VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has its reason to tighten the control over the quality of the inter-school education, the type of education which allows students to pass credits to continue the study at higher levels.

The special students

One would meet no obstacle in attending a lesson of inter-school training courses, because the roll call is not required in such classes. Especially, the learners of the training courses do not know each other; they would not care about the new faces in the classes.

The reporters once attended a lesson at an accountancy majoring class of a technique school. The class had 90 registered learners, which made people think that the demand for studying is very high among the Vietnamese youth.

However, in fact, the young students are not as eager for study as people think. A lot of students present on that day were not the real learners of the class. They just came to learn for others.

In fact, some students were really very serious in their study. They always take the seats at the tables nearest to the lecturers’ desks, so as to listen to the lecturers well. Meanwhile, lazier students would take the seats at the tables below, so that they can do whatever they want during the lessons.

The class was so chaotic that the lecturer did not care about the students who came late. A student came in a class 30 minutes after the lesson began, threw his schoolbag into the table and immediately began chatting with the others around him.

No one could imagine that this was a class, because the participants here did not do anything relating to the studying. Some of them were seen counting money, others playing chess, taking a nap. Especially, young girls spent time on gazing themselves at the mirror.

The same scenery could be seen in another class. The lecturer talked before the class, the students, the very special and talented ones, took note to their notebooks while chatting, knitting and making messages at the same time.

A new job – hired learners

The students of the credit-pass classes are really the special ones, because they only turn up once every several months. A lot of them do not attend the lessons from the beginning to the end: they just appear to answer the roll call and then leave.

Dung, an accountancy student, when asked about the lesson, shook her head and said she did not care about this. Dung said she hired a student who comes to the class every day to take note the lessons and answer the roll call for her, while she herself only comes occasionally, because she is too busy with her own works.

Dung registered to study at the class just because she needs a university degree which allows her to get promotion in her job.

“I pay VND80,000 to a boy who takes the responsibility of attending the class every day for me. I am too busy now to go to the class. I now have to prepare for my wedding,” she explained.

In principle, credit-pass training is provided in order to bring the lifetime learning opportunities to everyone. People can pass credits to follow higher education levels to get better knowledge useful in their lives and jobs.

However, in Vietnam, credit-pass training is considered the roundabout for students to take to obtain university degrees. Those, who fail the university entrance exams, would go to junior colleges first, and then pass credit to study at universities. The way allows them to avoid the very difficult national exam to enter universities.

Tien Phong