Educators are complaining about the virtues of school
students nowadays, saying that they are not only lazy in expressing their
opinions during lessons, but they also lazy when doing house work.

Do Tan
Ngoc, a teacher in Quang Ngai province said that when it comes to expressing
their opinions in class, students in higher grades tend to be lazier than those
in lower grades. Ngoc said he has come to his conclusion after comparing
contemporary students with students 7-8 years ago.

A
conclusion has been drawn from a mini survey conducted on 100 high school
students that students do not want speak their mind because they do not prepare
for the lessons at home. A lack of self-confidence has also been cited as a
reason. Meanwhile, teachers have also been blamed for their teaching method:
since they still do not have an attractive teaching method, lesson hours are
unattractive to students. What regularly happens during lessons is that teachers
read the lecture and students take notes.

A teacher,
who has been working for a high school in Hanoi, also said that students rarely
read lessons in advance at home. They are very passive in receiving knowledge
from teachers: they just write down verbatim what their teachers say. The
teachers said that in many lessons, as teachers have to go quickly in order to
ensure they cover a significant volume of information within 30 minutes, they
sometimes have to raise questions and then give answers to the questions
themselves.

In order
to encourage students to be more active during lessons, many teachers decide to
give bonus points to the students who regularly express their opinions and
participate. However, the method does not help much.

Meanwhile,
Tung Linh, a parent in HCM City, argues that students are lazy because of the
bad curriculum and bad teaching method.

Linh said
that when a history textbook talked about the significance of the August
Revolution, Linh raised the question why the historian said that after the
revolution, the country felt into a precarious situation. The answer given was
that “because many imperialists and reactionary influences opposed the new
power”. Then when Linh asked his son “which imperialists” and “which reactionary
influences”, the boy could not answer, saying that the teacher did not explain
this, and the textbook did not mention the issue.

While
textbooks only give general knowledge, teachers also teach “for form’s sake”,
therefore, it is understandable why students do not find the lessons
interesting, according to Linh.

“Most of
students go to extra classes at their teacher’s house, therefore, they do not
pay attention during the official lessons, and they do not want to express their
opinions in front of the class,” Linh added.

As for
Pham Minh Hoang, who left the lecture hall two years ago, believes that one of
the most important causes of students’ become laziness is the appearance of
mass media.

“People do
not spend much time on exchanging views directly. As grandparents and parents
rarely talk with their grandchildren and children, the communication skills of
students cannot develop. Other ways of communicating such as chatting, sending
emails and sending SMEs have also badly affected the development of direct
communication skills.

Hoang also
said that many students do not want to speak their mind at the class because
they are afraid of being ridiculed by classmates.

Educators
say that students not only are lazy in the classroom, but also when doing
homework as well.

The
Psychology Institute has conducted 656 surveys of secondary students in Hanoi
and Hung Yen to learn if students do house chores every day.

The survey
shows that students occasionally do simple chores like tidying and cleaning up
the house, cooking meals, washing dishes, going to the market, taking care of
sick people, and looking after younger siblings. Meanwhile, as for more
complicated works such as taking care of the family when parents are away, or
arranging chores instead of parents, very students are involved in these works.

Tu
Uyen