Pedagogy universities and colleges
should offer courses in ethics and values as well as more professional training,
speakers at a HCM City workshop said yesterday, Dec 21.

At the
workshop, Nguyen Thi Ha Lan of Hong Duc University in Thanh Hoa Province said
teaching of values was very important in the educational sector, especially at
the kindergarten level.

If
teachers did not receive the proper training in this area, they could be cruel
to students, even causing physical injury, Lan added.

Nguyen
Thi Hang Phuong of N-T Foundation in Ha Noi, a research centre that specialises
in children’s psychology, said the centre had seen and treated many students who
were afraid to return to kindergartens.

More
programmes at pedagogy universities and colleges should emphasise that their
students’ behaviour will often mirror the conduct of the teacher.

Lan said
authorities of local education offices and leaders of kindergartens as well as
nursery schools should promote the teaching and application of values.

She said
the ministry and local education and training departments should also offer more
refresher training courses for existing teachers to improve their skills.

Dr. Mai
Thi Lien Giang of Quang Binh University said the ministry should ask pedagogy
universities to review and amend training programmes, and offer more courses in
values and ethics.

Currently, Viet Nam has 52 educational institutions nationwide that train
kindergarten teachers, but programmes vary considerably from one place to
another.

Some
content in the training programme was still not practical, Giang said.

Nguyen
Tuyet Lan of the National College of Pedagogy in Nha Trang City, added that the
number of poor qualified lecturers at some pedagogy universities and colleges
made it difficult to train teachers.

Another
speaker, Dr.Vo Phan Thu Huong of Sai Gon University, suggested that pedagogy
universities and colleges invite experienced lecturers in teaching kindergarten
education.

She said
that Viet Nam should learn from Japan’s training of kindergarten teachers.

In
addition, the State should create policies to encourage kindergarten teachers to
work with experts in research and development of kindergarten education, she
added.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News