VietNamNet Bridge - While educators repeatedly complain that students do not like learning history, parents say there is nothing to worry about.

Under current regulations, math, literature and foreign languages are the three compulsory exam subjects for high school finals. Physics, chemistry, biology, geography and history are optional.

Official reports showed that history was the exam subject that the fewest students chose for the 2015 high school finals. Only about 153,000 students all over the country registered to sit the history exam. 

At the exam center located at Ngoc Lam high School in Tan Phu District in Dong Nai province, 10 exam rooms were set up for 229 examinees. However, none of them registered to attend the history exam.

Of the 28 exam centers managed by Can Tho University, 14 centers did not have any student attending the history exam. Meanwhile, in Da Nang City, only 5 out of the 29 exam centers managed by Da Nang University had contestants in history.

Some educators believe that the low number of students attending the history exam is evidence showing that students dislike learning history.

Last year, high school students also ignored the history exam. At the exam center located at Quang Trung High School in Hanoi, there was only one student attending the history exam. An exam council comprising 19 members still had to be set up to serve the one examinee.

Professor Phan Huy Le, chair of the Vietnam History Science Association, warned that Vietnamese students would have superficial knowledge about history.

“What will happen if the Vietnamese of the next generations do not know national history?” Le asked.

Though no large-scale sociology survey has been conducted about students’ attitude to history as a learning subject, it is obvious that the problem is getting more serious.

Meanwhile, on education forums, parents argue that they do not feel worried if their children do not choose history for the high school finals. They also say that students not attending history exams does not mean they dislike history or have no interest in social science.

Tran Thu Hang, 50, a parent in Cau Giay district, said her daughter, who finished high school last year, loved history, but did not choose history for the finals.

“I agreed with her that it’d be better to choose natural sciences, because social sciences would not help her find good jobs in the future,” she said.

“What if she studies natural sciences at university, but keeps the passion for history?” she said.

Thanh Mai