[Vnbiz] One third Vietnam high school students fail graduation exams -- A Proposal

Sun Jun 24 07:26:08 PDT 2007

Dear brothers Dyung, Dennis & CACC,

Thanks, Dennis, for forwarding the thoughtful messages of your teacher
students. They reflect the situation very well.  Now, let me follow-up with
some additional analysis.

In the first reply, the author said: "Seeing the situation, in order to
restore public belief, to build its reputation, Mr. Nhan, the Minister of
Training and Education has rolled up his sleeves by setting up a national
campaign against *cheating and achievement* – favored disease in Education."
 I have emphasized the words "cheating and achievement" here.

We all know about cheating, but let's focus on the other word "Achievement."
What is the "disease of achievement" that the author is talking about here?
The answer is spelled out in the third reply: "A majority of educational
authority has long wanted to have a beautiful report with a high rate of
graduates."

So, besides cheating, according to these teachers' replies (and I agree with
them), that the government is fighting a two-front battle, against cheating
and against "disease of achievement", ie, the disease of loving "beautiful
report with a high rate of graduates."   Everyone knows about this, but the
newspapers completely ignore this point on their reports on the recent
graduation test.

This point on "fighting against achievement" is a piece of evidence to prove
my previous hypothesis that there is an INTENTIONAL plan to let a lot of
students flunk this year, because it is the government's message in the war
against the achievement disease: "We no longer care about high rate of
graduation."  It means the students were INTENTIONAL used as the victims in
this war.  That really answers brother Dyung 's and my question on why the
Ministry of Education did not prepare the students carefully for the test so
that the students would be able to past the test and the new procedure
wouldn't adversely impact them unfairly.  If most of the students were
prepared so well that most of them passed the test this year, then there
would have been no evidence (like high failing ratio) to prove to the public
that the government is fighting seriously and effectively against cheating
and achievement disease.  A high flunking ratio was needed for the
government to prove itself.

Worse, not only completely silent about this "fighting against achievement,"
the education and the newspapers also go so far as to twist things further,
to effective blame all the flunking students as cheaters.   So, the victims
have now become the bad guys!  How clever would that be!  It is simply
unethical to do that.  My God, can you guys see that?

But, why do I keep saying that the students are the victims?  Because the
problems in the education are not the students faults.  Their teachers allow
them to slide down.  That's all.  Things have gone so bad over the years
that many students in the country have a very low level of real education.  The
students are low in quality because the entire system is low in quality.  You
cannot suddenly flunk out one third of students because they are low in
quality.  They have been doing exactly what the system *expects* of them; by
the old standards, they are doing OK.  They cannot now be used as the
victims in a war against a problem not of their own making.  (Note: In
Vietnam, flunking the graduation exam is not a small thing for a child.  Every
year, a number of children commit suicide for failing).

So what is my point?  My point is that while fight against cheating and
achievement disease is a good goal, the method using here is unfair and
unsatisfactory.  The government has a duty to prepare the students for the
test.  The education system could have used the one year leading up to the
final test to do a couple of trial runs, to familiarize teachers and  students
about the new procedure, the potential impacts, the level of studying
required of the students, so that the students are not hit unfairly.  It is
the DUTY of the education establishment to prepare the students properly for
the test, especially when a drastic change in the procedure is about to be
implemented.

And that leads me to the more general point of policy making.  Having the
right GOAL does not allow you to use any MEANS possible.  The means to the
goal have to be *reasonable and fair*.  Procedures have to be in place to
reduce to adverse effects of the new policy on the citizens as much as
possible.  You cannot simply bulldoze over your citizenry and hurt thousands
of lives in the name of a good cause.

Say, the government has the plan to make a dam.  That dam may require two
thousand families to relocate.  The government cannot simply say, "Move."  It
will have to compensate the citizens for the move, get new housing for them,
get them new jobs, new vocational skills, new decent communities.  We all in
the development community know that.

The question is:  What has the government done to PREPARE the students
PROPERLY for the test, to lessen the adverse impact on them?

Why is there an obvious media campaign to pain the flunking students as
cheaters?

Finally, here is my proposal on how to salvage the situation.  Now that
the government has made its seriousness clear (we all, including me, applaud
that seriousness), we need to fix the damage inflicted on the 300 thousand
flunking students.  Give them another shot at the graduation test.  Give
them another test (at the same level of difficulty as the old test), and
this time they won't be able to claim surprise or unfair.  I hope someone
will take my advice seriously.  Please!

Have a great day!

Hoanh

On 6/23/07, dennis in yorba linda <dberg at fullerton.edu> wrote:
>
> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>
>  Dear All:
>
>
>
> On the issue of graduation rates on this year's high school exams:
>
>
>
> I have 44 teachers or want to be teachers in Vietnam in a class I am
> teaching on-line who are working on their MA in TESOL degree. I sent them
> some of the discussion on the issue of the high school exams passing rates.
> Here are three of their answers just to give you an idea about the thoughts
> of teachers in Vietnam.
>
>
>
> First Reply:
>
>
>
> I would like to share my ideas on the results of Vietnam's graduation exam
> taking place this past May. It is true that the passing rate of students in
> the national graduation exam this year is lower than ever before; but it not
> true, in my opinion, to say that one third failed the graduation exams for
> cheating.
>
>
>
> As you know, in recent years, cheating in the examination has become a
> controversial and urgent issue in Vietnam. The passing rate was rather high,
> which did not truly reflect the quality of the students as well as the
> reality of Vietnamese Education. There are uncountable cases in which
> students graduating from high schools do not have the necessary general
> knowledge according to the standards provided by the Ministry of Education.
>  Some passed the exams due to bribery which might take place at
> examination sites or examiner committees. Some passed the exam due to the
> ease of irresponsible watchers, etc. This leads to the fact that public
> belief in education is diminishing.
>
>
>
> Seeing the situation, in order to restore public belief, to build its
> reputation, Mr. Nhan, the Minister of Training and Education has rolled up
> his sleeves by setting up a national campaign against cheating and
> achievement – favored disease in Education. This campaign is welcomed and
> supported by people of all classes, particularly teachers. It may be said
> that Vietnam education tries its best to struggle against cheating in
> examinations on the full scale; strict examination disciplines are imposed
> on all the examiners and examinees, which really comes into play. The
> passing rate dropping sharply in some provinces is not beyond expectation.
> However, most students fail the exam because they do not meet the
> requirements of knowledge, not because of cheating.
>
>
>
> Hopefully, my words more or less help you get a better understanding of
> the story about Vietnam Education.
>
>
>
> Second Reply:
>
>
>
> I am not surprised at this outcome because I know it will be and I knew
> that many years before. Many other teachers and educational administrators
> have known that but they pretend not to know. They want to have a high
> result to praise themselves. Teachers don't teach well and they are afraid
> of being sacked by the headmasters; Headmasters are afraid of being sacked
> by the higher leaders and so forth. They are cheating each other.
>
>
>
> I used to teach at high school, so I know this clearly. My manager asked
> me to do some unfair things but I refused and I had to leave that school. I
> don't want to be in prison. Last graduation examination, I was an inspector
> of Ministry of Education and Training. I tried to accuse any cheating
> actions of both teachers and students, so did my colleagues. As the result
> of this, the outcome of the high school exams dropped down dramatically.
> This evaluates the reality of Vietnamese education.
>
>
>
> I can conclude that the bad results are caused by
>
>   - Some bad qualifying teachers used money to buy degree and position in
> schools.
>
>   - Students are very lazy and often photocopy materials and take them
> into the classroom.
>
>   - They don't learn anything.
>   - The leaders of cities and provinces don't have the ability to manage
> and they are ashamed of the bad result. So they order teachers to ignore the
> cheating actions of students and correct their papers.
>
>
>
> This year, Ministry of Education did a good job to prevent cheating on the
> tests. I totally approve this policy.
>
>
>
> Reply Three:
>
>
>
> I have to state that there is a great difference between students'
> cheating and others' cheating. The title has carried things so far and it's
> unfair for the students who are lacking of knowledge but they are still
> allowed to continue a higher class. They cannot be blamed for other people's
> faults.
>
>
>
> In other words, a majority of educational authority has long wanted to
> have a beautiful report with a high rate of graduates. That was the reason
> for the so-called "students' sit in the wrong class" in Vietnam now.
>
>
>
> I hope you sympathize. I'm very ashamed.
>
>
>
>
>
> posted by Dennis
>
>
>
> ***********************************************
>  "Dance as if no one's watching,
> sing as if no one's listening,
> and live every day as if it were your last."
>  ------ Irish proverb.
> ***********************************************
> Dr. Dennis F. Berg, Professor and Chair
> Department of Sociology H-730-M
> California State University, Fullerton
> Fullerton, California  USA   92834-6846
> Office Phone: 714-278-7044
> Cell Phone: 714-276-3239
> E-mail: dberg at fullerton.edu
> ************************************************
>
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Washington DC
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