VietNamNet Bridge - The draft general education programming opened for public opinion by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on August 5 will be ‘revolutionary' because the students’ current work overload will be eased.

Under the draft program, general education would comprise two phases – basic education and career-oriented education periods.

Students can choose careers after finishing secondary school, and do not have to continue higher education. Those who go to high school will have only four compulsory learning subjects instead of more than 10. The four subjects include math, literature, citizenship education and foreign languages. The other subjects would be optional, depending on students’ choice of careers.

As such, students will have clear choices for their study and career – either following basic education and then going to vocational school and working, or continuing higher and university education.

When introducing the draft general education program, MOET’s Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien said education’s focus would be shifted from providing knowledge only to promoting abilities. 

Nguyen Tuan Cuong, a parent in Thanh Xuan district in Hanoi, applauds the education reform, because it would be good for students.

“It is obvious that Vietnamese students are always overloaded with information to learn. Therefore, it is necessary to ease their workload,” he said.

Van Nhu Cuong, president of Luong The Vinh people-founded school, a renowned educator, noted that the draft master program released by MOET is reasonable in classifying and guiding students’ careers. 

This is different from the traditional education program, under which students only have one way to follow: studying from the first to the 12th grade.

After finishing high school, continuing studying at university education is the choice of the majority of students, who believe this is the only way for them to succeed in life. 

This has resulted in an oversupply of workers with bachelor’s degrees and the lack of skilled workers for factories.

Cuong also finds the subject design reasonable, because the new subject structure eases workload on students, who can spend more time improving their social skills, experimental skills. 

A high school teacher said that what impresses him most about the draft program is that students’ personal abilities will be promoted. This means that students will have the opportunities to study what they want and have advantages for not only science subjects, but sports, football and arts as well. 

“Students would study as they want, while the same subjects would not be mandatory for all,” he said. “This is really problematic to teach the same things to different student will different abilities."

Tien Phong