][]
As students returned to their
classrooms for the school year 2002-3, Hanoi's Ministry of Education and
Training released its reports on the results of the annual entrance
examinations to colleges and universities all around the country. Although the
reports may look unusual to some foreigners, they are not new to the
Vietnamese, who are used to such a report.
According
to the ministry's accounts published in Lao Dong newspaper on October 3, there
were 823,402 students taking entrance exams in universities all around Vietnam.
Their final scores are:
- 3
students scored the highest 29.5/30.
-
125 students scored the lowest 0/30.
-
8,411 scored 0.5/30
-
14,658 scored 1/30
-
456,973 scored 8/30 and lower
-
266,869 scored higher than 10/30
-
168,000 scored higher than 13/30
-
National Average Score 8.4/30
It
should be noted that under the Communists, admission exams in colleges and
universities require candidates to complete three tests. For example,
candidates for a physics school in a university must complete three tests in
Math, Physics and Literature. Each of the three is graded by the 10- point
scale.
For
instance, candidate Nguyen obtains 4/10, 3/10 and 2/10 in the three tests. His
total score would be 9/30, or 30 percent of the maximum.
Also
from the Lao Dong article, the national average is 8.4/30 or 28 percent. It is
too low in comparison with other countries and causes great concerns to many
Vietnamese people who are interested in education of the young citizens.
According
to Lao Dong, if the Communist authorities admit 160,000 students to
universities all over the country, they would be candidates with score from
13/30 (43 percent) and higher. Actually, the Ministry of Education and Training
will enroll 266,869 candidates whose scores are 10/30 (33 percent) and higher.
The
question is how a large number of the enrolled students at the lower section
could successfully study in universities while their knowledge and ability are
so far below standard. Score 10/30 somehow equals to 1.3 of the maximum 4.0 in
the American university system.
To
have an insight into the Communist education system, it’s necessary to take a
look at how students from first grade to twelfth grade are evaluated.
Under
the Communist regime, teachers are urged to attain the title “progressive
teacher” to maintain different benefits and promotion (prior to the salary
reform in the early 1990s, payment included extra foods and rewards in kind).
For the last 50 years, teachers under Communist regime must find a way to have
96 to 99 percent of their students pass the grade final exams for the next
grade. They apply any trick and cheating to keep their 96-up “progressive
records.”
In reality, a large number of high school graduated students in rural areas do not understand algebra, mathematic, physics and chemistry. But students who are children of medium ranking party members and higher (so-called “policy families,” shortened from “the policy on privileged families”) are admitted with top priorities even when their scores are much lower than the minimum.
The
system results in the existence of a class of educated idiots who are
controlling the state vital positions that are rarely awarded to non-party
people. Meanwhile, there are thousands of doctors, engineers and other
technologists of great faculty who are unemployed because of unfavorable family
political background or simply of having no connections to the high-ranking
officials for decent jobs.
Apparently,
the Communist leaders allow 12th-grade students to easily pass the
exam for high school diploma in order to serve their tactic of pacification. Peasant
families are pleased to see their children earning the high school diploma
without knowing that they have learned not much at school and the graduation
has a political reason. Similarly, more students enrolled and graduated in
universities could help the rulers both ways: to satisfy people's wish to have
their children complete higher education, and to make good money for the cash-hungry
Communist government. They show little care of unemployment of thousands of the
intellects and the value of national education.
This
is one of the several key problems that hinder efforts to speed up economic
reform in the last 15 years. It seems
that this situation will be no better as long as the Communist regime still
exists.
Consequently,
education of young people under the Communist regime brings forth far-reaching
detriments to the Vietnamese society in decades, even after the decease of the
Communist rule in Vietnam.
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