VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has decided to develop the system of gifted schools. However, many educators believe that the goals set up by the ministry are too ambitious and unfeasible.

One of the goals is that English will be used as the main language in teaching at gifted schools. In the first phase of the gifted school development plan, teaching in English will be applied to some natural science subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry and informatics. In the second stage, teaching in English will be applied to social science subjects. In the immediate time, in the 201-2011 academic year, English will be used in teaching mathematics and informatics.

Unfeasible plan?

According to Deputy Minister of MOET Nguyen Vinh Hien, the teaching and learning of foreign languages at general schools still show many shortcomings. Hien said that Vietnamese students, who attend international competitions or Olympiads regularly encounter difficulties in communicating and in doing exercises. Therefore, if students cannot speak foreign languages well, they will find it difficult to access new knowledge.

However, analysts have warned that the plan to teach in English will meet a lot of challenges. Especially, even gifted schools in big cities will also not be able to settle problems, let alone the gifted schools in small provinces.

The headmaster of a gifted high school in Mekong Delta said there are 39 teachers and more than 400 students in his school, and he has confirmed that the school’s teachers remain far away from meeting the requirements to be able to teach in English.  

Bui Van Trung, Deputy Headmaster of Hoang Van Thu Gifted School in Hoa Binh province, also said that very few students can meet the requirements in foreign languages, while foreign language skills are also a big problem for the school’s teachers. Trung stressed that it will require long term investment to train teachers with foreign language skills and this cannot be done overnight. 

Gifted schools - the workshops to produce “math problem solving workers”?

Under the plan to develop gifted schools, at least 50 percent of students in the schools will have excellent learning capacity, 70 percent of students will have good learning capacity in informatics, and 30 percent of students would reach Level 3 in accordance with the standards set by the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE). About 30 percent of graduates of gifted schools will be enrolled to high-quality programs at universities.

However, educators have, once again, warned that the goals are too ambitious. By early 2010, Vietnam had had 50,000 gifted students. However, not all students studying at gifted schools are really excellent students. Teachers say that for a long time schools have been selecting the best students after checking their knowledge, but they have not been testing students’ IQ through special tests.

A teacher from the Hanoi National University said that the currently applied teaching methods are turning students majoring in mathematics into “math problem solving workers”. Therefore, diligent students, not clever students, consistently have better opportunities to be enrolled into mathematics majoring classes because they regularly practice solving problems.

MOET has many times emphasized that the goal of gifted schools is to help students’ develop their talents, and that students must receive a comprehensive education which provides them with knowledge in different fields. However, in fact, people call students of gifted schools “fighting cocks”, who only spend time studying, while they do not know much the knowledge about society and do not have many life skills.

Source: Nguoi lao dong