LookAtVietnam – Joint training programmes are suffering from inadequate classrooms and staff and inferior systems for curriculums, schedules, classes and student management.

Students of Tay Nguyen University’s joint education programme in a lecture. In many joint education programmes, there is a lack of management staff and classroom space.

It revealed violations in many training programmes, ministry vice chief inspector Pham Ngoc Truc said.

One was that universities and colleges were co-operating with partners who weren’t allowed to issue university degrees, such as social and political organisations and State governance bodies, he said.

For example, Ha Noi Law University and HCM City Open University and Culture University associated with departments of education and training and departments of interior to organise training classes.

“These partners lack every factor to ensure training quality.”

Truc said joint education programmes were permitted only at provincial centres, but many classes were now being organised in districts, even in commune centres, where there was more space and possibly more students.

However, most of the district centres had imperfect systems for curriculums, schedules, classes and student management.

Making it too easy

“Also, joint education programmes are becoming more and more compliant to attract people who want to easily get a degree,” Truc said.

Truc said Hai Duong province’s Lifelong Learning Centre was co-operating with 14 universities and colleges to organise training courses for more than 3,000 students.

But there were only 50 teachers and administrative staff working at the centre, covering all kinds of work including management and training for 46 classes.

The centre had only a third of the required space for training and had to rent the balance.

“Most of the partners of these programmes are only capable of signing contracts for training, but they have limited facilities for the purpose,” Truc said.

Thus, most of them hired space elsewhere to run classes and in many cases the space did not meet the standard for training.

An Giang province’s Lifelong Learning Centre had more than 5,000 students pursuing 12 joint education programmes but the centre leaders had to rent most of the space for classes, he said.

Kontum province’s Lifelong Learning Centre had 17 joint education programmes, but the centre itself had only 8 per cent of the space required.

Tien Giang’s Lifelong Learning Centre had only three on the staff to manage 43 classes of joint education.

Other centres in Long An, Lang Son, Lai Chau and Bac Ninh provinces had 10 joint education programmes with thousands of students but had only 10 staff and teachers.

In the long term, Truc said, regular examinations should be carried out to deal with violations.

Hai Phong Lifelong Learning Centre director Tran Thi Son, of Hai Phong province, said training courses were aimed at everyone, including those who missed out on a university or college education.

Many were on the staff of State or non-State agencies who wanted to expand their education, she said.

Tuition fees ranged from VND180,000 to VND350,000 (US$10-19.5).

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News