Vietnam - Hundred officials hire proxies to sit TOEFL tests

Almost 200 government officials from Dong Nai Province have been found cheating on their English exams in 2011 by hiring college students to either sit TOEIC and TOEFL exams for them or help them cheat using secret hand signals.

The tests were held at Lac Hong University and Dong A foreign language center in the southern province. The TOEIC and TOEFL exams in question are the local versions only recognized by Vietnamese organizations.

During ongoing investigation into proxy test taking in Dong Nai, police found out that the officials had spent VND4-7 million (US$192-336) each to hire many Lac Hong high-performing students to either impersonate them or help them cheat on these tests.

The police said this number is not definitive as they have only collected statistics from 3 out of 8 exams that Dong A organized last year, excluding ones from Lac Hong university.

Most of the civil servants, who are now working at management levels at the province’s state departments and media agencies, were trying to pass the exams in order to polish their CVs for promotion purposes, Tuoi Tre discovered.

Dong Nai police have already arrested 28-year-old Lac Hong alumnus Do Tran Le Son, who was found managing these for-hire students, together with his schoolmate 27-year-old Tran Quang Hung on charges of “faking documentation.”

They are expanding investigation into the involvement of Lac Hong and Dong A employees in this scandal.

TUOI TRE

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