VietNamNet Bridge - In order to obtain high prizes and emulation titles, which can bring fame and higher pay, many teachers are willing to cheat at competitions. Students will be expelled if they cheat at exams, but teachers will not.

 

“Most of the contestants at competitions designed for primary schools are teachers, but under their students’ names. Don’t you believe this? This is a truth,” Huong Giang, an educator wrote in an email to VietNamNet’s editorial board.

The story Giang related is one example to show how serious the “achievement disease” in Vietnam’s education system is. School boards of management, teachers and students are willing to do anything that can help them win competitions.

An analyst noted that the current unreasonable management mechanism prompts them to cheat for achievements. 

Under current regulations, a school will be recognized as national standard school if it has students who win high prizes at important emulation movements. The more excellent students teachers have, the higher reputation they have. Therefore, teachers try every possible way to gain high emulation titles. 

In the past, when math and English V-Olympics competitions were organized periodically, teachers helped students solve questions at qualifiers to pave the way for their students to go to the next rounds. The students’ achievements were the instrument that measures teachers’ success.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), which was aware of the problem, decided that no competitions will be organized for primary school students. 

The decision has lifted a heavy burden from teachers’ shoulders, because they will not have to spend time to prepare students for the competitions and attend exams “on behalf” of their students.

However, most recently, teachers and students have had their attention driven to the Intelligence Traffic competition. Thirty questions on traffic laws have been raised for students to answer online. 

A primary school teacher in Hanoi noted that she herself could not give right answers to all the questions for a competition designed for primary school students aged 7-8.

The teacher said that it was a “nightmare’ for her to have to help students attend creative competitions for children and youth.

“We have to think about what mock-ups we need to do to send to the competition,” she explained, adding that this is beyond the capacity of small children.

“If we don’t have ideas or we cannot do mock-ups, we will have to ask for help from students’ parents, or we will have others done and pay money for the products,” she said.

“The products created by the students’ creativity sometimes got high awards, but in many cases, they do not have any significance in reality,” she commented.

Ngan Anh