VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) has decided to develop the system of gifted
schools. However, many educators believe that the goals set up by the ministry
are too ambitious and unfeasible.

One of the
goals is that English will be used as the main language in teaching at gifted
schools. In the first phase of the gifted school development plan, teaching in
English will be applied to some natural science subjects, including
mathematics, physics, chemistry and informatics. In the second stage, teaching
in English will be applied to social science subjects. In the immediate time,
in the 201-2011 academic year, English will be used in teaching mathematics and
informatics.

Unfeasible plan?

According
to Deputy Minister of MOET Nguyen Vinh Hien, the teaching and learning of
foreign languages at general schools still show many shortcomings. Hien said
that Vietnamese students, who attend international competitions or Olympiads
regularly encounter difficulties in communicating and in doing exercises.
Therefore, if students cannot speak foreign languages well, they will find it
difficult to access new knowledge.

However,
analysts have warned that the plan to teach in English will meet a lot of
challenges. Especially, even gifted schools in big cities will also not be able
to settle problems, let alone the gifted schools in small provinces.

The
headmaster of a gifted high school in Mekong Delta said there are 39 teachers
and more than 400 students in his school, and he has confirmed that the
school’s teachers remain far away from meeting the requirements to be able to
teach in English.

Bui Van
Trung, Deputy Headmaster of Hoang Van Thu Gifted School in Hoa Binh province,
also said that very few students can meet the requirements in foreign
languages, while foreign language skills are also a big problem for the
school’s teachers. Trung stressed that it will require long term investment to
train teachers with foreign language skills and this cannot be done overnight.

Gifted schools - the workshops to
produce “math problem solving workers”?

Under the
plan to develop gifted schools, at least 50 percent of students in the schools
will have excellent learning capacity, 70 percent of students will have good
learning capacity in informatics, and 30 percent of students would reach Level
3 in accordance with the standards set by the Association of Language Testers
in Europe (ALTE). About 30 percent of graduates of gifted schools will be
enrolled to high-quality programs at universities.

However,
educators have, once again, warned that the goals are too ambitious. By early
2010, Vietnam
had had 50,000 gifted students. However, not all students studying at gifted
schools are really excellent students. Teachers say that for a long time
schools have been selecting the best students after checking their knowledge,
but they have not been testing students’ IQ through special tests.

A teacher
from the Hanoi National University
said that the currently applied teaching methods are turning students majoring
in mathematics into “math problem solving workers”. Therefore, diligent
students, not clever students, consistently have better opportunities to be
enrolled into mathematics majoring classes because they regularly practice
solving problems.

MOET has
many times emphasized that the goal of gifted schools is to help students’
develop their talents, and that students must receive a comprehensive education
which provides them with knowledge in different fields. However, in fact,
people call students of gifted schools “fighting cocks”, who only spend time
studying, while they do not know much the knowledge about society and do not
have many life skills.

Source:
Nguoi lao dong