[Vnbiz] Education reform

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

As we are gearing up for education reform, let's discuss education
reform a little.  This message was to follow up on the article by
Prof. Hoang Tuy that that posted two days ago.  Prof. Hoang Tuy has a
lot of good ideas there.  But here let me focus on some strategic
points.

1.  Define the goal of education:  That is the first and most
fundamental thing to consider.  What do we want the education system
to do?  What kind of result we wish to receive from our education
system.  Goal is the final destination?  What is our educational goal?

*  Do we want to produce independent, critical and analytical thinker,
or do we want to produce people who simply say "yes" to authority?

*  Do we want to produce pragmatic people or do we want to produce talkers?

*   Do we want to produce people with advance knowledge of the world?

*  Do we want to produce graduates with good understanding of the
Vietnamese people and culture and issues?  (The last two points are to
produce Vietnamese graduates with good understanding of Vietnamese
issues and ability to tie Vietnam to the world stage).

*  Do we want to product people to simply swear alliance to the VCP?
Do we care about producing graduate to swear alliance to any
organization (including the VCP)?  Do we want to produce graduates who
is biased toward or against an organization, be it the church or the
VCP?

*  Do we want to produce passive people who prefer no changes or do we
want to produce explorer?

These and may be other criteria that you can think of constitute the
goal of education, around which everything else will be structured?
We cannot reform the system without determining the goal CLEARLY
first.  The vague goal like "producing well-rounded people" is really
no goal, because well-rounded may mean many different things,
depending on who says it.

2.  People's involvement:  Work smarter, not harder.  A wise planner
will find way to get everyone to jump in to work together, instead of
trying to do everything himself.  I can get a thousand people to do
something much better than trying to do that thing myself.  One can
never be as good as a thousand persons.

So how do we create an ENVIRONMENT in which everyone is motivated put
in his effort to move our education forward?  That means:

*  Should the VPC continue to insist on controlling education (by
having a VCP unit running the University, over the head of its
President?)  (How about having a Buddhist or Catholic unit over the
head of the President?  With all honesty and sincerity, I can't see
the different between the VCP and the Catholic or Buddhist church or
any other organization).

*  Should we let the universities think for itself (instead of having
the VCP tell universities hwo to think)?

*   Should we continue to force students to learn Marxist-Leninism and
therefore tell everyone that our university is really an ENVIRONMENT
of non-thinkers?

*  Should we continue to prohibit the people who are most willing and
able to open private universities, i.e., the religious organizations?
This government has been acting like "we can do the job ourselves; we
don't want anyone else to have a hand in the pie"?  Why?  A good
strategic doesn't work a lot.  He simply opens opportunities for many
other people to work.

*  Should we continue to control private universities so much that
they just get choked and drop dead?

*  Should we want our universities be known as an environment of free
thinking and free exploration?

A good environment gets everyone chip in.  A bad environment has very
few good people.  Dat lanh chim dau (birds land on good land).

3.  Quality:  How do we increase the quality of education?

*  Number-one rule:  Quality usually goes up when there is good
competition?  How do we generate competition among universities?  How
could universities compete if the government controls everything in a
universities, from curriculum to number of students, to professor
qualifications, etc...  Schools have to be free to determine its
contents and ways of doing business, in order to compete.

One way to control quality is "certification."  School that meets
government standards gets is "certified by the state," school that
doesn't meet government standards doesn't get certified. (Certified
schools may get state benefits, if there is any.  Non-certified
schools may not get state benefits).  But every school is allowed to
compete in the market.  So students have the choice to go with
certified schools or non-certified schools.  This way, we can get some
standards for the schools to follow and for students to judge schools,
and at the same time allow the market to make its own selection.

*  What is our standard of quality? How do we focus on the practical
and  the true knowledge?  And forget about empty diploma?

The first answer is, of course, competition.  But the State and all
the school can work together to figure out a way to train our students
to be more practical and effective for the world?  Question:  How
would the State work with schools effectively?  I would think the
State is effective if it works as an advisor and motivator, and not
effective if it works like a boss and an imposer.

4.  Bring the beneficiaries into the planning process.  Students are
the beneficiaries of the education system.  Should we bring the
students, especially universities students, into the management of
universities in some capacity, or we just treat students like a bunch
of stupid kids who will just swallow absurdity like Maxist-Leninism in
year 2006?

5.  Professors:

* Should professors have a major say-so in running a university (or
just simply following orders of Party bosses)?

*  How to make our professors recognize that the future of the kids
are in their hands?  (Right now, I think the professors think that the
future of the kids are in the Party's hand, the way the Party
monopolizes everything in the system)?

*  How to motivate professors to update their knowledge, by rewarding
good work (instead of rewarding Party loyalty)?

These are only some fundamental issues that must be addressed, for an
effective reform of the system.   We need an education revolution, not
just a bandage here and there.   And please forget about the Party in
this process.  Because we are talking about 100-year project.  The VCP
(or any political party) probably won't last that long.  So let's just
focus on things permanent.  Trust me.

We need to be intelligent.  Think well, and motivate everyone to work,
instead of letting the government carry all the burden. Think like a
strategist and work like a strategist.  Work smart!

Have a great day!

Hoanh

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