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The
Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) Central Committee opened its sixth plenum in
Hanoi on July 4. According to Nhan Dan (People) daily, the plenum would discuss
and decide a number of very important issues that have been clearly defined in
the documents of the ninth national VCP Congress.
Members
of the Committee were reviewing the implementation of the resolution adopted by
the second plenum of the CPV Central Committee (Eighth Congress), charting a
new course for educational-training, scientific-technological development
through 2010, and of organizational and personnel issues. Of them, education is
the most important issue.
In
their speeches, Communist leaders have often affirmed "education-training
and science-technology are the top two priorities for Vietnam today, acting as
the driving force for socio-economic development and the foundation for
successful industrialization of the nation." General Secretary of the VCP
Nong Duc Manh repeated the remark while he was opening the sixth plenum in
Hanoi on July 4.
Mr.
Manh emphasized that science and technology development should help the country
raise the competitiveness of its economy; and build a contingent of scientific
and technological workers who are professionally, ideologically, and politically
qualified. He called on those working in the social sciences and humanities
sector and those working in the natural sciences and technology to find ways of
working together harmoniously for the betterment of the nation.
Every
Vietnamese is happy to learn that more than half million students of the 79
million populations are taking exam for college and university education.
However, they seem very downcast at the failures of an ill-managed system of
education in Vietnam. After 1975, there have been many education reforms. But
after a dozen trials, everything comes back to the starting point. In the last
reform, a second grader has to buy 17 text books with 2,264 pages; a fourth
grader, 2,867 pages; a seventh grader has to buy 31 books at 116,000 dong (8
dollars) or 1/3 monthly wage of a common worker).
The
question is how the Party will reach the said objectives, which are not an easy
task in Vietnam today as the Party Politburo, not its government, holds the
national supreme leadership. For many decades, the VCP regime has spent no more
than 8 percent of its budget for education. It has increased in the last few
years, but not much higher, as estimated by many people. As to the field of
education, Hanoi is confronting with problems emanating from the Party itself.
Though
Hanoi leaders often claim that over 97 percent of Vietnam population are able
to read and write, actual figures of the illiterate found in separate and local
reports are much higher than official statistics by the central government.
Nice classrooms and healthy schoolboys and girls can be seen only in urban
areas. In most remote villages, elementary schools if any, are a little better
than thatched roof shanties. Whitewash earthen walls are used for blackboards
and charcoal for chalk.
Many
poor families can’t afford to send their children to school. Nominally,
elementary education is free, but in reality, each elementary student has to
pay half dozen kinds of fees, decided upon by local authorities or the school
management, for the maintenance of schoolhouses and classrooms, for various
social activities, and other contributions of all kinds… So the promise of free universal education
is just a lip service.
At
public high schools where only children from privileged families and students
with high scores are admitted, students have to paid official school fees which
are rather low in proportion to urban standard of living. But miscellaneous
contributions required by local governments are sometimes so high that most
poor farmers' children cannot afford primary education beyond third grade.
In
semi-public schools where unprivileged students and those who rank lower than
the top 30 percent in year-end examination may enroll, things are worse;
students have to pay statewide official fees and other fees imposed by local
authorities. The monthly total is about equal to several days' lowest wage that
discourages children of poor peasants from going to schools.
Private
schools are legal now after being banned for decades. Tuition in private
schools is rather high, but education quality is high, too.
In
fact, a child of 10 years old is able to help parents with farm works as simple
as taking care of a buffalo or weeding or cooking meals for the family, or
harder works with small carrying poles and hoes specially made for them.
Children's works do save much time for the adults to perform more tasks on rice
fields. Usually, those children drop school after third grade, if not sooner.
The
household control system is an insurmountable obstacle to poor children. Those
from wretched families, who moved to the urban areas to make a meager living
without legal household registration, are not admitted to any school. In recent
months, peasants are moving to cities areas at the rate of several thousands a
month, thus raising the number of illiterate pre-teens higher and higher. As
for peasants moving to cities just to earn a better living, it's impossible to
have the registration approved.
Among
problems in education, fake diploma and cheat in exams are the most serious.
After taking over South Vietnam in April 1975, Hanoi reformed its education
system and curriculum. Province and district
authorities
were given large and nearly autonomous power in managing schools within their
ruling territory. Examinations of all levels have been cheated; high school
diplomas and university certificates are faked, and genuine certificates with
authentic signatures given to people who have never attended the courses,
usually for bribes.
A
lot of Communist local cadres serving the war were awarded leading positions in
every sector and branches of the government.
Nearly all of them had had only little formal education. They were sent
to the so-called “supplementary schools” to earn some formal certificates
degrees. They were awarded high school diplomas after about 3 school years for
simplified 10-year curriculum from 2nd grade to 12th
grade.
There
are many others who have never attended one day at any school, but in their
personnel records there are one or two certificates attesting their college
graduation. Some even got 4 certificates for 4 foreign language courses
(French, English, Russian, Chinese), but incapable of speaking or writing any
of them to foreign visitors. In those cases, certificates are sold by some universities'
officials.
During
the last three years, Hanoi launched several probes against fabricated
university graduation certificates. Official reports confirmed that in most
provinces, about 20 percent of university certificates of ranking party and government
officials are forged.
Last
week on July 4, Hanoi official report published in many state-own newspapers
confirmed the arrest of Nguyen Thi Son, a woman teacher of the foreign
languages department, Hanoi University of Commerce. She was caught possessing a
list of 75 candidates to be illegally helped in the admission examination for
the university. They are children or relatives of many professors and Communist
ranking officials whose names and address are included in the list. At least
another woman professor related to the plot was detained for interrogation.
State-controlled
Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper in its July 15 issue reported that 424 thousand
students were competing for admission to universities last week. According to official primary reports, 1,012
violations of exam regulation were caught, usually cheating. Besides, any
incapable candidate can always hire somebody carrying a faked ID cards to take
the exam for him for a big money.
For
the last few years, many teachers and professors have started special courses
to prepare students, particularly their own students, for successful exams.
They are earning good money usually higher than their starvation salary.
Communist authorities have failed to ban the courses.
Before
each annual admission examinations, many open "exam markets" come to
life around the campuses or any convenient location around the country. All
kinds of books or publications helpful to candidates are sold. However, the items of best interest to the
candidates are copies of original "solutions and answers sheets" to
the examination requirements. Those secret materials leak out from responsible
officials, provided through their confidential channel, to be sold at high
prices because the demand is always higher than availability.
In
order to quench the thirst for money resources, Communist governments at all
levels have to enroll as many as possible students into schools and colleges
wherever and whenever possible disregarding the quality they could offer.
Consequently, figures of unemployed university graduates are higher every year.
In
2001, government officials confirmed that there were about three thousand
unemployed medical doctors who had to find jobs as interpreters, salesmen or
office clerks. Engineers may have shared the same plight although similar
reports have not been heard of.
In
general, the economic reform can't be implemented at a higher rate because of
many reasons. One of which has been the low capability of the technical and
management expertise. In his speech at
the July-4 plenum, Nong Duc Manh admitted that there were many setbacks and
failures in the education system, but he didn't elaborate – as always found in
other leaders' speeches.
The
education system in Vietnam under the Communist regime fails to establish the
much-needed corps of skilled technicians, experts and managers who can adapt
themselves to the world modern technology and management in order to integrate
Vietnam into the global community.
Quality
of formal education in Vietnam varies with schools, but rather poor in most of
them. Top leaders in Hanoi have acknowledged this. Besides teachers' inability,
the Communist Party's policy of obscurantism is mainly responsible for the
substandard ability of the graduates.
As
political indoctrination is given the highest priority at schools of all
levels, students have to spent 4 hours a week for political lessons at high
school. At elementary schools, basic political subjects such as “loving
socialism” and “Ho Chi Minh’s stories” are inserted into history and Vietnamese
language courses. And from the later years at elementary schools to 12th
grade, Vietnamese Literature courses are full of quotation of Ho’s writings,
and worse, from local Communist leaders such as “Comrade N., secretary of our
district Party committee.” Many of those writings contain serious grammatical
mistakes, in political cliché-ridden style and ill-organized texts.
General
education system under Communist regime as once confirmed by Nong Duc Manh's
speech, must serve the socialist (Communist) state and party's control over
political teaching must be strengthened.
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