According to several experts, Vietnam’s education system still has many problems that must be addressed despite good results from the PISA test.
In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, Vietnamese students ranked 8th in science, 17th in maths and 19th in reading. The results surprised many. However, after the initial exuberance simmered down, experts started to voice their opinions and analysis of the results.
Former Vice President, Nguyen Thi Binh, immediately raised questions about the unemployment rate, one of the most concerning problems right now for the country. Many graduates are still unable to meet employers’ requirements due to lack of soft skills which are not taught in schools.
Professor Dinh Quang Bao, from the Steering Committee on renovating the education curricula and textbooks, expressed doubts over the PISA ranking, saying “German students are ranked below Finnish students and several countries in EU. Actually, the PISA tests are taken at 15-years-old, while many German students have already choose vocational schools at that age instead of pursuing academic studies.”
Professor Dinh Quang Bao He went on to say that Vietnamese students, as well as students in many Asian countries, study specifically for academic achievements, so it is not a surprise if the knowledge of Vietnamese students is generally better. Former assistant of the Minister of Education and Training, Pham Do Nhat Tien, said Vietnamese students are forced to study too much.
He said, “This results should serve as a motive to improve our education system. At least they showed that our system is not as bad as thought. But students from primary to high schools are forced to study too much, while university students are too lax. As a results, many graduates fail to satisfy employers.”
The CEO of the Vietnam Institute of Management, Vu Tuan Anh, wanted more action from government. According to Anh, the PISA tests only showed that Vietnamese students are good at certain subjects, not that the whole system is good.
“The Ministry of Education and Training should cooperate with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to improve the human resource pool. Weak universities must lower their enrollment quotas if they can’t fulfill them,” he said.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
