TMCnet News
Time for education reform(The Saigon Times Daily Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Education is the national priority strategy, as goes one of the most trendy slogans in todays Vietnam. The topic surfaces these days on the local media, not because it is the time for busy university entrance exams, but rather because a new minister of education has been installed, which is the sake for new expectations. Most people for quite many years have become concerned, worried, and frustrated about and finally accustomed to the low quality of the countrys education sector. At the just-concluded national high-school graduation exam, however, a teacher named Do Viet Khoa in northern Ha Tay Province spoke out all the deceitful acts in exams that he had witnessed. His act of bravery captures the immediate attention of local media agencies, which wage a movement to promote reforms in the education sector. By coincidence, however, HCMC vice chairman Nguyen Thien Nhan has just been named the minister of education, and so comes the flow of letters from readers to the new minister, urging him to make changes. The dialogs turn positive, as both the public and the new minister pledge to join forces so that the national education can change for the better. A reader named Quynh Anh last week sent an open letter to Minister Nhan, discussing the many weaknesses in the countrys education sector. In her letter published in Tuoi Tre, she cites what is termed the disease of boasting achievements as the root behind all the problems in education. How can we have talents at a time when the countrys education sector is turning out generations of students who only know how to learn their texts by heart and to make copies of what they have learnt? she poses the question, which is the key topic in her lengthy letter. Minister Nhan, who will begin his job today in the new capacity, makes a swift reply, a move lauded by Tien Phong newspaper as a good precedent for new ministers. Nhan says that the so-called disease of boastfulness should not be blamed on the education system and teachers only, since many parents of students and students themselves are the co-authors. The minister, who is also a lecturer at local universities, cites the problem of smuggling in the economy to reason that parents of students in general should also be responsible for the disease, and therefore curative measures must also come from the people. There are cigarette smugglers, there are those who sell smuggled cigarettes, and there are also smokers to buy products coming from the illicit trade, Nhan says to illustrate his point concerning the deteriorating education system. If only schools and teachers want high marks for students in exams, while students themselves and their parents are against frauds, can the disease of boasting achievements have grounds for development? he is quoted by many newspapers as saying. Other newspapers point to the inadequacies in the national education system. The evident fact is that the majority of university graduates cannot find the right jobs and need to be retrained if they are employed. Nguoi Lao Dong quotes Professor Ngo Vinh Long from the U.S.-based Maine University, saying that Vietnamese students lack creativity and practical skills, which are required when they go into the real life. Some foreign companies have told me that they have to interview hundreds of students so as to be able to recruit one. That is great wastefulness of resources, of the gray matter that is unacceptable, the professor is quoted by the paper as saying. We must still continue the fight against corruption and other social vices. However, the radical solution must be the one for education, Nguoi Lao Dong says in its commentary. Expectations from the public are high, and it is not easy to make quick changes. It is the high time for reforming the countrys education system, and in so doing, we can only hope to have the first fruits in ten to 15 years, the paper adds. Minister Nhan shares this view, and expresses his confidence in new successes. Copyright 2006 The Saigon Times Daily. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Intelligence Wire. |