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Ga said that the issue would be discussed after the conference reviewing the university and junior college entrance exams. However, he has revealed that the “direct entry” mechanism would be only applied to the national excellent students who register to follow studies in basic sciences.
Ga has cited some reasons behind the decision. First of all, Vietnam is lacking excellent students in basic sciences. Second, the direct entry mechanism would encourage students to join the national teams for international competitions.
When asked why only the students who follow basic sciences can enjoy the preferences, Ga said that there were some students, who won prizes at national competitions, but had to repeat classes when they studied at technical schools. Therefore, MOET thinks that it would be better not to apply the direct entry mechanism to the students, who want to study economics or techniques.
In 2007, the ministry decided to remove the direct entry mechanism, while giving autonomy to universities. This means that schools themselves will make decision on whether to accept the national excellent students. However, in all cases, the national excellent students must take the national university entrance exams and must have the minimum marks equal to the floor marks to be stipulated every year by MOET.
After several years of applying the new regulation, many excellent students have become not interested in national competitions any more. The top priority goal of all students is passing the exams to universities, and in order to do that, they have to win national prizes and get the marks equal or higher than the floor marks.
The decision to remove the direct entry mechanism has been violently criticized by educators, who believe that the decision is the main reason behind the downgrading achievements of Vietnamese students in recent international competitions.
Vietnamese students once gained high achievements at the International Mathematics Olympiad 2007 which was organized in Vietnam with three gold and three silver medals and the third rank. However, in 2008 and 2009, Vietnamese students only got two gold, two silver and two bronze, ranked the 12th and 15th, respectively.
In 2010, Vietnam got one gold, four silver and one bronze, ranked the 11th.
The year 2011 witnessed the worst achievements in the history, since Vietnamese students only got six bronze medals and ranked the 31st. Meanwhile, other South East Asian countries all have high achievements: Singaporean got four gold, one silver and one bronze, ranked the third just to China and the US, while Thai got three gold, two silver and one bronze, ranked the fifth.
The modest achievements have been described by educators as an “anticipated worrying fall”.
At the working session with the Khanh Hoa People’s Committee, Vietnamese Professor Ngo Bao Chau, who won the Fields Medal in 2010, said that mathematicians anticipated the downgrading of Vietnam’s mathematics, therefore, they were not too surprised with the Olympiad’s achievements. Four or five years ago, the Vietnam Mathematician Association submitted to the State the national mathematics program, hoping that the program would serve as the lifebuoy to prevent Vietnam’s mathematics from sinking.
Chau has also expressed his worry about the development of Vietnam’s mathematics. “Over the last 5-6 years, very few Vietnamese students, who won high prizes at international competitions, follow mathematics studies,” he said.
The required marks that universities set to enroll students for mathematics faculties have been relatively low, which shows that not many students want to study mathematics in particular, and basic sciences in general. “This is really a worrying thing,” Chau said.
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