VietNamNet Bridge – Low history marks scored by this year's entrance exam candidates might reflect a gradual watering down of the subject as viewed by modern society, government officials, historians, teachers and students said.

Students visit the Viet Nam Military History Museum in Ha Noi. The quality of studying and teaching history at Vietnamese schools has come under scrutiny following this year's exam results. (Photo: VNS)

This year's exam papers have received mixed reviews.

On the one hand, many students found the papers difficult and confusing.

Tran Thanh Hang, said that two out of every five questions did not identify the events referred to, leaving her and many others uncertain of what was required of them.

According to Khuat Duy Dung, a history teacher at Ha Noi - Amsterdam High School, the range of skills tested by the papers was limited to mainly narration and explanation, which did not necessarily encourage critical thinking and favoured those who learn by heart.

On the other hand, Dung said that the papers might have been made ambiguous on purpose in order to afford students a chance to think about the meaning of events instead of only listing them.

"The low results only reflect the reality that some students did not revise their work and study comprehensively enough," said Dung.

However, seeing as low history marks have been occurring for a number of years already, the real problem might be rooted in the country's rigid teaching system, according to historian Duong Trung Quoc.

Despite reform talk, textbooks still overemphasise detail while only 1.5 hours a week are dedicated to history lessons.

"In my class, only those who planned on taking the history exams bothered studying, especially seeing as the exams were not part of finals," Tran Thanh Hang explained.

In terms of methodology, although it is often hard to avoid monotonous, memorising-based lessons, teachers have shown positive signs in the interpretation and utilisation of textbooks.

However, as Dung said, there is always a trade-off between including extra-curricular activities in lessons and targeting the exam.

"Though I would like to spice up my classes with stories based on historical figures, I doubt that it would help my students with their marks," Dung said

Once again, talk has surrounded the underlying structural aspect of the problem: how history is perceived by today's society.

"The current value system makes it hard to inspire youth to study history," renowned historian Duong Trung Quoc said.

As with other humanities, history is now generally seen as playing second fiddle to scientific subjects, which seem to include more obvious realistic uses.

"Thinking about it, do people study IT and languages more often than history because the former subjects include more appealing textbooks and methods? I disagree. It is rather a question of motivation," Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan commented.

The fact that less career opportunities and lower salaries are more commonly associated with history graduates has had a denigrating effect on the subject's popularity.

"If a certain company promises to reward top scorers in history with US$3000 per month, I am sure a lot of students will pursue the subject," Quoc jokingly proposed.

As pointed out via student interviews, the common mentality in Viet Nam tends to put intelligences associated with natural sciences above that known to be nurtured by social sciences.

"History is fun to learn. I wish that people could appreciate it more because it is just as demanding as Maths and Chemistry," Tran Thi Thuy said.

Thuy, who hopes to enrol at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, is very passionate about history and literature, but admits that she is one of only a few students to have opted for Group C exams (based on literature, history and geography) this year.

In combination, these economic and social factors have generated a growing indifference amongst students in terms of their own past, alienating them from history as a subject. As recorded by the Ha Noi Education and Training Department, Group C accounted for a mere 4.44 per cent of total applications this year, a 0.8 per cent drop compared to 2010 statistics.

The situation fares no better in HCM City where the figure barely reached 1.4 per cent.

Apathy towards history is, however, something "not exclusively experienced in our country alone, but across the world in general," Minister Pham Vu Luan said.

"The steady decline in popularity associated with the subject might be caused by a combination of contemporary factors: technological progress, social change and labour market demands. It is truly a tough problem of our time," the minister added.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News