VietNamNet Bridge – The drafted standards for 5-year-old children with 125 indices released by the Ministry of Education and Training have drawn special attention from parents. A quick survey conducted by VietNamNet shows three different viewpoints from parents.

Le Son, the father of a 5-year-old son who is going to the same kindergarten, said “I’m afraid the so called ‘achievement disease’ will become more serious.”

According to Son, once parents fear that their children cannot meet the standards and it is written down in their school report book, they will have to bribe teachers to ‘ask for a favour.’ Meanwhile, some teachers may give untrue assessments about children because of the ‘achievement disease.’

Son added that he is not sure if it is reasonable to allow schools to give assessments about children, if a lot of indices can be obtained through the family’s education.

The father, who was sitting next to Son in the talks with VietNamNet, said that if referring to the 125 indices, 100% of children will not meet the standards.

“I think that the requirement on running 150 m continuously is beyond the capability of a 5-year-old child. I don’t want and I don’t dream of seeing my child becoming a child prodigy,” he said.

Meanwhile, other parents applauded the standards and 125 indices, saying that they are reasonable to the development of young children.

“I think that the concrete figures can give the benchmarks for parents and teachers, so that they can apply suitable education measures to meet the standards,” said Vu Van Hung in Ngoc Khanh residential quarter.

Meanwhile, Dinh Thi Thuy, who is working for a private law firm, thinks differently.

Thuy said that it is necessary to set standards for the children for the ages of 4 and 5. “If not, educators will not have any benchmarks to strive to, which will cause chaos in education.”

However, Thuy thinks that it is still necessary to discuss about the detailed standards.

She said that the ministry needs to shorten the standards and remove the details which she calls “dull.” An example of this is that children need to know they are boys or girls.

“The standard compilers need to join forces with the agencies researching children’s health, nutrition, and psychology to give the most reasonable standards,” Thuy said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Training said that it has made necessary scientific research and consulted with relevant ministries and branches in compiling the standards for children at the age of five. The ministry also surveyed 700 children who are living in different regions.

“The standards are the requirement of children’s ability that we expect the children can meet.”

Kieu Oanh