The principal is responsible for issuing high school diplomas.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued guidelines to replace the issuance of junior high school graduation certificates with confirmation of completion of the junior high school program in the school transcript; to authorize school principals to issue high school graduation certificates; to add vocational high school diplomas; and to add digital diplomas and certificates...

The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Circular No. 10/2026/TT-BGDĐT, promulgating the Regulations on diplomas and certificates of the national education system, effective from April 15, 2026.

Accordingly, there are some notable new provisions: replacing the issuance of lower secondary school diplomas with confirmation of completion of the lower secondary school program in the school transcript; entrusting school principals with the authority to issue upper secondary school diplomas; adding vocational secondary school diplomas; adding digital diplomas and certificates; and expanding the scope of regulation to include diplomas and certificates of vocational education.

The Ministry of Education and Training stated that the circular also replaces all previous regulations on diplomas and certificates that were issued sporadically in various documents of the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs .

Students will receive their high school diplomas earlier, starting in 2026.

PHOTO: TUAN MINH

Adding regulations regarding digital diplomas and certificates.

The regulations supplement the concept of digital diplomas and certificates; stipulate the issuance, storage, and processing; issuance of copies, correction, revocation, and cancellation of digital diplomas and certificates; and regulate the construction, updating, and exploitation of the digital diploma and certificate database and the list of mandatory information fields to be updated.

The Ministry of Education and Training is building a nationwide shared database of diplomas and certificates to serve the issuance of digital diplomas and certificates, store issued data, and publicly disclose information about the issuance of diplomas and certificates.

The updating and public disclosure of information applies to diplomas and certificates issued before the circular came into effect. Information extracted from the database has the same legal validity as information in the original register; information retrieved from the database or on the VNeID application can be used in place of copies from the original register and serves to verify diplomas and certificates.

The regulations also require full data updates when issuing, reissuing, amending, revoking, or canceling diplomas and certificates, ensuring the principles of "accuracy, completeness, cleanliness, viability, consistency, sharing, and common use." The entire Regulation is developed with a focus on promoting the application of technology and implementing digital diplomas and certificates in parallel with paper diplomas and certificates.

According to the new regulations, the time limit for issuing paper high school diplomas has been shortened from 75 days to 30 days; the time limit for issuing digital diplomas and certificates is 5 days from the date of the graduation recognition decision.

The Ministry of Education and Training stated that related procedures are regulated in a way that reduces paperwork, increases the exploitation and sharing of data from relevant databases; prioritizes processing in an electronic environment; and does not require citizens to re-provide information already available in the data systems of state agencies.

The regulation requiring the Ministry of Education and Training to print diploma templates has been abolished.

The regulations clearly define the authority and responsibilities of each organization and individual involved. Specifically, the Ministry of Education and Training focuses on issuing regulations and implementing state management in accordance with the law, without replacing the functions of local authorities or institutions.

The regulation requiring the Ministry of Education and Training to print diploma and certificate templates has been abolished, and the authority to issue diplomas and certificates (for paper diplomas and certificates) has been decentralized to the provincial Departments of Education and Training or other competent agencies. No specific templates for university and vocational education diplomas and certificates have been stipulated (only the main content to be recorded on the diplomas and certificates has been specified), except for the high school graduation diploma template, to ensure nationwide uniformity.

At the same time, there are no regulations specifying the format of the original register, original register appendices, or copy issuance register, but only the main content, in order to increase the autonomy of the competent authority issuing diplomas and certificates.

The deputy can also sign diplomas.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the supplementary regulations stipulate that deputies are authorized to sign diplomas and certificates to reduce the workload for heads of departments; they also specify special cases for issuing copies from original records, reissuing, amending content, revoking, and canceling diplomas and certificates in situations such as the absence of original records, the lack of authorized personnel, or when the competent authority merges, splits, or dissolves.

Regarding outstanding issues related to junior high school diplomas, the Department of Education and Training is responsible for handling them; the People's Committee of the commune is responsible for handing over the original diploma issuance registers and related documents to the Department of Education and Training before May 31st.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/giao-hieu-truong-cap-bang-tot-nghiep-thpt-185260303160300432.htm