VietNamNet Bridge - In a market economy, work is measured by productivity and efficiency, not by professional degrees.

 

 

The HCM City Department of Interior Affairs has proposed to take drastic measures to cut out waste in organizations and reject unskilled civil servants, including those with doctorates and master’s degrees.

The proposal has been lauded by the leaders of research institutes who say productivity, not a degree, will decide whether officials deserve their pay.

Pham Van Duc from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences said HCM City Department said the interior affairs department has made a reasonable proposal.

“If someone cannot fulfill his tasks, he must be excluded from the apparatus, no matter who he is or how high a degree he has,” Duc said. “We don’t care about degrees, we care about the efficiency.”

Dang Canh Khanh, former head of the Youth Institute, agreeing with Duc, saying that the existence of incapable PhDs and masters in state agencies’ apparatus will hold back the development of the country.

“We pay money for work, not for vain glory,” he commented.

He went on to say that training establishments try to produce as many masters and PhDs as possible, while Vietnam needs skilled workers and real experts in many different fields, not officials who have nothing except titles and degrees.

In other words, Vietnam has many researchers, but doesn’t have many real workers. Meanwhile, those with high education levels are not always people efficient in their works as they don’t have practical experience.

The Youth Institute, for example, needs researchers who have deep knowledge about youth. Therefore, Khanh highly appreciates researchers who have experience in the work and have comprehensive knowledge in psychology, sociology and social work.

However, Khanh, though advocating the Interior Affairs Department’s idea, warned that problems will arise when implementing it.

“It is a tradition for Vietnamese to respect intellect and talent. The people with high education levels and high degrees automatically receive respect from society,” he explained. 

Le Ngoc Thanh, head of the HCM City Geography Institute, said there should be criteria to assess the productivity of the staff with doctorates and master's degrees.

“It is necessary to point out what ‘effective’ and ‘ineffective’ mean,” he said.

However, an analyst commented that it would be not easy to set up criteria to ‘classify PhDs and masters’.

“A master in information technology could be a bad worker in a paper factory,” he explained. 

“In many cases, PhDs and masters cannot do the jobs in the fields of their training majors. Meanwhile, a lot of PhDs and professors now undertake the jobs of managers. What will you do then?” he said.

Dat Viet