VietNamNet Bridge – A recent survey by the Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) has found that 20 percent of schools have no
library. Other schools have the “libraries with no soul,” i.e. no book.
No library, no soul
A MOET’s senior official said
while big universities in the world all consider libraries as their “heart” or
“soul,” in Vietnam, libraries do not have much significance to lecturers and
students.
The survey, conducted on 196
schools, or just 50 percent of the existing schools, has found that only 80.4
schools belonging to MOET had libraries. The figures were 92.9 percent when
surveying the schools belonging to other ministries and 88.6 percent at the
schools belonging to provincial authorities.
The figures show that some 20
percent of schools still do not have libraries. Meanwhile, under the current
regulations, universities must have libraries and other material facilities
that can effectively satisfy the teaching and learning at the schools.
Of the 172 libraries found, only
38.9 percent could meet the Vietnamese or foreign standards.
39.7 percent of schools, or 77
schools, reportedly have e-libraries, which, as MOET commented, is too small,
which shows the delay of schools in utilizing information technology in
training.
The representative of the Hanoi
Agriculture University said the school has 30,000 books with 130,000 copies,
20-30 percent of which are the versions in foreign languages. Being a key
university in Vietnam, but the school still has not had an e-library to serve
the training and research. The school has requested MOET to allocate budget to
build an e-library by 2015, which is expected to be a seven storey building
with the floor area of 10,000 square meters.
Deputy President of the Hanoi
University of Education Kieu The Hung, when admitting that Vietnamese schools
are seriously lacking libraries and other instruments that serve the training
and learning, said that this is a common situation in Vietnam.
“You should not get surprised
when hearing that schools do not have enough classrooms and their students have
to go learn lessons in rental rooms, that schools do not have material
facilities for training, and that schools have tiny campuses,” Hung said.
The problem lies in unreasonable programming?
The HCM City University of Sports
and Gymnastics Education, established in 1976, now has 1500 full time training
students. It has been planning to expand the training for the last many years
but still cannot do that, because the school is too small if compared with the
1985 Vietnamese standards. It needs to have at least 20 hectares of land to
train 2000 students, while the school now covers a modest area of less than one
hectare.
In fact, a library is not the
only thing schools are lacking. Most schools complain that they do not have
money to install necessary equipment that serves the teaching, learning and
scientific research.
Dr Tran Thanh Binh, Head of the
Institute for School Research and Design, said at a recent workshop that a lot
of schools, especially the newly registered people-founded ones, are located in
the areas which should not be reserved for education. The 10,000 students of
the Mining and Geology University, for example, now study in the rooms of an
improved hotel area.
Binh went on to say that the lack
of land fund is the main reason that makes it impossible to build functional
buildings and areas at schools.
Nguyen Hien
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. Since we are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, you may contact us at: sbc.pte@gmail.com, provisionally. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment