[Vnbiz] FW: FW: Education reform

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Hi Van,

Thanks for sharing, sister.

Well, whoever thinks that the requirement for students to take
Marxist-Leninism is small deal really doesn't understand its
implication in the entire education and political system, which means
the entire development scheme.

If it is such a small deal, then why the VCP insists on forcing it?

Among 80 millions Vietnamese, I have not read one single article
saying that it is a good thing.

But not one single article has the courage to question its wisdom or
harmfulness.  I say "question," not even criticizing.  Just like
anything else "sensitive" in the country. no one says a word about it.
 Just a big scary silence.

(Similarly, I have heard some Vietnamese saying that VCP's political
monopoly is small deal.  If it is such a small deal, why does the VCP
insist in keeping its monopoly and not allow other people to compete
in another political party?  Please, be honest to yourself.  If you
don't want to talk about something, then don't talk about it.  Just
please don't say things that are so absurd and insincere).

Whoever thinks that imposing Marxist-Leninism on the education system
is a small deal, obviously can't see much.  The truth is all other
measures won't help much if the VCP doesn't erase Leninism requirement
off the education system.   That is the ENVIRONMENT issue, which is
the most important issue in management.  If you don't have the right
environment, nothing can't grow. And ENVIRONMENT is built first by
things that "set the tone."  This Marxist-Leninism requirement is one
major thing that sets the tone for the education environment.  If you
are not super-sensitive to management problems adn the Vietnamese
sensitivity to respecting "the authority's tone," you will not really
understand what I say.  But folks who are experienced in and sensitive
to management issues will understand.

We have serious serious problems in our education system. It is very
normal for teachers and students to cheat in their own ways.  Tell me
another education system in the world that has cheating at such
intensity (although cheating occurs every where in the world). That is
not the problem of poverty or competency or bad administrative
actions.  It is the fundamental problem that is so deep and so serious
that it corrupts the hearts of too many people.  Either we see it or
we don't.

And it boils down to one thing:  The VCP is choking the education
system to death, by its own behavior and incompetency.  Either the VCP
has the honor and courage to accept its responsibility and try to fix
it.  Or it just stays arrogant and blind and pretends to fix the
problems by a couple of bandages here, a couple of bandages there.  We
are not talking about cheap politics.  I am not interested in cheap
politics.  We are talking about the hearts and minds of our
youngsters, the future of our nation.  Either we care or we don't.

Great day, Van and all.

Hoanh


On 7/27/06, Le Ha, Van (HANOI/HHA) <vle at usaid.gov> wrote:
> I was sharing our discussion with one of my friend, who has a great
> passion for the development of Vietnam. And the below is his thoughts
> about education reform in our country, just in-turn wanted to share with
> CACC
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nguyen viet ha [mailto:nguyenviet_ha at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 3:40 PM
> To: Le Ha, Van (HANOI/HHA)
> Subject: RE: FW: [Vnbiz] Education reform
>
> I think Mr Hoanh's open questions are oriented (focus on) to the aim :
> change the education system when applying benchmark method : VietNam
> education phenomena versus Western education results! => It seems
> interesting, however the social context and the cultural behaviors are
> totally different. So from my point of view, apparently : Issues are
> clear even for Vietnamese, objectives seems well
> defined but  it seems difficult to improve!  Why? :
>
> 1 The aim of education system :
>
> -Education system are classified to 3 levels : preschool system (till 6
> years old); secondary system (form 6 years old till 18), higher system.
>
> preschool system : the aim is to prepare physical and cultural basis for
>
> children to go to school, to give children the apprentisage of social
> life.
>
> secondary system : the aim is to  give students all basic "skills" with
> the
> basic knowledge to be an entire citizen.
>
> higher system : the aim is to give students skills and  knowledge
> required
> for their aspiration!
>
>
> While first 2 subsystem are an obligatory, the third  must be
> "democratic".
> It means that the system must  be open to give equal chance and choice
> for
> all students. Till now, our  system have the differentiations by.......
> "students entrance quality", but not for demand!)
>
> 2/Consequently:
> criteria for the higher system to achieve this objective are :
>
> - students satisfy with all they have during undergraduate (it mean they
>
> feel society (labor market) need them which is the response for what
> they
> have done)
> => we have to study  the demands of  individuals and society in general.
>
> Often objectives are not the same :
>
>     + individual : ability to  analyse and to resolve issues
> independently
>                        well specialised in what he wishs
>                       Creativity
>                        independent vision
>                        having an open knowledge to different fields
>
>      + society : - effectiveness
>                      - contribution to the common interest
>                     - discipline
>
>  ......
> I think higher school system must give student to understand and to
> achieve
> what they need
>
> Problem is that education system in Vietnam are mostly subsided by
> goverment, consequently it is clear that they don't....... consider
> other
> individual aspects. They do by their PLAN.
> There are private high school : but the quality and reputation are not
> respectful. The reason is that they are  considered as  "secondary"
> solution
> for state education system to resolve Vietname education issues. There
> is no
> fair -play attitude.
>
>
> So what we have to do?:
>
> -Liberalisation of education system : management, finance
> -to redifine the role of ministry of education to : define norm of
> management of school , but not standart" knowledge"
>
> enforce
> the role of survey to ensure a transparency
>
>
> invest
> research program via competition, but not via  "donation" since they
> stop
> subside states institutions!
>
>
> I think Other technical issues about contents of education will be
> resolved.
> We don't need to discuss if Marxist-leninism is useful or not, students
> will
> be able to be an independent thinker or not.... It is a small detail
> kisses
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com
> >[mailto:vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com] On Behalf Of Tran Dinh Hoanh
> >Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 5:55 AM
> >To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
> >Subject: [Vnbiz] Education reform
> >
> >
> >[Vietnam Business Forum]
> >
> >
> >
> >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