VietNamNet Bridge – About 94 percent of general school and university students have problems in study and life, and most consult with their friends in class or social networks about ways to escape problems, rather than with professional consultants.

The figure was released by MOET at an education workshop held several days ago.

Bui Van Linh, deputy director of the MOET’s Students’ Affairs Department, said a survey conducted of secondary, high school and university students in Hanoi and Hai Duong province showed that most students want to share their problems with someone else.

General school students have the highest demand for sharing their problems, with 80.17 percent of students admitting this.

However, the most important finding of the MOET survey is that while demand is high, the supply is short.

Linh noted that schools in Vietnam focus on providing professional knowledge, but they do not pay enough attention to providing life skills, especially communication skills.

Some schools are aware of the importance of psychological experts in the schooling environment, but they do not know how to settle the problem.

At most schools, teachers have to take on the responsibility of giving advice to students. However, the teachers are not experienced and qualified enough to undertake this job, because they are not trained in the field.

Meanwhile, school leaders cannot employ professional consultants, because counseling is not a part of the educational program and the state does not allocate a budget to implement the work.

In Hanoi, with the support from Plan, an aid organization, schooling psychology counseling units have been set up in some 20 schools. Some other schools have also established units with their own budgets.

HCM City is believed to be the pioneer in the field, as the city’s education department in 2008 agreed to pay salaries to psychological counselors at schools.

Nguyen Duc Son from the Hanoi University of Education said Vietnam would have more school psychological advisors in the future as the school, in cooperation with US-based Saint John’s University, has been training in the subject since 2004.

Vu Van Tra, deputy director of the Hai Phong City Education Department, noted that providing psychological counseling to students is not less important than providing professional knowledge and organizing other educational activities that schools have to do every year.

Tra said some students in Hai Phong City suffered depression after they were reprimanded by teachers. Sometimes, the teachers in Hai Phong received reports that their students could not attend high school finals because they were in confinement.

Kim Mai