The decision was imposed by the Ministry of Education. In recent weeks, the institute that issues English language certificates had warned about Internet scammers offering to sell exam answers. For the Vietnamese, learning a language is very expensive.
Hanoi () – The British Council announced that as of today all English exams have been suspended until further notice. The website of the English language institute (which issues certificates of suitability to apply for university or work visas) explains that the “decision is out of our control and concerns all international language aptitude tests. The date of authorization of the exams will depend on the approval of the Ministry of Education and Training. We are working closely with the ministry to obtain the necessary permits as soon as possible.”
Local Vietnamese newspapers report that Japanese and previously Chinese exams at the Confucius Institute in Hanoi have also been suspended. On November 8, the Ministry of Education requested the educational departments of all cities and provinces to review the organization of foreign language exams because only institutions that receive ministerial approval will be able to conduct the tests.
The decision immediately sparked concern among young Vietnamese students and workers, because language certificates are essential for legal migration.
In mid-October the British Council and the IDP institute – the only two places where IELTS tests can be taken in English – warned against online scammers proposing to sell test answers. The students who fell for the trap said that they had paid millions of dong for supposedly “top secret” documents, but that they were useless at the time of the exam because the answers did not match.
Foreign language certificates are very expensive for Vietnamese citizens: the price of the exam alone is 185 dollars (4.6 million dong), not considering the purchase of study materials and preparatory courses. The average salary in Vietnam is around 150 dollars and can reach a maximum of 200 in the big cities.
The Vietnamese diaspora, made up of more than 4 million emigrants, is the fifth largest in the world and is concentrated mainly in the United States, Cambodia, France, Australia and Japan. In 2020, remittances from Vietnamese abroad exceeded 17 billion dollars.
