The Ministry of
Education and Training has drawn up am ambitious plan to develop the network of
gifted schools. However, educators have warned that the plan will not succeed
if the current curriculum for training talented students is not adjusted.

Talented students trained to attend
university entrance exams

Nguyen Bac
Dung, Headmaster of Tran Dai Nghia School for the Gifted in HCM City, said that
gifted school students are not proficient in their major subjects, and
therefore it is difficult for them achieve success in their fields. The main
goal of the students is not to gain high achievements in their major subjects,
but to pass the university entrance exams. Therefore, they have to focus on
studying three subjects at the same time (every exam group includes three exam
subjects).

That also
explains why in recent years, it is very difficult to persuade good students to
attend national competitions for excellent students. Most of the students think
that they would rather use their energy to prepare for university entrance
exams than for national competitions. Meanwhile, national competitions are
organized just four months before the university entrance exams.

Vo Anh
Dung, Headmaster of Le Hong Phong School for the Gifted also admitted that the
school has mainly been preparing students for the university entrance exams –
the most important exams in the life of students. As a result, students do not
give their whole mind to their main subjects.

The same
situation can also be seen at Gia Dinh High School where there are four
specialized classes for the talented students in four majors, mathematics,
physics, chemistry and English. Nguyen Thi Cuc, the headmaster of the school,
said that the school sets up special classes in which it trains students in
different majors. However, very few students have registered to follow the
classes. Some of the classes only have 10 students.

Dung said
that the curriculums applied for majoring students prove to be too different
from the general curriculums, meaning that the students who follow special
curriculums will not have enough knowledge to attend university entrance exams.
Therefore, it is understandable why students only want to follow general
curriculums.

Educators
say that they worry when seeing the number of talented students attending
national competitions for excellent students decreasing sharply year after
year. The number of medals and prizes has also been gradually decreasing.

The
achievements gained by the Vietnamese national Olympiad teams have become less
satisfactory in recent years. Vietnam won four gold medals in 2006 and then
eight gold medals in 2008. Meanwhile, in 2010, it won two gold medals only. The
mathematics national team was always listed among top 10 national teams in the
world prior to 2005. Meanwhile, since 2005, it has fallen to the 11-15th ranks.

While
talented students are busy studying the three subjects to prepare for the
university entrance exams, educators want them to focus on their majoring
subjects. However, they cannot do anything to improve the situation.

Gifted school students are not the
best?

According
to Dung, the current mechanism of enrolling students does not allow schools to
choose the best students for gifted schools.

Under the
current regulations, only the students, who get the title of “excellent
student” in secondary school, can attend the exams to gifted schools.
Meanwhile, Dung believes that many other students, who have talent in some
majors do not have the title because they are not good at all subjects

Dung
believes that it is necessary to change the current admissions process in order
not to miss out talents.

Which solutions?

Dr Nguyen
Duc Nghia, Deputy Director of the HCM City National University, said that the
solution is to enroll excellent students, who get prizes at national competitions,
to universities without forcing them to attend the university entrance exams.

Once
excellent students feel secure about their future at universities, they will
focus their energy on studying their majors.

However,
the Ministry of Education and Training has remained unresponsive to the
proposal.

Source: Nguoi lao dong