LookAtVietnam – Thousands of emails have been sent to newspapers to express their surprise and deep outrage about the clip that shows a female student brutally beating another

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien

Dan Tri: What is your comment about the clip showing a female student striking another so brutally which is stirring the public?

Nguyen Vinh Hien: I have not watched the clip. I just read newspapers and saw the photos. I am very surprised and I cannot imagine how female students could strike each other so violently.

Dan Tri: This is just one of the clips that students post on Internet to show off their “feat of arms.” Many people believe that schools must take responsibility for the violence. They said schools only focus on providing knowledge, while they have been ignored instructing students how to grow up into useful members of society. What would you say about that?

Hien: It is true that many schools focus on providing knowledge, while they have not emphasized the teaching of morality, but I can say for sure that this does not happen at all schools. How can schools care for so many students? Only families have the best opportunity and time to care for their children, especially their emotional and psychological development.

Dan Tri: But many people still believe that schools need to take primary responsibility for the moral degradation of many students. They emphasize the role of the head teachers. . .

Hien: Schools and families each have their own advantages in educating students. Schools can provide knowledge that can influence students’ feelings. However, schools cannot be close to every student and understand the feelings of every student. It is clear that families have more advantages than schools in educating student emotional behavior. Families, not schools, decide the conduct and behavior of students.

However, MOET has learned lessons from this event. For a long time, it has only awarded teachers with excellent students who win prizes in national competitions, not teachers who convert delinquent students.

Dan Tri: What measures will MOET take to settle school violence?

Hien: Students nowadays are quite different psychologically from previous generations. They can access different sources of information, including the Internet, books and films, all of which affect their behavior. Schools cannot educate students well on their own. They need cooperation from many branches and from families.

MOET is considering the integration of life skills into the curricula. The ministry has assigned the Vietnam Education Institute to plan life skills classes at general schools. It is expected that the lessons will be taught on a wide scale after 2010.

VietNamNet/Dan tri