VietNamNet Bridge - General school students all have vocational training, but the knowledge learned is rarely used in reality.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) insists on giving vocational training at general schools, considering this a part of the career guidance program. It hopes that students can get a job after finishing secondary or high school.

Students are encouraged to attend vocational training courses. If they do, they get bonus marks.

Those who have a vocational training certificate with average, good and excellent levels will have 0.5-1.5 bonus marks which will be added to students’ high school entrance exam results.

However, teachers think that the vocational training program is not useful. Students attend vocational training courses just to get bonus marks which give them opportunities to study at higher levels. 

General school students all have vocational training, but the knowledge learned is rarely used in reality.

The headmaster of a private school in HCM City said the school’s board of management decided not to organize vocational training because it cannot see any benefits from the program.

However, some parents opposed the decision, saying that the school’s students would be at a disadvantage compared with students from other schools as they don’t have bonus marks.

The headmaster believes that the bonus mark scheme is ‘unfair’. “It is very difficult to obtain 0.5 marks at the exams. You just need to show a vocational training certificate to get a bonus mark,” she explained, adding that it would be better to remove the bonus scheme.

A high school teacher in Hanoi agreed with the headmaster, saying that the scheme creates an unfair competition for secondary school graduates who want to continue studying at state-owned high schools.

With the limited number of state-owned schools, only 70 percent of secondary school graduates can apply for state-owned high schools, while the remaining have to either go to vocational schools or private high schools. Therefore, students have to compete fiercely for the seats at state-owned schools.

“Students must be admitted to high schools based on their real ability, not on bonus marks,” he said. 

Nguyen Van Van, headmaster of Marie Curie School in HCM City, also noted that both teachers and students do not care about vocational training, which has resulted in ineffectiveness of the vocational training program. 

Schools in HCM City still provide vocational training to their students because they want to offer opportunities to students to apply for high schools with bonus marks.  

Students receive the vocational training a couple of weeks before the exam begins. And they don’t have much time for practice. 


NLD