Candidates listen to national high school graduation exam regulations at an exam site in Lê Ngọc Hân Secondary School in Hà Nội on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo

 HÀ NỘI — The high school graduation exam begins tomorrow for millions of students, with strict COVID-19 measures in place as the fourth wave of infections grows.

Students nationwide will do their literature tests on Wednesday morning and maths in the afternoon of the same day.

The exam is being held with the COVID-19 pandemic still developing in a complex manner in many localities, so pandemic prevention work has been a key focus for the education sector.

Candidates will have their temperature checked and have their hands disinfected before entering the test sites, while they must wear masks during the exam.

Each test site will be sprayed with disinfectant and medical staff will be on duty during the exams, while isolation rooms and backup exam rooms have been arranged if any students need to be isolated due to contact with a COVID-19 patient.

Medical staff have also been placed on alert to respond if any candidates show COVID-19 symptoms.

Previously, exam boards held rehearsals to prepare for the exam.

On Tuesday morning, the examiners met together at the test sites to go over exam regulations.

In the afternoon, candidates visited their test sites and completed the examination preparation procedures.

On Tuesday, candidates were reminded to bring their exam notice, review the information on the exam paper and the candidate's information, and promptly report to the examination staff for correction if there are any errors.

Candidates were also informed by the examination staff about exam rules and reminded of banned items.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyễn Hữu Độ said the pandemic situation was more complex this year than in 2020. 

"If in 2020 the infected cases only appeared in a few localities, this year the pandemic spread wider.

"So far now, there have been more than 50 provinces/cities in the country with infections, of which some localities such as HCM City, Bắc Giang, Đồng Nai, Bình Dương and Phú Yên have had a large number of infections.

"Therefore, the biggest difficulty is how to cope with the pandemic,  ensuring the health and safety of students, teachers, and to organise a strict and fair exam," he said.

Positive test results

Among more than 85,000 candidates who will sit for the national high school graduation examination on July 7-8 in HCM City, 18 pooled samples tested positive for coronavirus.  

Health officials are testing each of the candidates who were included in the pooled samples.

Candidates who tested negative for coronavirus will sit the exam as scheduled.

Those positive for coronavirus will sit the exam at a later time. The Ministry of Education and Training has not set the date yet.— VNS