VietNamNet Bridge – The decision by the Olympians, or the students attending the “Road to Olympia” competition for high school excellent students, to stay working and settling down in foreign countries, has once again raised the worries about the Vietnamese brain drain.

Le Vu Hoang, the champion of the 6th season, who is now a post-graduate in Australia

Van Tuan, a reader of VietNamNet, commented that the brain-drain has become too serious and requested to reconsider if such a competition should continue to be organized.

Tuan, in the email to the editorial board, said the competition has only helped discover and train the talents who will then serve other countries instead of Vietnam. Therefore, he thinks such a competition is no more necessary.

Nguyen Tung, 32, in Hanoi, also said people should not be sympathetic towards the Olympians, who grow up in Vietnam, go to Vietnamese schools and receive the knowledge at schools with the money funded by the State, and then refuse to help develop the country.

“If all Vietnamese want to live and work in favorable conditions in foreign countries, the fatherland of Vietnam will never be able to develop,” he said.

“The “Road to Olympia,” which was thought to be a useful competition to help discover the train talents in the country, has turned out to be the competition to find out the talents for Australia,” Huong Giang, a teacher, wrote.

Giang has also expressed her support to the Da Nang City people’s committee to sue the learners who went studying abroad under the city’s program on training talented persons but refused to serve at the agencies in Da Nang.

Giang believes that it’s now the right time for Vietnamese agencies to apply drastic measures to be sure that Vietnamese have to feel the responsibility of serving the home country, and that the money contributed by people to fund their studies must not be useless.

“If they do not plan to return to Vietnam after the graduation, they should try to go studying abroad with their own money instead of the city’s money. If they need the city’s financial support, they have the duty of devoting themselves to the city,” she said.

“Vietnam must not waste its money on the people who reject their responsibility,” she added.

Meanwhile, the majority of readers said they understand why the Olympians made such a decision.

Thu Phuong, who is about to leave Vietnam next year to study in the US on a scholarship noted that the Olympians went studying on the money donated by private organizations, not the state’s money. Therefore, they have the right to decide where they will live and work.

Phuong believes that the Vietnamese leaders, not the Olympians, need to reconsider their decisions. They should think carefully about why the brain drain has become more serious and why the talented persons don’t want to serve in Vietnam.

“I believe that they have the right to determine their future,” Le Van Than, an engineer, agrees.

He has tried to persuade people not to think badly of the Olympians. “Though they live and work overseas, they will never forget the fatherland. They can serve as the bridges that link Vietnamese with the big international groups in the world,” he said.

“It’d be better to blame the leaders and managers who still cannot most favorable conditions to persuade the talents to return to Vietnam,” he concluded.

Nguyen Thao