The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), Vietnam, has announced new requirements for language test providers, concluding the speculation around the management of these tests. The MOET, in its statement, informed that Foreign Language Proficiency tests can only be taken by organisations having official permission from the Ministry.

Following this decision, a series of suspensions has been announced for language testing scheduled to be held in September and October, including Korean Proficiency Exam such as TOPIK; Chinese Proficiency Exams such as HSK & HSKK; and Japanese Exam such as NAT-Test. Earlier, the sittings for other exams such as TOEFL and PTE were postponed on Sept 10.

After the Ministry made the announcement on Nov 08, Vietnam's two major IELTS providers i.e. IDP and the British Council informed that they were also postponing the tests until further notice. However, IDP has now been granted permission by the Ministry to resume the language examinations.The permission document will remain effective for the duration of 05 years.

British Council sent emails to the registered test takers on Nov 10 stating, "We apologise to inform you that all IELTS tests arranged by the British Council in Vietnam have now been suspended till further notice". The email further states, "This decision is beyond our control and will affect all foreign language examinations in Vietnam. The resumption of the test depends on the consent of the Ministry of Education and Training, with whom we are collaborating to obtain the required approvals as quickly as possible".

This universal suspension of testing will surely impact thousands of Vietnamese students who wish to apply for abroad study next year, as most of them will be asked to provide their test scores to support their admission applications in North American or European universities.

Vietnamese universities also use proficiency exam results during admissions processes and also as a part of graduation requirements. Since tests have now been suspended, the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City has directed its 09 member-universities to adopt Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP Test) for the admissions and graduation evaluation purposes. The MET offers VSTEP since 2014 but this test has not been widely accepted by Vietnamese universities, until now.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Nguyen Huu Do, while explaining the reason, informed that the suspension was ordered as the local test administrations were not meeting all official requirements which led towards fraud concerns. He added, "This can cause bad public opinion, affect the rights of exam takers, and the rights and interests of organisations that seriously implement exams and issue certificates".

The MOET further added that the approval for the resumption of major foreign language exams is intended to be prioritised.

Source: monitore.icef.com