VietNamNet Bridge - Many local vocational schools face closure as they cannot enroll enough students. The General Department of Vocational Training stated it will restructure the vocational school network to minimize waste.

A report showed that in 2015, six out of 63 provinces and cities could not enroll students for 3-year vocational training, namely Lai Chau, Cao Bang, Quang Tri, Kon Tum, Binh Phuoc and Bac Kan. The other five provinces could enroll less than 20 students a year, which was not high enough for them to organize training.

Dang Nghia, headmaster of the Ha Tinh Vocational Junior College, said despite the fame (90 percent of the school’s graduates can find jobs), the school could enroll 500 students only in 2015. 

Many local vocational schools face closure as they cannot enroll enough students. The General Department of Vocational Training stated it will restructure the vocational school network to minimize waste.

Fifty percent of the students got high scores from the national high school finals, eligible for applying for university. However, they still decided to attend vocational training.

Nghia noted that many students gave up their study at university and decided to go to vocational school because they realized that good vocational skills would help them find jobs. 

Though the school committed to help students find good jobs in the Vung Ang Industrial Zone, it still could not find as many students as expected.

Nghia admitted that the majority of Vietnamese high school graduates still prefer going to university to vocational school because they think higher education would be better for them. Meanwhile, the doors to universities have been opened more widely.  

“Schools set easy requirements on incoming students. Some schools don’t ask students to attend entrance exams, but only consider students’ reports to decide whether to enroll them,” he said.

“If the enrolment mechanism does not change, students would flock to universities, leaving vocational schools idle,” he said.

The problem the Ha Tinh Vocational Junior College is facing is also the problem of the majority of vocational schools throughout the country.

Dong Van Ngoc, headmaster of the Hanoi Electromechanical Junior College, one of the city’s 45 high-quality schools equipped with modern machines for practice worth tens of billions of dong, also complained that the school had to struggle hard to enroll 1,200 students in 2015.

A report showed that 469 vocational schools were put under the management of many governing agencies. 

In July 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam told the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to ‘review, reorganize and reassess’ vocational schools. 

However, the work has been implemented at 45 junior colleges and 87 intermediate schools (2-year training).

By the end of the last year, 329 state-owned vocational training establishments merged with other schools.

Tien Phong