SAT exam in Vietnam disrupted due to global system failure

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A global system error disrupted the March 8 SAT exam in Vietnam, forcing students to stop early. College Board is investigating and will announce a resolution soon.

On the morning of March 8, a sudden system failure disrupted the SAT exam, forcing many test-takers to stop their exams prematurely.

Tran Ha, a parent in Hanoi, whose child took the SAT at Banking Academy, reported that the system abruptly stopped 13 minutes before the scheduled end time. Meanwhile, some test rooms that started earlier were not affected.

“The proctors initially asked students to stay and wait for further instructions, but later told them to go home and wait for an official resolution via email,” she said.

At Hanoi University of Science and Technology, another parent, Thu Hang, shared that the system auto-submitted her child’s test 25 minutes early.

“My child was extremely disappointed because they were doing well. I hope College Board allows students to retake only the affected sections instead of the entire test, as each attempt brings tremendous psychological pressure,” she added.

College Board, the organization that administers the SAT, is currently investigating the issue and working on a solution for affected students.

Meanwhile, IIG Education, the official representative of College Board in Vietnam, confirmed that the issue was caused by a global system error. Test-takers who started before 11:00 AM were not affected, but those who began after 11:00 AM experienced disruptions.

The SAT exam, which includes Reading-Writing and Math sections, is a widely used standardized test for university admissions in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and other countries. Several universities in Vietnam also accept SAT scores for admissions and direct entry programs.

Thuy Nga

Vietnam’s declining birth rate: financial burden or shifting societal values?

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While financial concerns are a key factor, experts argue that emotional stress and changing societal values are equally responsible for Vietnam’s declining birth rate.

The more educated and financially stable a person is, the fewer children they tend to have. (Photo: Nam Khanh)

Experts say that Vietnamese reproductive behavior has shifted from a natural instinct to a carefully calculated decision, weighing the costs and benefits of raising children.

As the cost of parenting rises while its perceived benefits decline, more people are choosing to have fewer or no children.

Deciding to have children is now based on perceived value

A study on factors affecting birth rate realization in low-fertility provinces, published in August 2024 by Associate Professor Nguyen Duc Vinh, director of the Institute of Sociology, found that most families today prefer two children or fewer. However, the actual number of children they end up having is often lower than their initial expectations.

A recent survey of 1,200 women across four low-birth-rate provinces in southern Vietnam – Khanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, Soc Trang, and Ca Mau – showed that while most respondents desired two children, their actual planned fertility rate was lower. The final number of children they actually have is expected to be even lower.

Why do families hesitate to have more children?

Professor Vinh explains that the decision to have children is influenced by the perceived value of children to parents.

Traditionally, children provided economic benefits (labor and elderly care), social status, and emotional fulfillment. However, modernization has significantly diminished these values, leading to declining birth rates.

Researchers classify four primary benefits of having children in Vietnam and across Asia:

Household labor support

Elderly care and financial support for aging parents

Maintaining family lineage and inheritance

Strengthening family bonds and happiness

However, as economic development advances, these values diminish in importance, influencing couples’ decisions to have fewer children.

Emotional stress outweighs financial costs for many parents

Speaking to VietNamNet, Professor Nguyen Dinh Cu, former director of the Institute for Population and Social Issues (National Economics University), said that Vietnam’s prime reproductive-age population (under 35 years old) consists mainly of people born after the country’s economic reforms (Doi Moi, post-1986).

These individuals grew up under strict family planning policies and in an era of rapid globalization and digitalization, leading to a weaker desire to have many children.

“One of the biggest societal shifts in Vietnam is that childbirth has transformed from a natural instinct to a well-calculated decision based on costs and benefits,” Professor Cu explained.

Parents today face both financial and emotional costs when considering childbirth.

Financial costs: A 2019 survey in southern Vietnam, conducted by Professor Cu and colleagues, found that 91% of respondents considered the cost of raising children “high” or “very high.” Expenses include housing, education, healthcare, and daily living costs.

Emotional stress: Even more significantly, 85% of respondents cited mental and emotional burdens as a major deterrent to having more children.

“From pregnancy, parents worry about birth defects. After birth, they stress over the child’s health, education, behavior, and future career. As children grow, parents worry about unemployment, financial failure, and social risks. The emotional burden often outweighs financial concerns,” Professor Cu stated.

Higher education and financial status lead to lower birth rates

Statistical data from the General Statistics Office (now the Bureau of Statistics) shows a clear correlation between income, education, and fertility rates:

Wealthier households have fewer children: The average number of children per woman is 2.0 in the highest income group, compared to 2.4 in the lowest income group.

Higher education correlates with lower fertility: Women with less than a primary school education have an average of 2.35 children, whereas those with higher education (above high school level) have only 1.98 children.

This trend suggests that wealthier and more educated individuals prioritize quality over quantity, investing more in education, extracurricular activities, and international opportunities for their children rather than having larger families.

Professor Cu explains that economic benefits from children have declined as pension systems improve and elderly parents become more financially independent. Additionally, for many families, emotional satisfaction can be achieved with just one or two children.

“When we analyze these trends, it’s clear that the rising costs and declining benefits of parenting are leading many people to have fewer children – or none at all,” he concluded.

Vo Thu

Working for high wages but retiring with an insufficient pension

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The wages used to calculate social insurance (SI) contributions that employees and employers have to pay are quite low compared to their actual income.

This has occurred because many businesses split the employees’ income into various allowances and subsidies to reduce payments.

Nguyen Thu H has been working as a sales employee at a household goods manufacturing company for 15 years. In recent years, her actual monthly income has consistently been VND14–15 million, but her SI contribution is based on a salary of less than VND9 million.

Her SI contribution is calculated based on the official salary paid by the company, while additional income is listed as allowances and supplementary bonuses to “evade” SI contributions.

Under the current laws, employees have to pay an eight percent rate, while employers contribute 17.5 percent to the social insurance fund.

For H, despite her high income at work, her future pension will be low, because the SI contributions she pays now is low.

“In principle, high SI contributions will lead to high pensions. Therefore, I am afraid that my pension in the future won’t be high enough to live on,” she complained.

An officer from the HCMC Labor Federation said that except for state-owned enterprises and some private companies that pay SI based on workers’ actual incomes, most of the other businesses circumvent regulations by paying allowances, not salaries, to reduce the SI contributions they have to pay.

According to analysts, this is also one of the reasons why workers have preferred lump-sum social insurance withdrawal recently.

According to HCMC Social Insurance, current laws already specify which payments are subject to SI contributions and which are not, and the SI agency has intensified inspections over the payments. However, many businesses still deliberately seek to reduce contributions they have to pay.

In most cases, workers and employers only pay SI contributions based on the minimum wages set by the government annually (minimum wages are different for different regions).

In reality, at many units and businesses, numerous allowances and supplements are paid to workers beyond their base salary, under various names such as allowances and bonuses. Since the allowances and bonuses are not listed as ‘salary’, they are not counted when calculating SI contributions.

Meanwhile, the 2024 Social Insurance Law stipulates that the monthly wage used as the basis for mandatory SI contributions for workers are determined by employers, including salaries for their jobs or titles, wage allowances, and other regular, stable supplements agreed upon for each pay period. This makes it difficult to determine which payments must be included in SI contributions.

Pointing out that the base wage for SI contribution calculation is much lower than workers’ actual income, Vietnam Social Security (VSS) said many businesses do not fully comply with regulations. They tend to split workers’ income into various allowances and subsidies to avoid contributions, but VSS lacks the legal basis to force businesses to include these amounts.

As a result, in many places, workers’ SI contributions account for only 50–60 percent of their actual incomes, affecting their benefits, especially retirement pensions.

Stricter oversight 

A HCM City Labor Federation representative suggested that in order to have contributions truly reflect workers’ actual incomes, state management agencies need to strengthen inspections to ensure employers’ observation of the laws.

It is necessary to strictly control businesses’ payrolls to ensure that businesses don’t have dual payrolls (including a payroll to show to VSS, and a payroll with actual figures for businesses’ accountancy).

According to a labor expert, in the long term, data about workers’ wages must be linked to a data-sharing system between workers’ income records and the SI agency’s database to help verify workers’ actual income for SI contributions.

By cross-checking data for monthly incomes received by workers from businesses with their SI contribution payments, it will be possible to ensure accurate and sufficient SI collection from employers.

Additionally, workers themselves must recognize this as their legitimate right and ensure they contribute correctly and fully to the SI fund to safeguard their benefits.

At the press briefing on the afternoon of January 14, Do Ngoc Tho, Head of the Social Insurance Implementation Policy Department under VSS said that currently, there are nearly 3.4 million people nationwide receiving monthly pension and social insurance benefits.

By the end of December 2024, the average pension was VND7 million per month, including the armed forces. If we only considered the civilian sector, people’s pensions would be lower.

 

Vu Diep