VietNamNet Bridge – Unlike that of higher education, general education quality accreditation will be decentralised to local departments of education and training.

MOET on November 22 provided local education and training departments with documents guiding the implementation of education quality verification and accreditation for the 2008-2009 school year, and draft regulations on the standards and time frames for education quality accreditation of primary, secondary and high schools.

The ministry has asked local education and training departments to send staffs to take master’s training courses on education accreditation, both at home and overseas, so that Vietnam will have enough staffs for the accreditation work.

MOET has also urged local education and training departments to achieve ‘quality culture’ to prepare for the ‘Year of education quality accreditation’ in the 2009-2010 school year.

However, after verifying education quality at the high school level on a trial basis, Pham Van Hung, Deputy Director of the Thua Thien-Hue city Education and Training Department, said that some criteria for education accreditation remain unclear, and have caused a lot of difficulties.

Hung said that some criteria prove to be unsuitable because they do not reflect the improvement of education quality. For example, the indexes about stability and year-on-year increase of the ratio of expenses for teaching to total management costs, according to Hung, do not reflect improved education quality in localities with limited budgets.

Moreover, the index of increasing high-school graduates, according to Hung, does not reflect the efforts made by high schools to improve education quality.

Lam Thi Sang, Head of the Inspection and Education Quality Management Division under the Bac Lieu Education and Training Department, said that different criteria should be set up for different areas. She said that the requirement on no more than 1% of drop-out students proves to be easy for cities, but will be difficult for schools in remote areas to attain.

Lan Huong