The Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET), in an effort to develop the system of gifted
schools to find talents for the country, has decided to launch a programme
worth 2.3 trillion dong. However, many educators still have doubts about the
feasibility of the plan.

The
programme on gifted school development was introduced by MOET in early
November. According to Vu Dinh Chuan, Director of the High Education Department
under MOET, the target is forevery city or province to have at least one school
for the gifted students, while the total number of gifted school students will
account for two percent of the total general school students of provinces and
cities.

MOET hopes
that by 2015, Vietnam
will have 100 percent of high schools meeting the national standards by 2015,
including 15 key schools which have the education quality equal with the
advanced high schools in the region and in the world. By that time, at least 50
percent of students should be classified as having excellent learning capacity,
while 70 percent of students would have good knowledge about information
technology, and 30 percent of students would reach Level 3 in accordance with
the standards set by the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE).

However,
many problems have been cited after one month of implementation

Where to find qualified teachers?

With the
plan, Vietnam
aims to of have 15 key gifted schools which have the same status with the most
advanced schools in the region and in the world. Besides, 200 teachers will be
sent abroad to attend the training courses for MA degree, 730 other teachers
will also be sent abroad, so when they return, they can teach mathematics,
physics, chemistry, biology and informatics in English. MOET is planning to
train 500 teachers domestically who will get MA degree, and train 1560
management officers in informatics.

It is
estimated that the total cost ofimproving teachers’ qualification may reach 624
billion dong.

Meanwhile, some
educators have raised a question of whether Vietnam really needs to spend such
a big sum of money to send teachers abroad, though they agree that retraining
and upgrading the qualification of teachers is a must.

Associate
Professor Van Nhu Cuong, now Headmaster of Luong The Vinh High School, said
that there is a serious shortage of qualified teachers, while successors still
have not been found. If Vietnam
sends teachers abroad, it will be able to settle a part of the current
problems, but it will not address the
root of the problems .

Cuong
emphasized that in order to have qualified teachers, it is necessary to make
largerinvestments in pedagogical schools

Sharing the
same view, Associate Professor Nguyen Vu Luong, also said that it is necessary
to make investments in pedagogical schools, because these are the “mainframes”
which produce teachers.

The model of “gifted school with
high achievements”

Commenting
on the target of having 15 key gifted schools with the international status, a
teacher from the Hanoi Gifted School under the Hanoi University of Education,
said he cannot understand what the policy makers will consider when deciding
which schools will be listed among the 15 schools.

Associate
Professor Nguyen Vu Luong, Headmaster of the Gifted
High School under the Hanoi National
University, said that the
school has produced a lot of excellent students over the past many years. many
of the students got national and international prizes and became scientists
well known in Vietnam
and in the world. However, the school has not been chosen as the target of
investment. Currently, the students of the school still have to study in
cramped and low-grade classrooms.

Source:
Nguoi lao dong