VietNamNet Bridge – Educators are complaining about the virtues of school students nowadays, saying that they are not only lazy in expressing their opinions during lessons, but they also lazy when doing house work.

Do Tan Ngoc, a teacher in Quang Ngai province said that when it comes to expressing their opinions in class, students in higher grades tend to be lazier than those in lower grades. Ngoc said he has come to his conclusion after comparing contemporary students with students 7-8 years ago.

A conclusion has been drawn from a mini survey conducted on 100 high school students that students do not want speak their mind because they do not prepare for the lessons at home. A lack of self-confidence has also been cited as a reason. Meanwhile, teachers have also been blamed for their teaching method: since they still do not have an attractive teaching method, lesson hours are unattractive to students. What regularly happens during lessons is that teachers read the lecture and students take notes.

A teacher, who has been working for a high school in Hanoi, also said that students rarely read lessons in advance at home. They are very passive  in receiving knowledge from teachers: they just write down verbatim what their teachers say. The teachers said that in many lessons, as teachers have to go quickly in order to ensure they cover a significant volume of information within 30 minutes, they sometimes have to raise questions and then give answers to the questions themselves.

In order to encourage students to be more active during lessons, many teachers decide to give bonus points to the students who regularly express their opinions and participate. However, the method does not help much.

Meanwhile, Tung Linh, a parent in HCM City, argues that students are lazy because of the bad curriculum and bad teaching method.

Linh said that when a history textbook talked about the significance of the August Revolution, Linh raised the question why the historian said that after the revolution, the country felt into a precarious situation. The answer given was that “because many imperialists and reactionary influences opposed the new power”. Then when Linh asked his son “which imperialists” and “which reactionary influences”, the boy could not answer, saying that the teacher did not explain this, and the textbook did not mention the issue.

While textbooks only give general knowledge, teachers also teach “for form’s sake”, therefore, it is understandable why students do not find the lessons interesting, according to Linh.

“Most of students go to extra classes at their teacher’s house, therefore, they do not pay attention during the official lessons, and they do not want to express their opinions in front of the class,” Linh added.

As for Pham Minh Hoang, who left the lecture hall two years ago, believes that one of the most important causes of students’  become laziness is the appearance of mass media.

“People do not spend much time on exchanging views directly. As grandparents and parents rarely talk with their grandchildren and children, the communication skills of students cannot develop.  Other ways of communicating such as chatting, sending emails and sending SMEs have also badly affected the development of direct communication skills.

Hoang also said that many students do not want to speak their mind at the class because they are afraid of being ridiculed by classmates.

Educators say that students not only are lazy in the classroom, but also when doing homework as well.

The Psychology Institute has conducted 656 surveys of secondary students in Hanoi and Hung Yen to learn if students do house chores every day.

The survey shows that students occasionally do simple chores like tidying and cleaning up the house, cooking meals, washing dishes, going to the market, taking care of sick people, and looking after younger siblings. Meanwhile, as for more complicated works such as taking care of the family when parents are away, or arranging chores instead of parents, very students are involved in these works.

Tu Uyen