Vietnamese students take college entrance exam amid COVID-19 concerns

Over 993,000 Vietnamese high school students on Wednesday started sitting for the national final exam with strict COVID-19 control measures in place, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The annual exam takes place as Vietnam is still fighting its biggest wave of COVID-19 infection, which started in late April and has spread to more than 50 cities and provinces nationwide.

While the majority of students took the exam on Wednesday and Thursday, nearly 11,600 students who tested positive for COVID-19 or lived in areas with high risks of the pandemic will sit the exam later, the news agency cited Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training as reporting.

Localities have been allowed to postpone the exam if necessary to ensure safety and fairness for students, according to the report. In several localities such as the southern epidemic hotspot Ho Chi Minh City, large-scale nucleic acid tests were conducted for all students and personnel serving the exam.

Similar to last year, examinees are requested to have their body temperature checked and have their hands disinfected before entering the test sites, as well as to wear medical masks during the exam.

More than 1 million students registered for the national exam this year, said the ministry, compared to a little over 900,000 last year.

The exam includes four parts, including literature, maths, foreign language, and either a group of three natural science subjects (physics, chemistry and biology) or a group of three social science subjects (history, geography and civics).

Vietnam has integrated its high school graduation exam and university entrance exam into one national exam since 2015, mainly to save time and costs.