Vietnamese student wins academic prize

HCM CITY — Vietnamese student Thai Minh Thuy has won the Academic Achievement Award granted by the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities for international students in Australians state public schools.

Thai Minh Thuy (R) poses with Mai Phuoc Dung, Vietnamese Consul General in Sydney, Australia. Photo: Vietnamplus

The HCM City resident achieved the highest Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank score of 99.95 and was listed on the Higher School Certificate for achieving over 90 in all subjects. She was a top ranking student of the Canley Vale High School.

The 18-year-old student was also commended for her outstanding leadership qualities as president of the school's Leo's Club and as a member of the Fairfield Council Advisory Committee.

Thuy is studying for a double degree – Bachelors of Commerce and Liberal Studies – at the University of Sydney.

Of 77 international students who were nominated for the award, 21 were from Viet Nam.

Source: VNA

Edu sector prioritizes human resources issues: minister

The most important issue the Ministry of Education and Training will focus on enhancing this year is human resources, with teachers and students the core objects, said Minister Pham Vu Luan in an online Q&A session with the public held yesterday via the government online portal.

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan. Photo: Tuoi Tre

During the session, a 12th-grade student demanded that the current textbooks and teaching methodology be amended in a way that will allow students to be exposed to more photos, video clips, and real stories and situations for practice.

“Please do not force us to study from the text-condensed books, and solve the non-realistic and incomprehensive math problems.”

Appreciating the student’s suggestion, Luan said that when the ministry begins to reform the high school textbooks and curriculums in 2015, ideas and suggestions from students will be listened to and considered.

Bonuses, allowances for teachers: a hot issue

The minister also received a number of questions concerning the policies targeting the teachers.

Nguyen Thi Nguyet, of the northern province of Ha Giang, said that despite the incentive policies, teachers in the mountainous areas still fail to obtain a decent life with their wages. Teachers in some areas have never been granted any bonuses on Tet, she said.

“So what can be done in this case to keep teachers from quitting their job?” she asked.

Meanwhile, an education management official in Binh Dinh Province said he has been in the post for 20 years, and is likely to receive no allowances upon his coming retirement.

Many teachers questioned why few teachers have actually received money from seniority allowances, even though the policy on the issue has been in effect for nearly a year.

“Even in Hanoi, many teachers have no idea when they will get the allowances, and how much they will be worth,” they said.

According to a joint circular issued by several ministries, teachers who have been teaching for five years or more will receive a monthly seniority allowance as of February 20.

They include the education, internal affairs, finance, and labor ministries.

Commenting on this, minister Luan admitted that the policy cannot be implemented quickly since there are as many as four ministries to develop it, while the content is related to too many different sectors.

As for the hardship of teachers in the remote and mountainous areas, Luan said the government is developing a new salary policy, in which they are set to receive more incentives.

Loose quality checks on universities

The Q&A session also saw many concerns over the numerous newly-established universities, while the education ministry proves to be incapable of fully controlling and providing checkups on their quality.

Minister Luan admitted that the ministry’s checkups and auditing tasks have not been satisfactorily conducted.

By the end of 2011, the ministry had suspended four universities, and hundreds of courses from other schools, from enrollment, Luan said. “We are auditing the quality in 80 other universities.”

However Tran Duc Thu, from Da Nang City, remains skeptical about further sanctions following the detection of universities with poor quality.

“The ministry has audited the universities, but how about its point of view on how to penalize these violators?” he asked.

In response, Luan said the ministry will at first provide a warning, caution, and also support the schools to improve their situation.

“Stricter sanctions will be imposed on universities guilty of more severe violations.”

Source: TUOI TRE

PM: education supports development

Developing education and vocational training will make a great contribution to socio-economic achievements and turn Vietnam into a modern industrialised nation by 2020.

Ethnic minority people at a vocational training class. Photo: VNA

This statement was made by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at a meeting of the National Council for Education and Workforce Development in Hanoi on Mar. 8, which aimed at gathering opinions on the draft Education Development Strategy and Vocational Training Strategy for 2011-2020.

PM Dung, who is also the council’s chairman, emphasised that the strategies should focus on building a qualified workforce to meet the demands of the nation’s key economic sectors.

The draft Education Development Strategy aims to comprehensively improve the quality of education to meet the country’s demand for a high-quality workforce.

It defines concrete goals for pre-school, general, vocational and tertiary education.

To meet the goals, the draft strategy proposes seven measures for educational development in the 2011-2020 period, including renovating educational management, developing a contingent of teachers and educational managers, renewing curricula, increasing investment in education, supporting educational development in disadvantaged areas, and area inhabited by ethnic minority groups, developing educational science, and expanding international cooperation on education.

Meanwhile, the draft Vocational Training Strategy sets an overall target to meet the requirements of the labour market, in both quality and quantity, to improve Vietnam’s competitive edge, increasing labourers’ incomes and ensuring sustainable poverty reduction and social welfare.

It also aims to increase the rate of trained workers to 40 percent or equivalent to 23.5 million by 2015 and 55 percent or 34.4 million by 2020.

It also proposes nine measures, including building a national vocational level framework, renovating state management of vocational training, developing the network of vocational training establishments, ensuring and controlling the quality of training, connecting vocational training with labour market and business involvement, mobilising investment for training, improving awareness of vocational development and boosting international cooperation in vocational training.

VNA