VietNamNet Bridge – The number of students registering to take the entrance exams to education universities has been decreasing in recent years. Especially, in some majors the number of registered students is even lower than the number of students the schools plan to enroll.

The HCM City University of Education in 2009 a competition ratio of 1/16, which meant that 16 students had to compete with each other to gain one seat at the university. Meanwhile, the competition ratio dropped to 1/8 in 2009.

Reports showed that in 2010, most of the pedagogical schools had a competition ratio of less than 1/5, which shows that less and less students want to study at pedagogical schools to become teachers. A lot of schools said they have to enroll second-choice students (the students, who fail the entrance exams to one university, will have the right to enroll to another school which requires lower marks on the university entrance exams).

The educators who participated in job career consultancy meetings have noted that the interest of students in pedagogical schools has decreased considerably. Students nowadays like following “hot” majors, such as economics, technologies or finance and banking. A lot of students honestly stated that they want to become teachers, but they will give up the dream to follow other more attractive majors. Even the people who are now teachers do not encourage their children to follow in their footseps.

Vinh, a 12^th grader of a high school in district 4 in HCM City, related that when he was small, he decided to become a teacher. His dream was supported by his parents. However, the parents have changed their mind, forcing the son to choose a major related to finance and banking. Disagreements between Vinh and his parents has become more serious.

Vinh’s mother said that teaching nowadays is not as honorable a job as it was in the past. Meanwhile, compared to other jobs the income of teachers nowadays is very modest. Besides, according to her, there are too many problems in the education sector, including school violence. Some teachers were reportedly attacked by students just because they refused to give good marks as requested by the students.

“I will kill myself if you still register to take exams to study at the University of Education,” she said to Vinh.

Meanwhile, Le Thi Thanh Trang, a 12^th grader of Tran Quoc Tuan High School in Quang Ngai province, said that she once dreamed of becoming a teacher, but she has realized that the dream cannot “feed” her. “I will register to study at an economics school. The university degree will help easily find a good job,” she said.

Nguyen Van Hung, 60, in Quang Ngai province related that he has a daughter, who is a kindergarten teacher. As she can only earn 1.5 million dong a month, he still has to give money to her to help cover her basic needs. Therefore, Hung does not want his second daughter to become a teacher.

Policies becoming less attractive

The State tries to attract more talented individuals to the education sector by offering a lot of incentives. Students of pedagogical schools do not have to pay tuition and teachers can get allowances of 30-70 percent depending on the areas where they work. However, the incentives nowadays prove to be not enough to persuade students to devote themselves to the difficult job.

In many other countries, there are high requirements for students of pedagogical schools. Students must get high marks from exams to be able to be enrolled to pedagogical schools. In addition, many schools have high requirements for students with regards to appearance and communication skills in order to be able to choose the best among candidates.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, as pedagogical schools cannot enroll enough students, they have to lower the requirements on students. Experts have warned that once the input quality of pedagogical schools’ students is low, the schools will not be able to produce qualified teachers. This, in the long term, will spoil the education system.

C. V