The winner of the Miss Vietnam 2008 pageant, crowned on August 31, has been accused of faking her high school results to qualify for the beauty contest.
A number of Tran Thi Thuy Dung’s former teachers and her high school principal say the beauty queen dropped out of school during year 12.
Under a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism regulation, only high school graduates are allowed to enter national beauty pageants. The Miss Vietnam 2008 website states high school students are also eligible.
In her registration form for the Miss Vietnam contest, Dung stated she had graduated from high school.
Local newswire VietNamNet quoted Miss Vietnam 2008’s Organizing Board and Judging Panel head Duong Xuan Nam as saying the resumes of the five contestants who make it to the interview round are scrutinized.
However, he said this year officials only examined the resumes of contestants who showed signs of having problems. Nam said the task of checking Dung’s resume had been left up to the representative board of Dung’s hometown of Da Nang.
According to an unnamed source quoted by VNExpress newswire, Dung’s resume was not examined until the afternoon of August 31, only hours before the teenager was crowned in the grand final held in the ancient town of Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam.
Quang Trung High School Principal Pham Sy Liem told the organizing board his former student Dung had not graduated from his high school in Da Nang City.
Liem told Thanh Nien on Wednesday Dung had quit school at the end of the first semester in her 12th year to prepare for her studies in the US
He said he was not sure whether Dung had completed high school.
In an interview with Thanh Nien after her coronation last week, Dung said she had postponed her plan to study abroad. She also said she had not sat this year’s university entrance exam.
“Degrees aren’t everything,” she said in the interview. “I’m only 18 now and have plenty of time and opportunities to shine in the future.”
Principal Liem played down the importance of the beauty queen’s academic record.
“Dung wishes to become a model, it’s understandable that she and her family have other concerns rather than academic success,” he said.
Fake or real?
Dat Viet newspaper recently provided Thanh Nien with a photograph of Dung’s end of year report which shows she finished the second term of her 12th year of schooling at Quang Trung High School with a “fairly good” result.
The report, signed by 12 teachers and Liem, stated Dung was eligible to sit for the high school graduation exam.
The end of year report is dated May 20, 2008, almost six months after Liem said Dung dropped out of school.
Some of Dung’s former teachers contacted by Thanh Nien said two-thirds of the teachers who had signed Dung’s end of year report did not exist.
Quang Trung High School teacher Nguyen Dinh Hoa, whose signature appears on Dung’s report, said he had not signed the document, nor had he ever taught Dung.
The school said the form teacher listed on Dung’s report, Tran Thi Thuy Duong, had only taught at the school for one month, had not even taught any of Dung’s classes and had only been an 11th grade form teacher.
The seal on Dung’s end of year report is from the Department of Education and Training. The end of year reports of Dung’s classmates carry the seal of the Quang Trung High School and also carry the signatures of totally different teachers to those on Dung’s report.
“If this is the Dung we know, she can’t achieve a ‘fairly good’ result,” said one of Dung’s former teachers, who said the Miss Vietnam title holder had only achieved an ‘average’ result during her time at the school.
Her former teachers also told Thanh Nien Dung had been given a ‘below average’ conduct grading in some semesters as she was often absent. When contacted by Thanh Nien Thursday, Liem was reluctant to comment.
“I only know Dung’s school records in the 10th and 11th grades,” Liem said.
The city’s Department of Education and Training Thursday requested Quang Trung High School provide copies of Dung’s academic records by today.
The chief of the Miss Vietnam organizing board is due to hold a press conference today.
“Dung didn’t violate the rules,” Nam told reporters.
Miss Vietnam 2008
Dung, from the idyllic resort city of Da Nang, beat 29 other beauties from across the country to win the much coveted Miss Vietnam crown on Sunday night.
The winner of the pageant receives VND150 million (US$9,041) in cash, an overseas trip and the right to compete in the Miss World pageant in South Africa later this year.
She will also serve as the country’s ambassador for the “social security for the poor” program initiated by the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV).
Dung and her parents could not be contacted for comment Thursday.
Reported by Thanh Nien staff |
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