Vietnam - High schools fail to give job career guidance

VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of high schools in Vinh Phuc province have refused to receive the applications for attending university entrance exams from the student with weak learning ability. However, the schools’ move has been criticized as violating the laws.

Explaining the decision, the schools’ representatives said the students with limited capability are not encouraged to attend the university entrance exams. It’s foreseeable that the students would not pass the exams with such bad learning records. Therefore, they would be better to apply to vocational schools than trying to apply to universities, while the failure is anticipated.

The educators in the province said this is a part of the vocational guidance program which aims to use the labor force in the most effective way.

The Vinh Phuc provincial education and training department has decided that 30-35 percent of high school graduates should go to vocational schools, while the proportion should be 40-45 percent in the next years.

Vietnamese high school graduates all intend to follow university education level. Especially, even the students with weak learning capability also try to enter universities at any cost, believing that university education is the only and the best solution to make their way in the world.

However, it is really a big waste of students’ money and the society’s resources, since a lot of students still try to attend the exams, even though their failure is foreseen.

It would be an ideal scenario if students are given reasonable advices to make right decisions about what schools they should apply to after finishing high school.

The students with good learning capability should be advised to attend the university entrance exams, while the students with weaker capability should go to vocational schools. If so, Vietnam would have a reasonable labor force structure, while workers would be put on the right positions.

However, in reality, high school graduates still turn their back to vocational school. Headmaster of a high school in Vinh Tuong district said that only three students at his school have applied for vocational schools, while others all plan to attend the university entrance exams to be held in July.

Meanwhile, a lot of the students planning to follow university education have bad learning capability. The students also had bad marks at the mock exams, and they are believed to fail the university entrance exams.

Phan Huu Tuoi, Headmaster of Doi Can High School in Vinh Tuong district, said that the gap between the marks students get from practice tests and the marks they get from real exams could be up to three marks.

“If someone got 10 marks from the practice test at our school, he would not get more than 13 marks when attending the real university entrance exams,” Tuoi said.

Meanwhile, a lot of Tuoi’s students only got 6-7 marks from the tests, and he believes that the students should not waste their money and time to attend the university entrance exams.

“If they still try to attend the exams, they would not only waste their money and time, but would also put a pressure on the society,” he said.

However, the move by the high schools in Vinh Phuc province not to allow weak students to attend the university entrance exams has been described as “extreme solution,” because they do not have the right to prohibit students to attend the exams.

Deputy Director of the Vinh Phuc provincial Education and Training Department Nguyen Xuan Truong has also admitted that schools do not have the right to do that. All the students can attend the university entrance exams, if they finish high schools, and satisfy other requirements set up by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Van Chung

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