SOS means ‘save our sciences’ in Vietnam

Published: 23/08/2009 05:00

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LookAtVietnam – Students are keen to study economics and IT, but increasingly less interested in fields like mathematics and the sciences.

“When our faculty was divided into mathematics and information technology (IT), only four students remained to study math,” Associate Professor Dang Duc Trong at the HCM City University of Natural Sciences told Tuoi Tre newspaper reporters.

Math’s falling numbers

Mathematics, called the ‘universal language’ thanks to its applications in many other sciences, has become considerably less attractive to Vietnamese students.

Students registrations to study math reveal how low their interest has fallen. Only 650 students registered to take exams for mathematics at the HCM City University of Natural Sciences, while the faculty planned to enroll 300. This meant a remarkably low rate of competition of 1:2.

Required grades from students’ university entrance exams to study math have been decreasing in recent years. In 2005, examinees had to get at least 17.5 to be eligible, but in the next three years, the required grade was lowered to 16.

The Hanoi University of Natural Sciences faces the same dilemma. Though 140 students registered to study math in 2005, only 68 signed up for math in 2008. The required mark also fell in the 2005-2008 period, but did move up slightly in 2009.

Students who want to study math at Dalat University only have to score the ‘floor mark’ (the minimum grade students must have to have to enroll in a university, set by the Ministry of Education and Training annually after it considers the exam results). To fill its classes, the university has to admit students who registered for math as their second choice of study. (These are students who fail to pass exams in other branches of study or at other universities, but receive scores high enough to attend other universities that accept lower marks).

Similarly, the required scores for mathematics students at Hue city Sciences University have been hovering around 13-15 in recent years.

Decline in Students, Death of Sciences?

Material sciences are facing the same fate, attracting fewer and fewer students.

The HCM City University of Natural Sciences only received 204 applicants in 2009, though it planned to enroll 180 students. Even though the university set the lowest possible required score of 13, it could only enroll 70 students and is now seeking students to register there as their second choice.

Part of the problem is oversupply. Many universities provide training in the basic sciences, so these days only elite universities easily can attract students for basic science studies.

A private institution, Hung Vuong University, tried to enroll students for mathematics when it was established in 1995, but only gained seven students. As a result, the university decided to stop enrolling students for this branch.

In 2001, Huong Vuong U. resumed enrolling students for mathematics. The situation failed to improve and, once again, the university announced the death of mathematics at the institution.

Educators have expressed their worry about the quality of students studying mathematics. Trong, the HCMC math professor, notes that the required score for students to study mathematics is just 16, which makes it difficult to produce excellent graduates from such a difficult field of study. He predicts that in the long term, this will have immeasurable influence on ‘Vietnamese intelligence’.

Many students register to study math simply because of the low required marks, not because they really love it, Trong believes. This is very dangerous, he warns, because the students may give up when they feel the learning is beyond their capacity, or will not pursue jobs relating to mathematics after they graduate.

VietNamNet/TT

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