For the 33,000 students, there are two options, either continue to study at private or "continuing" high schools, or attend vocational schools. 

They can also choose to stay at home or run a self-employed business. 

In general, parents want their children to continue studying to obtain a high school diploma. They believe that at the age of 15-16, after finishing secondary school, their children are still not physically and mentally capable of joining the labor market.

Education experts say that this is a wrong viewpoint. In many countries, the working age is after 15, and it is a normal for students finishing secondary school to spend 1.5-2 years at vocational schools and then join the labor market.

Under the education development strategy in 2011-2020, the number of students receiving vocational education after finishing secondary education was expected to account for 30 percent by 2020, which means about 320,000-330,000 secondary school graduates would join the vocational education system.

However, the goal has not been reached because parents don’t want their children to go to vocational school after secondary school. The communication about career guidance and the labor policy are not designed to encourage students to go to vocational school.

Reports show that more than 75 percent of secondary school students continue to study at high school. 

Going to university to have a higher education level is what most students in Vietnam want to follow as they believe that this is the best way to succeed in life.

However, students have been advised to rethink their planned career path. The labor market has its own rules. Not all occupations and jobs require workers to have a bachelor's degree or to finish junior college.

Recent research work by Hoang Thi Minh Ha and Dinh Thi Hao found that Vietnam’s trained workforce structure is becoming unreasonable. International practice shows that workers with primary and intermediate education levels should be the largest group.

In developed countries, the standard model is 1-4-10, which means one worker with higher education level, four workers with intermediate education level, and 10 trained workers with vocational school education.

Meanwhile, the ratio was 1/0.3-0.4 in Vietnam in 2018, which means that the number of workers with bachelor’s degrees accounted for the highest proportion in society, and that Vietnam had an excess of workers with high education level (junior college and higher).

An accreditation expert said while junior colleges and universities are lacking students and have to apply many measures to enroll students, general schools don’t have enough seats for students.

The fact that parents have to move heaven and earth to find opportunities for their children at public schools should not be seen as a "normal phenomenon". 

The expert said that Vietnam still lacks equality in obtaining opportunities to access general education. In general, the expenses that wealthy families spend to fund their children’s studies are much higher than poor families, which represents the biggest inequality in accessing educational opportunities between the rich and the poor. 

The poor have far fewer opportunities to access education than the rich, especially with limits on enrollment quotas and tuition.

There is a big gap in tuition for general education between public and private run schools. In the unequal race to public schools, the poor are always put at a disadvantage. Therefore, parents have to consider carefully on whether to send their children to high school or vocational school. In developed countries, ¼ of students at high school age go to vocational school and join the labor market when the age for high school finishes.

The last thing that needs to be done is changing the way of thinking of the whole community. The habit of assessing a person based on their qualifications, not on his capability and abilities and achievements needs to be eliminated.

Nguyen Kim Hong