Publicize science and technology competition projects for social supervision

After many 'controversies' about the honesty of national science and technology research projects for middle and high school students, the Ministry of Education and Training decided to amend the competition regulations to make the organization more public, transparent and fair.

The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Circular No. 24/2025/TT-BGDDT amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on the national science and technology research competition for secondary and high school students.

Accordingly, the amendment of regulations on organizing competitions at the unit level is aimed at requiring the units to select their projects through the competition organization form, applying the issued regulations. This helps the projects selected to participate in the national competition not to be confused.

The project that won first prize in the national science and technology research competition last school year was accused of having too many similarities to foreign products and had its results canceled.

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT

Units are also required to improve the integrity of scientific research by specifying requirements such as announcing the selected competition projects to participate at the national level, and clarifying the responsibilities of scientific research instructors.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, although this has been stipulated before, in the revised and supplemented Circular, this content is emphasized more and included in specific subjects to enhance scientific integrity in scientific and technical research. Competition projects are selected to participate at the national level when publicly announced, ensuring social supervision and ensuring honesty in research.

The Circular also amends and supplements a number of other contents to improve the organization of the competition, aiming to make the organization more public, transparent and fair in order to further promote the making of scientific and technical research a regular activity in general schools, promoting teaching and learning in the direction of developing STEM science and technology...

No equalization of the number of projects

In the revised and supplemented Circular, the calculation of the number of projects participating in the national competition is based on the ratio of the number of projects participating in the Department of Education and Training competition compared to the total number of projects participating in the competition of the Department of Education and Training nationwide. This regulation, according to the Ministry of Education and Training, aims to make the competition more fair.

Accordingly, the Departments of Education and Training with good scale and competition movement will be assigned a proportionate number of projects to compete in the national competition, avoiding leveling and not really encouraging the movement.

Departments of Education and Training that do not have a widespread movement, if they want to increase the number of projects competing at the national level, will have to consider encouraging and promoting the movement to have more representatives at the national level.

Specifically, small-scale competing units are allowed to submit a maximum of 3 projects to compete at the national level. Larger-scale units, with a project participation rate at the unit level greater than 1% and less than or equal to 5%, will be allowed to register a maximum of 6 projects; with a project participation rate greater than 5% and less than or equal to 10%, will be allowed to register a maximum of 9 projects; with a project participation rate greater than 10%, will be allowed to register a maximum of 12 projects.

For the participating units being general schools under ministries and ministerial-level agencies, universities, colleges, institutes and academies, each unit can register a maximum of 3 competition projects, an increase of 1 project compared to the previous regulations in Circular 06.

In order to encourage the movement of localities, the Circular amends and supplements the regulation that the participating unit is allowed to send 1 more project to the competition for each project that won fourth prize or higher at the international competition in the previous consecutive year.

In recent years, there have been many concerns and reflections about the honesty of award-winning projects at the provincial and national levels. As Thanh Nien reported, last May, the Ministry of Education and Training had to make a decision to cancel the first prize in the national science and technology research competition for middle and high school students in the 2024-2025 school year because this project was accused of having too many similarities with foreign products.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cong-khai-cac-du-an-thi-khoa-hoc-ky-thuat-de-xa-hoi-giam-sat-185251201130547557.htm