Vietnamese educators’ efforts to create a fair and advanced education
system have yet to pay off as they are now experiencing a splitting headache:
that same system refuses its own products.
Education officials have
repeatedly insisted that no distinction should be made between part- and
full-time degree programs, but the reality is always harsh.
In fact, many local education
departments have officially announced they will not consider applicants with a
degree earned from what Vietnamese call ‘in-service mode,’ which provides
people who are working with part-time training programs – mostly of lower
academic standards than their full-time counterparts – when they look for
teachers and staff members.
In a recent teacher recruitment
notice, the education department in the northern province of Ha Nam said that
it would only accept applications by graduates of top-tier universities and
noted point blank that candidates with a part-time degree would surely be
turned down.
Nam Dinh, Ha Nam’s neighbor, has
long dodged part-time degrees when recruiting employees for the education
sector because it does not want to waste time screening applications with a
very high likelihood of failing to meet its requirements in the first place, as
elaborated by the provincial home affairs department, which supervises recruitment.
It will follow the same
procedures this year, the department has said.
Another northern province, Vinh
Phuc, lying northwest of Hanoi, has also said ‘no’ to part-time graduates since
last year.
Down south, Ho Chi Minh City is
no exception, as a personnel manager of the municipal education department says
graduates from full-time programs will be given high priority during its
teacher staffing process this year.
“I think full-time graduates are
better,” Van Cong Sang, the manager, said.
Quality difference
A former education official in Ha
Nam cited quality discrepancy as the reason for the province’s recruitment
policy, which he said dated back to seven years ago.
“Teachers are the most important
element to give birth to a good education system, so our way is completely
justified,” explained Nguyen Quoc Tuan, former director of the local education
department.
The majority of part-time
students yield very disappointing performance, according to Assoc Prof Hoang
Dung, with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education.
Dr H., who is teaching in-service
programs at many universities in Ho Chi Minh City, revealed that course
directors are always lenient with part-time students, as most of them have to
go to work during the day.
“We often give easier
end-of-semester tests,” H. said, “because it is an unspoken assumption that
academic bars should be lowered in this case.”
The lecturer recalled an incident
when a school refused to renew a contract with him after he had failed too many
students in a part-time course.
Part-time students themselves
reported that many lecturers even cut their curriculums by up to a third, and
that cheating is not uncommon in final exams.
The game should be fairer
Early elimination of part-time
degree holders is unfair no matter what reason is given, local educators have
complained, calling for equal opportunity for both part- and full-time
graduates.
Candidates should not be judged
by their diplomas, they said.
The education law stipulates that
part- and full-time degrees are equally valid, said Dr Nguyen Kim Hong, vice
president of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education.
“So why not put everyone in the
same selection process instead of disregarding some?”
My Giang Son, academic affairs
head at Saigon University, gave his agreement, and added that a candidate’s
capability can only be seen through real tests.
These employers’ refusal may stem
from their own past experiences with certain people with a part-time degree,
but that does not mean their evasion of the rest is defensible, according to Vu
Thuy Quynh, dean of the part-time training department at the Hanoi-based
University of Languages and International Studies.
This kind of discrimination would
discourage serious attempts by schools to gradually bridge the quality gap
between different training modes, Dr Hong, the vice president, said.
In Vietnam, universities are
believed to compromise on the quality of their part-time training programs, and
thus recruit as large a number of students as possible to simply reap profit.
TUOI TRE
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