Public universities should streamline
administration of evening classes and focus on improving the quality of training
provided, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga says.

The
evening classes are usually taken by employees wanting to improve their skill
levels and students unable to gain entry into or afford daytime courses.

Ga says
that the ministry will closely monitor the situation and reduce administrative
expenses on evening classes by 70 per cent over regular classes.

This
will be part of efforts made to address several problems plaguing the
administration of evening classes at universities nationwide.

The
problems were highlighted when the Da Nang City administration announced
recently that it would not employ students of evening classes to work in the
State-run organisations.

From the
next academic year onwards, the courses offered in evening classes will be based
on credits, Ga says. This would allow students of evening classes to register
for some courses during the day if their time permits, he adds.

And if
the students perform very well in their evening classes, they will have the
possibility of transferring to regular, daytime courses, the deputy minister
says.

He also
says that the ministry will ask universities to organise a common exam for both
daytime and evening courses.

The
introduction of evening classes by universities has met the demand of learning
and improving skills among those who are already employed, and offered the
opportunity to students unable to enroll in daytime courses for various reasons.

It has
also made it possible for universities to earn greater revenues and offer better
working conditions including higher pay for their teaching and management staff.

However,
Prof. Pham Minh Hac, former Minister of Education and Training, says that the
current training quality in evening classes is very low and management is not
tight because of insufficient monitoring and assessment by the ministry.

Many
students are registering for the classes not to improve their skills knowledge
and skills, but to obtain a degree that will help them gain promotions and
higher salaries.

And
lecturers at evening classes intentionally reduce the content of classes to
enable students earn higher scores, Hac says.

Other
experts say a number of lecturers hired to teach evening classes are not
qualified enough.

A
ministry report released last April showed that the number of students taking
evening classes nationwide accounted for nearly half of two million of
university students.

It is
unacceptable that the training scale of evening classes is equal to that of
regular classes, Hac says, adding that the ministry should review administration
of evening classes at universities based on their facilities and capacity.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News