VietNamNet Bridge - Educators have shown their doubts about the feasibility of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)’s plan to use education curricula from developed countries like Finland, saying that the curricula are well designed, but don’t fit the conditions in Vietnam. 

Nguyen Huu Hop from Hanoi University of Education, recalling the failure of the VNEN program, said MOET should think carefully about importing programs.

Hop asked a consultancy expert from Australia about the VNEN model and learned that VNEN and the teaching model at primary schools in Australia have many similar characteristics. However, there are only 20 students in every class in Australia, while there are no common textbooks for students throughout the country. And there are two teachers in every class. 

“The problem lies in the fact that the current conditions in Vietnam are unsuited to VNEN,” Hop said, adding that teachers’ education capability is limited and they have to take care of many students at the same time.

The application of VNEN in Vietnam has caused a big waste of time and money to schools, parents and students. In many localities, students follow VNEN programs in daytime classes and repeat lessons in the traditional way in the evening and on weekends.

The application of VNEN in Vietnam has caused a big waste of time and money to schools, parents and students. In many localities, students follow VNEN programs in daytime classes and repeat lessons in the traditional way in the evening and on weekends.

Though Finland is one of the countries with the best education in the world, Hop said he is not sure if schools in Vietnam can use Finnish programs. 

“What the education sector needs to do now is change the management mechanism, retraining teachers and reducing the number of students in every class. The reform in the education sector won’t succeed if the problems cannot be settled,” he commented.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh from CIS (Canadian International School) stressed that the key to success is good teaching staff. “A good program will become nonsensical if there is no good staff to implement it,” she commented, adding that in Finland, primary school teachers must have master’s degree. 

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, students just need to get 12.5 scores for three exam subjects to be eligible to apply for pedagogical schools.

According to Hoang Ngoc Vinh, a former senior official of MOET, sung other countries’ programmes can be problematic. First, the economic, political and social conditions of different countries are different. Second, the education level structure, the management system and educational institutions are also different. And third, the macro management capability and the teaching staff are at different levels. 

Fourth, Vietnam is moving ahead with the program on reform of the curriculum and textbooks and has no reason to import curricula from other countries. It just needs to learn experiences from other countries instead of using their programs.

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