. The five men involved were part of a six-man group that had been drinking beer and grilling fish on a deserted piece of land around 4:25 pm, according to local police. The stunt resulted in two of the men catching fire from the nearby grill before spreading the flames to the other three. Pham Dinh Thanh, deputy head of a hospital department, said two of the men sustained burns on 80 to 90 percent of their bodies, two on 40 to 50 percent of their bodies, and the last on 20 percent of his body.