School students told to learn from real-life experience

VietNamNet Bridge – The traditional teaching method, under which, teachers try to stuff students heads with as much knowledge, has been replaced by a new method, under which students can “learn by experiencing.”

The outdoor lessons

On the first days of the 2011-2012 academic year, sixth and seventh graders of Marie Curie Secondary School in Hanoi had very interesting lessons. They could wade into the ponds to catch fish, learned to transplant rice seedlings, grow vegetable, feed poultry and pick up tea leaves in the trips to Ba Vi district in the city’s suburb area.

The training course was organized by the Hanoi Center for Youth Support and Development, which aimed to help city students get familiar to the field works and appreciate the value of labor.

The students of the Doan Thi Diem Primary School have also been regularly busy attending the extracurricular activities, which are considered “outdoor lessons”. In mid winter, nearly 200 fourth graders still tried to do the field works. Leaving the crowded streets, “small city farmers” went to the countryside to see with their eyes the things they never saw in the past.

“Teacher, there are so many wild geese here,” a student shouted. “They are not wild geese; they are ducks, who are the relatives of geese,” the teacher replied.

“Teacher, are buffalo yellow?” a student asked. “No, this is a cow. It is yellow. A buffalo is black,” the teacher answered.

So many questions were raised by the students, who could see with their eyes-- the ducks, the buffalos and cows, which they could see on textbooks only. 

Thu Ha, a teacher of Doan Thi Diem School, said that one day, she and the third graders worked as farmers at the Hanoi Agriculture University. The students were shown how to soak seeds and told to do this.

“After every lesson, students can feel bigger love to the life, labor and the nature. The images of the farmers working on the rice fields help them understand where the vegetables, meat and rice they eat every day come from,” Ha said.

According to Nguyen Thi Hien, Headmaster of the Doan Thi Diem Primary School, the students go on picnic once a week. Besides, the school also organizes many other extracurricular activities, such as camping, trade fairs and donations.

In general, the extracurricular activities cost every student 500-1 million dong a year. A trip costs every student 100,000 dong. Instead of booking tours, the school designs tours itself and only spends money on coaches.

Renovating teaching method or lagging behind

There are two state owned schools in HCM City famous for their efforts to renovate teaching methods. Visiting a botanical garden, the pottery village in Binh Duong province, giving gifts to humanity centers, or going out to learn traffic safety laws--were the practical lessons the students of Luong Dinh Cua Primary School experienced.

At Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School in district 5, students have also got too familiar with outdoor lessons. Instead of sitting in classrooms, their lessons are given in the park, on the pavement or tens of kilometers far from the school.

Le Thi Ngoc Diep, Headmaster of Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, said that the new teaching method has been applauded by the parents. The students can see with their eyes the flower garden, the park when they need to write essays to describe a landscape, and they can watch the traffic when they learn about the traffic safety.

When students learn the lesson about how President Ho Chi Minh left the country to look for a way for national liberalization, students were carried to the Nha Rong pier and travel on the Saigon River.

Headmaster of the Luong Dinh Cua Primary School Vu Thi My Hanh said that the outdoor lessons are lively and easier for understanding than any other lesson in classrooms.

Source: Phu nu Thu Do

Interest rates on the decline

VietNamNet Bridge – The recent moves taken recently by the State Bank of Vietnam and the market performance, all show that the interest rate reductions would take place soon.

The State Bank of Vietnam has reported that the interbank interest rates for many kinds of loans have dropped to below 10 percent. Banks now can borrow at the interest rates of 8-9 percent per annum for 12 month term loans. The interest rates for one and two week loans are 8.67 percent and 9.75 percent, respectively. 

However, banks still have to pay more than 10 percent per annum for other loans with the highest interest rate at 13.14 percent per annum, applied for 3 month term loan.

Bankers have also said that the interest rates have been decreasing significantly. However, they said it is still difficult to borrow money on the interbank market, because of the strict requirements on the collaterals.

Meanwhile, the State Bank of Vietnam has requested big banks to cut down expenses by 5-10 percent in order to be able to slash the lending interest rates, step by step. The big banks include Agribank, VietinBank, Vietcombank, BIDV and MHB. All of the five are either state owned banks or joint stock banks, in which the State holds more than 50 percent of the chartered capital.

In fact, right after the State Bank released the decision to lower the dong ceiling deposit interest rate by one percent in early March 2012, the above said banks all have announced the 1-2 percent lending interest rate reductions. 

Dr Tran Du Lich, a well-known economist, Member of the National Advisory Council for the Finance and Monetary Policies, said on Dau tu, that once the ceiling deposit interest rate went down, banks would have to slash the lending interest rates in order to push up lending. Since early February, the credit has not increased because of the overly high lending interest rates.

Ceiling deposit interest rate may be removed in June

As the interest rate is on the decrease, experts have called on to remove the ceiling deposit interest rate mechanism, emphasizing that the non-market measure should not be applied in a market economy. 

Le Trong Nhi, a well known economist, has noted that the State Bank of Vietnam is still hesitant to remove the ceiling interest rate mechanism, fearing that if the bank does this now, the interest rates may skyrocket, because small banks, which are facing liquidity problem, will raise the deposit interest rates. This would trigger a new interest rate race.

Tran Hoang Ngan, Member of the National Advisory Council for Finance and Monetary Policies, in an interview given to VnExpress, said that the ceiling deposit interest rate mechanism should not be removed until June, because the current problems would be fixed only by that time.

Meanwhile, General Director of Eximbank Truong Van Phuoc, also thinks that the central bank has its own reason to keep cautious with the move to remove the ceiling interest rate mechanism, since weak liquidity remains a big problem for many banks.

“The interest rates would go down in the future, but it’s still unclear when,” Phuoc said.

He went on to say that the State Bank needs to speed up the process of restructuring banks to stabilize the system. If the job can be done well, the lending interest rates may go down to 15 percent by July or August. If so, the deposit interest rates would go down as well. In general, banks do not care much about the interest rates, but care more about the gap between the deposit and lending interest rates.

Phuoc has warned about the high possibility of the high inflation returning. Consumer goods prices have been increasing sharply after the fuel price increases. Meanwhile, the interest rate reductions should be seen as a threat to the inflation.

C. V

Staying up late, working and chatting at night – new lifestyle of students

VietNamNet Bridge – Staying up late has become an incurable disease among students. Youngsters no longer go to bed early since there are so many interesting things that keep them awake.

Chatting and using Facebook till dawn

Le Hoai Thuong, a student of Trade Union University, said that she usually talks to her boyfriend on cell phones until two in the morning. Despite knowing that using cell phones for too long may harm the hearing, she still cannot give up this habit. Thuong will not go to bed early even when her boyfriend is too busy talking since she has become accustomed to staying up late. She loves any days that she does not have to go to school in the morning because it means she can sleep till 10 a.m.

As for Pham Minh H from Hanoi Industrial College of Textile Garment and Fashion, surfing on the web is what she has to do every night. H is a zealous member of social networks like Zing me and Facebook – “I’m addicted to Facebook; it helps me make friends with many people and enjoy my life better. I use my Facebook whenever I’m free. About sleeping, to be honest, there is no student who never nods in class”, said H.

Students nowadays do not go to bed prior to 1 or 2 am in the next morning like their parents or grandparents. Staying late at night has become the habit of modern students. Nguyen Thi Nhung, a university student, said that one cannot sleep soon, if others do not go to bed.

“There are too many things you can enjoy in the modern life, so you have to stay late at night to discover the interesting things,” Nhung said.

“You can chat with friends via Yahoo Messenger, or call relatives. If you feel tired with Internet, you can gather friends to gossip or sing songs. Night parties or hot cakes would make your discussions more interesting,” she added. “This is a new lifestyle of modern students. If you do not follow the lifestyle, you would feel like a fish out of water.”

However, Nhung admitted that though the new habits can bring them eventful and joyful days, they do not have much time left for studying.

In general, university students need to spend time on self-teaching at libraries. However, Nhung said, students would rather go out or go shopping than sitting for hours in quietness at libraries.

Writing essays at night

Le Thi Xuyen, a student of the Academy for Journalism and Propaganda, said that she many times had to spend sleepless nights to do exercises or write essays.

In fact, Xuyen and other students are always given enough time to fulfill their tasks. However, they did not try to do the exercises until the day they have to submit the works to lecturers.

“I’d rather stay late at night to do school works in one gulp than doing small parts every day,” Xuyen said, adding that she needs to spend time not only on studying, but playing as well.

Xuyen said that writing essays is really an interesting thing to do. Sometimes she feels very hungry at night, but there was no food left, no rice and no instant noodles. In such cases, she had to write essays while imagining the delicious dishes. As a result, she could not finish writing, while her stomach got empty.

Preparing for exams – when?

The answer is, once again, at night. Most students nowadays stay up late until 1-2 am of the next morning and only get up at 10 am, if they do not have morning lessons. If they have to go to school in the morning, or attend private tutoring classes to prepare for the exams, they would have to get up at 6 am and turn up in the class at 7 am to be present at the roll call. After that, they can drop off right in the class.

Source: VTC

Primary school students poisoned with addictive drug

VietNamNet Bridge – The Que Vo district in the northern province of Bac Ninh has been “shaken” for the last two weeks with the information that a lot of students were found poisoned with drugs used via drinking or direct inhaling.

The Pho Moi primary school

Students admitted using addictive drug, parents get frightened

In the last two weeks, a lot of students have been staying off from school, because their parents fear that their children may be forced to use drugs. A lot of parents have been trying to talk with children to find out who gave them the “white powder.” Others bring their children to healthcare centers to have urine tests. Even the children, who said they did not use the drugs, were also asked by the parents to go to have the tests. A fearful atmosphere has been pervading the town.

Nguyen Van H, a local resident, said that his youngest son – Nguyen Van D – a 8th grader of the Pho Moi Secondary School, was one of the 17 students who have been found as using the white drug.

“I reported my son’s case to the head of the hamlet and then brought the son to the police. When meeting the hamlet’s head, my son said he “inhaled the drug three times.” This was the drug given by a classmate,” H said, adding that he feels very bad now and has lost two kilos in weight.

Nguyen Van L, a primary school student, has also been found as getting involved in the case. Lai Thi A, the mother of L, gave answers to all the questions posed to her. “I believe that the problem needs to be made public, so that other parents can protect their children and the police can arrest the people who have been trying to poison children,” A said.

Nguyen Khac Thuong, Head of the Dinh Hamlet, said that many children were caught red handed as using the drugs. Meanwhile, some parents voluntarily reported about their children’s case. “We have sent a list of the children using drugs to the town’s police,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to the Pho Moi town Police Station, 23 children (the oldest one was born in 1995, and the smallest in 1999) have reported that they once inhaled a kind powder, or drank a kind of water, suspected of containing addictive substances.

These include four students from the Que Vo 1 High School, one from the Pho Moi High School, 20 from the Pho Moi Secondary School and one from Pho Moi Primary School.

According to Hoang Cong Huan, Head of the Pho Moi town Police Station, who directly inquired the 23 students, said that four of them admitted that they bought the drugs and persuaded smaller children to use the drugs. However, it is unclear who sold the drugs and who provided money to buy drugs. 

“Only one of them admitted that he bought an ecstasy drug tablet at 200,000 dong,” he said.

Some other students said that they were invited to billiard shops or football matches, where they were offered soft drink. Especially, if they could drink much, they were even given money.

Schools try to dodge questions

While parents and students have been cooperating with the local authorities by providing necessary information, leaders of the Pho Moi Primary and Secondary Schools have been trying to evade the problem.

Nguyen Quang Hanh, Headmaster of the Pho Moi Primary School, has affirmed that the school has no student using drugs as newspapers reported recently.

Meanwhile, NVL, the youngest child, who used the drugs, a student of the school, admitted that he used the drugs twice, and did not have to pay money. The student said his teacher knew about that and told him not to repeat the thing.

Source: VTC

The unbelievable reasons behind students’ suicide cases

VietNamNet Bridge – It is really a worrying problem that tens of suicide cases were discovered just in the first two months of the year. Even the students still very young in age also killed themselves because they got tired of life, and even nonsensical factors also led the students to the death.

Student killed herself for being suspected of stealing things

On February 10, 2012, Luong Thi H, born in 1997, a student of the Cam Dien Secondary School in Hai Duong province, decided to end her life after she was accused of stealing things from a clothes shop. 

After the H’s death, people found a suicide letter with seven words “vinh biet cuoc doi nay mai mai” (farewell to the life forever).

A local resident said that H decided to end her life after the owner of the shop, who thought that H stole a pair of trousers, tried to expose H to shame before the public.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Viet, Head of the Cam Giang district’s Police Station, affirmed that the shop’s owner did not try to expose H to shame before the public. She just tried to clarify the problem by talking with H, not before the public, but inside the house. Viet also said that H killed herself just because of her negative thoughts.

Female student of famous school also committed suicide

The Le Hong Phong School's dormitory

Just two weeks later, on February 28, another suicide case occurred that stunned the public. MT, a 12th grader of the Le Hong Phong School for the Gifted in Nam Dinh School, garroted herself in the dormitory. The female student was suspected of stealing friends’ things.

The death of the student surprised all the classmates and teachers, because MT was always considered an excellent student, dutiful and dynamic in extracurricular activities.

The investigation agency, after discussing with the other seven female students in the same room, affirmed that none of them caused the death, and that the suicide was just an ebullient action of the young girl.

Defamer led to a death

In early January 2012, local newspapers all reported the case where a female student of the Dong Quan Private School in Thai Binh province--jumped from the second floor during the mathematics lesson.

The math teacher asked the students, who had wrong answers to the mathematics test, to repeatedly re-write the answers, so that they can remember better.

KO, the female student, one of the best students in the class, protested the request. Therefore, the teacher told her either to stand at the corner of the classroom or leave the class. KO decided to leave the class and suddenly jumped to the ground. Though she was hospitalized, the physicians could not save her life.

The case has been transferred to the provincial competent agencies for further investigation and settlement. However, no final conclusion has been made about the reasons that led to the death after two months of dealing with the case.

Female student committed suicide because of a broken phone

A female student reportedly committed suicide in a mountainous province, just because of a broken phone.

As the mobile phone broke down, the father of the female student told her to keep the phone carefully, since he did not have money to have the phone repaired. After hearing the father’s words, Lau Thi De, an 11th grader of the boarding school in Dien Bien Dong district, left home on March 11.

On the morning of March 12, De was found dead in the forest in the area of Suoi Lu commune.

Source: VTC

Students petition against Raffles School fraud

Hundreds of students and parents have accused Raffles International School in Ho Chi Minh City, of not reimbursing for tuition fees as itpromised.

Students and their parents flocked to the school on Nguyen Van Troi Street, in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City on March 19, which was the deadline for reimbursement. A tense meeting between the students and school officials, lasted nearly 10 hours, but no agreement was reached. The local police eventually had to be called in to keep order.

Then students and parents sent a petition against the school, accusing them of fraud.

According to the petition, Raffles International School promised to reimburse student tuition fees within 60 days (from January 18 to March 19), but have failed to make full payment. The compensation for which they are asking amounts is still less than what the students already paid.

Students and their parents also asked the police to ban the school’s leaders from leaving the country.

Earlier, on March 17, Raffles International School sent a letter to students in which they offered the alternative of continuing the same programs in Cambodia, Singapore or Australia.

On December 29 last year, the Ministry of Education and Training decided to penalize three high-profile international training institutes in HCMC for offering programs they had not been accredited for.

Dan Tri

When students are tired of getting good grades from teachers

VietNamNet Bridge – Ten is the highest level in the Vietnamese grade scale, which is given to excellent pieces of school works. However, students now have become tired of receiving 10 grades from teachers.

On the first days at schools, students all get excited when they receive 10 grades from teachers for their school works. Most of the students would show off the good marks to their parents, because these should be seen as an excellent learning achievement.

However, students later do not feel joyful when they get 10 marks any more. The problem is that they can get 10 marks for school works every day. And the 10 grade is given not only to a few students. Up to 2/3 of primary schools in big cities can get 10 marks every day.

Nowadays, when a parent asks his child about the learning records, the child would say: “of course I get 10”. Every student would feel ashamed if he cannot get 10 for the tests or exams.

In principle, 7 or 8 grade is given to the “good” works, and 5-6 marks mean the students are at “average” level. However, nowadays, 7 or 8 marks would not make students and their parents satisfactory, while 5-6 would be dishonorable for them.

The Ministry of Education and Training has many times called on to fight against the “achievement disease” in schools (students are appreciated higher than their actual ability). However, the problem has not been settled at all.

At schools, teachers like giving excellent marks to students to show that their students improve every day thanks to their teaching. Meanwhile, parents and students only accept 9 or 10 grades, because lower marks would be the “problems.”

Experts have warned that the achievement disease would make students delude themselves. When receiving 10 grades, they would think that the lessons are too easy for them, and they believe that they are very good already and no need to learn hard. Meanwhile, parents would also entertain illusions about their talented children. 

Some parents have complained on education forums that their children get so many 10 marks that made them surprised. “I am not sure about the learning capability of my son. He gets 10 marks every day. However, a friend of mine said that every student can get 10 marks nowadays,” a woman complained.

The woman said she fears that one day, her child would get lower marks, and he would be “shocked” because of this and dares not go to school any longer.

She has every reason to worry about that. This happens that many students suffer from the crisis of conscience since they get bad marks from exams, while they always got good marks at the lessons in class.

Local newspapers have recently reported the cases of students, who decided to give up school because of the low learning results after the first semester. Other students reportedly tried to commit suicide because they felt ashamed with the unsatisfactory exam results. 

In 2011, an excellent student in the central region killed himself after the university entrance exam, just because he did not do the exam questions well as expected. As he was a physics majoring student of a high school for the gifted, he vowed that he needs to obtain excellent marks from the exams, but this did not come true.

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan, said on the online dialogue organized by the government information portal on March 6, that it should be considered a normal thing if children get 6-7 or 3-4 marks. He admitted that his child at the school also sometimes gets 3-4 and he does not punish the child for this.

C. V

One decision makes thousands of MA’s lose degree

VietNamNet Bridge – Fifteen universities nationwide have received a dispatch from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), which requests the schools to cancel the recognition for matriculation of thousands of MA course students.

MOET released the decision after finding out that the thousands of graduate students were exempted from attending the foreign language exam, a compulsory exam subject, which means that the schools violated the Circular No. 10 dated in 2011, which stipulates the regulations on enrolling learners for master training courses.

The schools include many big names such as the Hanoi National University, the Hanoi Economics University, HCM City Economics University and Hanoi Foreign Trade University. 

With the decision, the learners who have been following the training courses for master degree may have to stop learning.

Quynh Anh, an officer of the Information Center under the Ministry of Construction, who graduated from the Hanoi Foreign Language Pedagogical University, has become a learner without having to attend the entrance foreign language exam. By the day of attending at the class, she had been working as a teacher at the Foreign Language University, a member of the Hanoi National University.

“I would be ready to attend an additional foreign language exam. This would not be a big challenge for me, because I am a foreign language teacher and I speak foreign language every day. However, it would be unreasonable to abrogate the recognition for matriculation,” Anh said.

She went on to say that in order to become a learner of the training courses for a master degree, candidates had to pass professional entrance exams and they only did not have to attend the foreign language exam. The learners received the notice of admission in August 2011 and began learning in October 2011. As such, they have been following the training for six months.

“Most of us have paid tuition for half of the training course, worth more than 10 million dong. Some of us have paid for the whole course. What should we do now?” Anh questioned.

Hoang Thi Lan Phuong, Deputy Director of the University Training Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, said on Tien phong that foreign language exam is a compulsory exam stipulated in the current valid legal documents. She said that only 15 out of the 130 schools violated the regulations, which show that they deliberately ignore the regulations and they need to be punished.

Meanwhile, representatives of the schools have argued that the regulations are not clear enough, which has led to misunderstanding. An officer of the training division of a southern university said that the circular does not say about the requirements on foreign language skills.

Meanwhile, Phuong of MOET has affirmed that the ministry has every reason to release such a harsh decision. She said that ministry asked the economics school to re-organize the entrance exams right after it discovered problems. However, the school has ignored the ministry’s instruction.

Meanwhile, the other 10 schools complained that they did not receive any warnings from the ministry before they heard about the decision to abrogate the recognition for matriculation.

“We made public the plan to enroll learners for master training courses right at the beginning of the year. MOET also sent inspectors to the school to supervise the exams. The ministry’s officials did not say that we violated the regulations,” the president of a school complained.

Professor Hoang Van Chau from the Hanoi Foreign Trade University said on VTC that according to the circular, the head of the schools set requirements on the foreign language skills of candidates. Therefore, leaders of schools think that they have the right to make decisions on exempting exams for some subjects.

C. V

PM promotes more vocational training

PM promotes more vocational training

Students learn how to use a lathe at the Viet Nam-Korea Vocational College. According to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the vocational training sector hopes to train 34 million labourers by 2020. (Photo: VNS)

VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung affirmed yesterday, March 8, that the development of education and vocational training was one of the most important policies for Viet Nam's transition to an industrial country by 2020.

He made the statement at a meeting held to gather expert opinions on draft strategies for education and training, and vocational training development policies in the 2011-2020 period.

The vocational training sector aims to increase the number of trained labourers to 40 per cent of the workforce by 2015 and 55 per cent by 2020, equivalent to 23.5 million and 34.4 million people, respectively.

About 9.6 million labourers would be trained during the 2011-15 period and an additional 12.9 million would receive training from 2016-20. About 190 vocational colleges with 51,000 lecturers will be ready to train new labourers by 2015.

The draft strategy for vocational training chalked out nine solutions to reach these targets. Three of the targets, including renewing State management over vocational training, developing a network of vocational training schools and developing quality assurance measures, were considered the key elements.

Centre to help farmers Coffee farmers in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong will be able to obtain international certification, improve their capacity and increase their incomes with support from a new vocational training centre that opened on Wednesday. Located in the Bao Loc town, the centre was put into operation by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector funding arm of the World Bank, in collaboration with the ECOM group, one of the biggest coffee corporations in the world. Equipped with a modern laboratory and information on updated sustainable agricultural development models, the centre aims to train around 4,000 local farmers in the next three years. IFC and ECOM have already set up vocational training centres for farmers in several major coffee production areas around the world, starting from central America in 2007. "The centre will help us to attain better quality for coffee as well as improve the living standards of farmers," said Jean Christopher Mani, an ECOM representative. "IFC and ECOM share the same concerns - to strengthen links between farmers and the global coffee supply chain to boost Viet Nam's coffee industry," said Simon Andrews, IFC director for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam. It is expected that around 50,000 coffee households, who are not yet customers of ECOM, will indirectly benefit from technical and financial documents at the centre, as well as market and pricing information that it disseminates.

At the meeting, some experts said that apart from the three key solutions as mentioned, the connection between vocational schools, labour markets and entrepreneurs should be clarified to assure labourers could meet needs.

Others said that enlarging vocational training models, improving infrastructure and techniques for vocational centres by mobilising different investment sources and increasing the ability of these centres should be included in the strategy.

For the draft education and training strategy, experts said it should solidify solutions to improve morale among teaching staff, enhance investment sources and develop a specific roadmap for examinations, especially university entrance examinations.

In response to these opinions, PM Dung said the development of education and training and vocational training must result in a skilled labour force to meet the demand of key economic sectors and serve the nation's economic restructuring.

He instructed the ministries of Education and Training, and Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to adjust and complete the draft strategies soon.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News