Vietnamese School System

[Trần Phương My (pucca0love)]

I am sure that all of us had been or are studying in a Vietnamese school. Most of us have also gone study abroad. Then what do you think of the school system in Vietnam. Is this a good system or is this still needed improvements?
What do you think about what Vietnamese students are studying right now in school: knowing exactly what in the text books but very little in real life? And why is that most Vietnamese students have to study from morning 'till night in all those tutoring classes so they can understand the materials in the school? Is it good to have no life at all because they have to memorize every words in their text books so they can stand in front of their classmates the next morning without feeling ashame of themselves for going out with friends last night? Can a good student still have a good life?
Those are just some questions I've been thinking about and would love to hear your opinions on our current system in Vietnamese schools. :x

 

[Trần Thiên Phước (liveforadream)]

too much questions i'd say...but very pressing and Vietnam need answers for those in order to excel, improve and develop as a better nation as everyone know that human resource is the most valuable resource of a nation.

Many of these questions, i don't quite have definite and good answers to them...so, i'm hoping i'd hear from you guys, the future of Vietnam, more about the problem.^^

 

[Trịnh Thường Trường An (che_guevara)]

--Phuoc said: "human resource is the most valuable resource of a nation", and we all know it's true. We know, our parents in Vietnam (or not, whatever)know it, our leader know it. However, I think that the way we educate people is a mistake.
--We're developing and we need technologies. It's cheaper to have technology "made in Vietnam" than to buy from other country. So we need scientists and inventors, right? (if I'm wrong, excuse me). But I think the way we're recruiting inventors and scientist has problems. Our education system is recruiting inventors and scientists whose heads are full of knowledge (that's ok=D> ), but lack of their own ideas...uh...oh
--I feel that our education system still prefer recruiting natural scientists than social scientists or bussiness men. I haven't tried the college system in Vietnam but I know the junior high and high school. Teachers, students, parents focus on math, natural sciences. History, geography and even literatute are considered "learnt by heart subjects"...ops. Why don't we have other social sciences such as psychology, sociology or at least, why don't we stop consider history, geography, literature "learnt by heart subjects" ??:-?
--Oh, first time come here, I'd like to say: "hello there" to all you guys.

 

[Trần Thiên Phước (liveforadream)]

First of all, "hey welcome you An".


Back to the subject, I'm more of a material-oriented person, so I'm going to stress the importance of the infrastructure as a weakness to the Vietnamese education.

First, the lack of adequate modern technology that helps students to engage and participate in a larger world of knowledge: internet. I don't deny the fact that many vietnamese students have accessed to internet through various means, most prominently cafe internet, however these accesses are unpattern and unorganized and uneducated, in a fashion in which the students could be instructed and helped to gather updated information, engage in the world flow of data and knowledge besides chatting and using e-mail, something I also don't deny the importance of these devives nevertheless, but there should be a balance between entertainment value and educational value.

Second, the infrastructure of the schools are limited and outdated. The most visible problem we have at the moment is the limitation of schools that unadequately provide efficient education to the students, packing a class with forty or fifty students won't have a good result generally. Furthermore, the capacity of the school also is limited, classes such as biology, chemistry, physics or other natural sciences "need" special rooms and resources to perform experiments, something few Vietnamese schools could afford.

Thirdly, the vietnamese books are outdated, for example the 10th, or 11th editions are almost identical to the 7th or 8th edition, which presents the pressing question that is how are the students to keep up with the rapid development of the global pace?


Arguments against these reforms may peg themselves on the ground of financial limation of the vietnamese government, but they blalantly neglect altogther the waste and inefficiency of the recent reforms that could be instead efficiently employed to improve some of the weaknesses.

More importantly, funding the education is an investment in a form of business, of course it costs but the future gains are promising and most certaintly since it is the safest form of investment history has recored.

Those are a few of my ideas, hoping to hear other perspectives from you all.

 

[Trần Thiên Phước (liveforadream)]

Also, another problem I see in Vietnamese education is it discourages students to find information outside of school. For example, many assignments in United States are done primarily based on the information collected from various sources in the Internet. It's a good thing because:

1. It gives the students different perspectives of an issue, hence encouraging them to critically think about the issue isntead of just read and get what the reading says to him.

2. It gives the students a chance to validiate the information given by that source. For example, if two or three sources say differently about an issue the students have been taught before, there's a problem.

3. It promotes the students' interest in learning, as the interest in learning increases, it would as a result encourage the students to get involved in discussions like this.....too bad, we don't have that.

 

[Trần Lương Thành (tranluongthanh)]

Another problem of our educational system is the process to get to universities and colleges is not effective:

1.Students' aspiration is devided into group A,B,C,D.. each group includes 3 subjects or more (such as group A includes maths,physics & chemistry).In some ways,it prevents students from choosing their fields at university.For example,a student is talented at maths and he wants to become a mathematician but he is bad at physics & chemistry so he can't pass the entrance exams of a group A university.

2.The entrence mark of each university is also a problem when almost 'hot' fields admit high marks.For example,a student wants to become a junior high school maths teacher with his knowledge of higher maths but his marks of the entrance exams are not good enough (bad at chemistry or physics) to be able to get to the National University of Education,so he is just admited to study at a college that trains students to become primary school teachers.
Another example,if you are a student of the Natinal University of Natural Science,you will have the first year learn common subjects,then join fields since the second year,which depends on your first year marks.(I don't remember exactly ^^!) fields with high marks are computing,electronic..etc. If you get bad marks you aren't admitted to study these subjects,or it will be hard for you to choose a low mark field (as machinery repair study) that you like with your high marks.

3.Examination questions make students learn by heart more than think creatively.Entrence exams result (especially for social groups such as group C with literature,history & geography) is also based on these questions only.So students with good memory can pass more easily than ones with creative mind.

However,our educational system is now being reformed slowly year by year,and we hope,just hope,for the better, while Vnese students are going abroad more and more.

 

[Trần Lương Thành (tranluongthanh)]

--We're developing and we need technologies. It's cheaper to have technology "made in Vietnam" than to buy from other country. So we need scientists and inventors, right? (if I'm wrong, excuse me). But I think the way we're recruiting inventors and scientist has problems. Our education system is recruiting inventors and scientists whose heads are full of knowledge (that's ok ), but lack of their own ideas...uh...oh

More about recruitment in Vietnam,many people are applied to work in a governmental institution by their ralationships (or their parents' relationships) more than their real qualification,especially civil servants.I think it is caused by the personnel(biên chế),but I don't know whether it is the main reason or not.