Education in Vietnam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vietnam's education system can be divided into 5 categories: pre-primary, primary, intermediate, secondary, and higher education.
Contents |
[edit] Pre-primary education
Public kindergartens usually admit children from the age of 18 months to 5 years. Children at 4 or 5 years of age are sometimes taught ABC and basic math. This level of education is only popular in major cities (Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Noi, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Can Tho, etc.).
[edit] Primary education
Children normally start their primary education at the age of six. Education at this level lasts 5 years and it is compulsory for all children. That may be one of why, despite remaining a poor country, the proportion of the country population who are literate are very high, over 90% on average.
[edit] Intermediate education
Middle schools teach students from grade 6 to 9. To graduate, they have to pass the Intermediate Graduation Examination presented by the local Department of Education and Training. This level of education is popularized in most of provinces in the country. Some other rural and remote provinces are targeting it for the next few years.
[edit] Secondary education
Students who have passed the IGE will be able to attend high school. This consists of grade 10, 11, and 12. Eventually, grade 12 students will take the Secondary Graduation Examination to be eligible to graduate. This level of education is generalized in all major cities and less in other provinces. The number of schools is too less. Some children go to school only the morning, and some other, only the afternoon. So, the level is poor and the most part of them have to study with private professors.
[edit] Higher education
University Entrance Examination is very important in Vietnamese students' lives. High school graduates have to take it after the SGE and get high results to be admitted to universities. The pressure on the candidates remains very high despite the measures that have been taken to reduce the heat around these exams, since securing a place in a public university is considered a major step towards a successful career for young people, especially those from rural areas or disadvantaged families . In the year 2004, it was estimated that nearly 1 million Vietnamese students took the UEE, but on average only 1 out of 5 candidates succeeded. Normally, candidates take 3 exams, each lasts 180 minutes for the fixed group of subjects they choose. There are 4 fixed groups of subjects:
- Group A: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry;
- Group B: Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry;
- Group C: Literature, History, Geography;
- Group D: Literature, Foreign Language, Mathematics;
Besides, there are also groups: H, M, N, R, T, V.
See List of universities in Vietnam. The largest is Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City which has over 35,000 students.
Most of Vietnam's universities also offer Master (2 years) and Doctor (4 years) degrees.
In addition to universities, there are community colleges, art and technology institutes, professional secondary schools, and vocational schools which offers degrees/certificates from a-few-month to 2-year courses.
[edit] Private universities
According to Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training, there are currently 23 non-public universities, accounting for 11% of the total number of universities. These non-public universities are currently training 119,464 students, or 11.7% of the total number of students. The government is planning to increase the number of non-public universities to 30% by 2007.
Foreign educational institutions are increasingly open in Viet Nam. Most of their fields are English language and information technology. Notably there is RMIT, which is currently the largest and only foreign university in Vietnam.
[edit] Teaching Quality Issues
The entire higher education system is facing several crises such as out-of-date course curricula, a lecturer-centered method of teaching and learning, research activities separated from teaching activities, a big gap between theory and practice that leads to a large number of graduates being unable to find a job, and the fact that degrees from Vietnamese universities are not recognized worldwide. There is, therefore, a huge demand for quality educational services.
Teaching methods delivered in the public school system are very teacher orientated. You will find that the students are quite studious and very disciplined in the classroom. The more successful students are those who can absorb the given material and transfer the knowledge to their notebooks as in class debate is not entirely welcome in every class. This is a sharp contrast to western classroom settings where participation and challenging of materials has a greater focus.
Students are arranged by class number and do not move from classroom to classroom between classes. They also stay together as a small group for their entire elementary, junior-high, or high-school levels in one location per grade. The teachers are the ones who float from classroom to classroom making it difficult for the Vietnamese teacher to establish a room of their own. This is where a western student develops much needed social skills, where as the Vietnamese students develop a stronger group bond. The end result though, is a severe shy quality in many Vietnamese when introduced to a new group of people and the need to interact. It becomes even more apparent at the university level. By invitation only, foreign teachers have begun to enter the public school sector (usually language education) and are also having a large impact on helping to introduce western teaching methods from the inside.
Currently, only public schooling costs for students from grades 1-5 are subsidized by the government at 50% of the total tuition. All other schooling costs for students (100%) past grade 6 is at the parents expense. The drop-out rate after grade five only increases as the student reaches a university age due to lack of family funding. The average monthly salary of local Vietnamese public teachers is between 60USD to 100USD per month and many supplement their income by working hours in the private language sector or home schooling in their off hours. Public schools are under-funded, but have made great strides in attempting to improve their facilities in the larger cities.
Private language centers for English language education is in high demand in the larger cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Students have flooded these schools with the expectation of greater marketability in the job market. These classes are usually taught by foreign expats and generally carry a salary between 10USD-20USD per hour depending on both the qualifications of the teacher and the quality of the school. Lower educational standards in some of the lower paying schools have resulted in less than qualified teachers (known to the local community as backpacker teachers) to fill their ranks. SaigonESL.com is currently the only website resource that focuses entirely on assistance to foreign expat ESL (English as a Second Language) workers in Vietnam's teaching industry.
