[Vnbiz] Education Reform

Dennis' Yahoo dberg at fullerton.edu
Sat Aug 12 22:20:42 PDT 2006 

Hi Hoanh....

Actually, 40% admission seems like a good increase from just five or ten years ago; I'll have to check the numbers.  I do remember in the early 90's we talked about 1 in 10 high school graduates being admitted to a college or university.

On the one hand we want them to strengthen their current institutions; on the other we suggest they increase the number of seats and Universities. We have to be real about our expectations. There are successful models of private institutions in Vietnam; e.g. RMIT. There are however many private institutions that are nothing more than for profit diploma mills. I believe MOET is trying its best to keep a handle on things. Private institutions depend on raising money through student fees and that, for a good university with good faculty, usually puts the opportunity out of the reach of many students; thus the failure of so many attempts at joint degree programs with foreign institutions.

Allow me to remind you about some data from the U.S.

a.. Only 70% of all students in public high schools graduate, and only 32% of all students leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges. 
a.. Only 51% of all black students and 52% of all Hispanic students graduate, and only 20% of all black students and 16% of all Hispanic students leave high school college-ready. 
a.. The graduation rate for white students was 72%; for Asian students, 79%; and for American Indian students, 54%. T
a.. The college readiness rate for white students was 37%; for Asian students, 38%; for American Indian students, 14%. 
   
This data is taken From: Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States
Jay P. Greene, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Greg Forster, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

Funding for this report was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

**********************************************

And then, according to the U.S. Department of Education: 
  a.. More than half of students entering college are required to take remedial courses, many in several subjects. 
  b.. About half of first-year students at community colleges do not continue on for a second year. 
  c.. About a quarter of first-year students at four-year colleges do not stay for their second year. 
  d.. More than 40 percent of college students who earn more than ten credits never complete a two-year or a four-year degree. 
I think if we were to compare our systems adjusted to our GDP with the systems of Vietnam adjusted for their GDP, those systems that we all so dearly want to see improve would gain a bit more respect. Give me just a little of the money we spent on Shock and Awe and we could make one heck of a difference in the University system of VN.

Dennis F. Berg, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Sociology, CSU, Fullerton
*******************************************
"Thou shalt not answer questionnaires 
Or quizzes upon World-Affairs, 
Nor with compliance take any test. 
Thou shalt not sit with statisticians
 nor commit a social science."
Under Which Lyre: A Reactionary Tract for the Times
By W. H. Auden

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tran Dinh Hoanh 
  To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net 
  Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 9:38 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vnbiz] Education Reform



  [Vietnam Business Forum]






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  Dear CACC,

  According to this article 60 percent of students who took the university entrance exams have not made it.  It means 60% of candidates won't have an opportunity for university education. 
   
  In today's global economy, the bachelor degree is generally the lowest degree in the market place.  Other than a few exceptional cases, it is very difficult to find any decent job in today's economy without a university degree. 

  This means, more than 60 percent of of our nation's highschool graduates will not have an opportunity to participate in the global economy meaningfully. That means, our labor force is not going to be very competitive in the global economy.  That means, we have a great chance to lose the competitive battle against other nations. 

  Instead of opening more colleges and schools very quickly to bring more opportunity to the kids and to help everyone to be effectively competitive in the global economy, the government has for years held on the monopoly on the education system, and strangled it with all kinds of political controls, including political ideology and Party mechanism.   Private universities can hardly develop.  Religious organizations are banned from opening schools (other than a couple of schools teaching religious matters), even though the best universities around the world are mostly run by religious organizations.  

  Every time I talked to ANY friend INSIDE Vietnam about opening a university, the first response I got ALWAYS was: "Forget it.  Not worth it.  They will control everything.  They will force you to follow hundreds of stupid things.  You won't be able to run your school effectively.  You will go crazy.  Not worth it." 

  You now, cutting off the opportunity of a youth to develop in life is a crime.  And that is not just a crime against the youth, it is the crime against the nation.  Our youth is our nation's future.  If our youth has few opportunities today, our nation will have few opportunities in the world tomorrow.   We all shall die, but our children and grand children will bear the punishment from our own stupidity after we have gone. 

  Have a great day!

  Hoanh
   
  On 8/8/06, Tran Dinh Hoanh <tdhoanh at gmail.com> wrote: 
          Dear CACC,

          Here is another article about another vice dean at the Broadcasting College (the college where Do Tu Dong taught) showing students how to teach.  Probably the entire faculty of this school is bad and there is no good person there. 

          Anyway, let me ask you all these questions for us all to think about:

          What is the root cause of such a tremendous problem in the ducation system?

          1.   Is that because we don't have enough money?  Would pumping more money into the system improve things?

          2.  Is that because we don't have police in the school?  Would putting more police in the school help?  Do we want police in the school anyway?

          3.  Is that because we have bad curriculum?  Would changing curriculum help?

          4. Is that because teachers simply lack moral?  If yes, why do they lack moral?  Because they are poor?  Are we saying that the poor lack moral and the rich have moral? 

          Is that because they simply lose their sense of morality?  Why would they lose their morality?  Because they don't believe in morality any more?  Then what are they believing in?  Their own sense of being untoucheable?  Why do they believe that they are untoucheable? 

          5.  How bad do you think the system is?  Do you think that cheating, harassing students, forcing students to have sex, showing students how to cheat are just some isolated events here and there or they are abundant throughout the entire education system in onre form or another? 

          6. The bottome line:  What do you think the root cause of the education problems is?  (I define "root cause" loosely here as "the most important cause."  If that cause is not fixed, any other solution may not help al all, or may help very little). 

          Please feel free to chip in.

          Have a great day!

          Hoanh
          _________
                Thứ ba, 8/8/2006, 08:05 GMT+7   
         
          Thêm má»Tt phó trÆ°á»Yng khoa 'chạy' Ä'iá»fm cho học sinh

          Sau vụ gạ Ä'á».i "tình" lấy Ä'iá»fm thi tá»'t nghiá»?p của ông Đá»- TÆ° Đông Ä'á»'i vá»>i nữ sinh V.A, má»Tt nữ sinh khác lại tiết lá»T Ä'oạn bÄfng ghi âm buá».i huấn luyá»?n cách Ä'ánh dấu bà i thi tá»'t nghiá»?p của ông Đá»- Đức Trọng, Phó trÆ°á»Yng khoa Báo chí CĐ Phát thanh Truyền hình Trung Æ°Æ¡ng I, nhằm giúp học sinh "chạy" Ä'iá»fm. 

               
                CĐ Phát thanh Truyền hình Trung ương I. Ảnh: T.D. 
          Chuyá»?n diá».n ra tại nhà  riêng của ông Trọng, và o tá»'i 23/7, trÆ°á»>c ngà y các học sinh khóa 8 Biên tập (há»? trung cấp) thi tá»'t nghiá»?p. Ã"ng Trọng hứa giúp và  lấy ra má»Tt cây bút mang nhãn hiá»?u "A", loại má»±c mà u xanh và  yêu cầu học sinh trong bà i thi phải viết bằng loại bút Ä'ó. 

          Học sinh tỏ ra lo lắng: "NhÆ°ng người ta nói mình là m dấu trong bà i thì sao ạ?". Ã"ng phó trÆ°á»Yng khoa trấn an ngay: "Không. Không vấn Ä'ề gì Ä'âu. Ká»? nó", rá»"i chá»? cho học trò Ä'ánh dấu bà i bằng cách "gạch 2 gạch ngang, Ä'ánh 3 dấu sao á»Y giữa". 

          Sau khi hÆ°á»>ng dẫn học trò cách Ä'ánh những ký hiá»?u Ä'ặc biá»?t và o bà i thi, ông Trọng úp má»Y: "Tôi nhờ người ta giúp cô. Không còn cách nà o khác. Tôi nhờ người ta giúp Ä'ược thì Ä'ược. Tôi không tham gia chấm thi". 

          Theo kết quả xác minh ban Ä'ầu, ông Trọng khẳng Ä'á»<nh có hÆ°á»>ng dẫn học sinh cách Ä'ánh dấu những ký hiá»?u Ä'ặc biá»?t và o bà i thi tá»'t nghiá»?p. Tuy nhiên, ông Trọng lại biá»?n minh viá»?c ông ta là m "hoà n toà n trong sáng" và  nhằm giúp Ä'ỡ học sinh Ä'ó thi Ä'á»- trong kỳ thi tá»'t nghiá»?p vừa qua. 

          Liên quan Ä'ến sá»± viá»?c trên, trÆ°á»>c Ä'ó 2 ngà y, khi học sinh Ä'ến nhờ vả, sau khi tiết lá»T thông tin liên quan Ä'ến Ä'ề thi tá»'t nghiá»?p nÄfm nay, ông Trọng (má»Tt trong những người ra Ä'ề thi) Ä'ã chủ Ä'á»Tng hẹn học sinh nà y tá»'i 23/7 Ä'i má»Tt mình Ä'ến nhà  riêng Ä'á»f lấy tà i liá»?u ôn thi. 

          (Theo Thanh Niên)
         

       

    -- 
    Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
    Attorney of Law
    Washington DC 



  -- 
  Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
  Attorney of Law
  Washington DC 


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