Vietnam - MOET criticized for making light of IT when carrying out education reform

VietNamNet Bridge – Information technology (IT) firms have repeatedly urged the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and schools to utilize IT solutions in education. However, the firms have complained that they “cannot convince the behind-the-time education managers.”

Talking about the role of IT in the education renovation, Dr Bui Manh Hai, Chair of the Vietnam Association for Information Processing (VAIP), said while IT has been utilized in education in other countries for a long time, Vietnam still has not approached the modern teaching method and has not taken full advantage of the IT potentials.

Dinh Tri Dung, Director of Arena Multimedia in Hanoi, said the human being is now in the multimedia age, where children can easily absorb the educational interacting content and digital content.

For example, students can watch films and illustration pictures to keep knowledge, especially historical events in mind. It’s clear that this is a teaching method which is much better than the traditional one applied for the last many years – learning by heart.

Students can also search on Google Map to find out geographical positions, or access to Youtube to watch the video clips to learn natural phenomena and different issues. The training interactive materials clearly can help arouse the enthusiasm and eagerness for learning.

Dung has affirmed that Vietnam has all necessary technical conditions to utilize IT in the education renovation process. Vietnam has a very good telecom infrastructure with Internet accessing to many general schools, allowing teachers to download educational materials to prepare e-learning plans.

Especially, TV, overhead projectors and computers have become less expensive, while hand devices are getting cheaper.

However, Hai said, IT solutions still have been utilized in education yet because the Ministry of Education and Training still has not been ready for this. The ministry still has not been aware of the important role of IT in education. He has also mentioned the possibility that the program on utilizing IT in education has been hindered by some groups of interests.

In fact, after realizing that the first draft of the education renovation strategy was “behind the times,” VAIP strongly asked for the changes of the main points of the strategy, suggesting that IT application should be highlighted in the plan so as to make Vietnam’s education well integrating into the world.

However, Hai said, despite some changes found in the next draft versions, the changes are still far below expectations.

Meanwhile, Bui Viet Ha, Director of Schoolnet, a company specializing in providing IT solutions for schooling, said cautiously that applying IT solutions in schools is really a difficult task.

To date, IT has only been playing a modest role in education and training. It has been considered as the environment, or the instruments that support the management and teaching works.

There are two reasons behind this. First, schools still do not have the staff qualified enough to utilize IT in education. Second, the currently applied state management mechanism is really very complicated, overlapping, full of contradictions and unreasonable.

In such circumstances, one should not expect too much on the heightening of the IT in education and training.

In fact, the IT firms now remain incapable enough to satisfy the requirements for education renovation. There are very few IT firms specializing in the education sector, which explains why the IT product market for schooling remains weak.

Dinh Tri Dung, Director of Arena Multimedia in Hanoi, also said that the IT utilization in education now depends on the determination of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Buu Dien

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