Linking
Education And Further Economic Growth
There is a sinking feeling among thoughtful Vietnamese that
doi moi (renewal, renovation) has run out of steam: that a new
wave of change is necessary if Vietnam is not to become mired in
corruption, red tape, non-performing debts, state-owned enterprise
inefficiencies, rural unemployment and growing discontent among
those citizens, who have yet to benefit from GDP growth. Forbidden
to talk openly about political transformation, Vietnamese
intellectuals, academics and some officials still participate in
lively debates about economic and social dilemmas. One topic on
which almost every Vietnamese citizen has an opinion is education.
Current primary school enrolments are impressive, yet primary
teaching is quite unpopular as a career choice. Employment
conditions for teachers are dismal, the curriculum is outmoded,
pedagogical techniques remain highly authoritarian, and pupil
dropout rates are alarming. Secondary schooling has now slipped
beyond the hopes of many children and their families, who cannot
afford the fees and special tutoring requirements. This contrasts
with conditions several decades ago, when the state ensured that
bright children from poor families made it to high school.
State-financed opportunities for adult education have also
declined dramatically, except in the military. Tertiary education
attracts the most discussion in Vietnam’s mass media. As the
time arrives each year for nationwide high school graduation
examinations, there is criticism of exam content, marking
procedures and cases of alleged corruption. Students passing these
exams then face additional entrance exams at favoured
universities. There are very few scholarships available, special
fees abound, course materials are patchy, and lecturers often
divide their time between several institutions. Students who fail
the exams can still enrol in a variety of private institutions if
they can afford the steep tuition charges. Tertiary education
institutions remain heavily concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City. Although many other cities now possess universities and
technical schools, the level of instruction tends to be inferior,
much to the irritation of both students and parents. Indeed, if
Vietnamese students take to the streets in the future, it is
likely to begin at provincial institutions, over educational
grievances, at least in the first instance. In recent years,
thousands of young Vietnamese men and women have been able to
study overseas, mostly in the US, Canada, Australia, France,
Singapore and Japan. As they return home, many graduates find
their new knowledge ill-suited to local conditions and employers
disinclined to listen to proposals for change. The favoured ones
land jobs with foreign businesses or international organisations.
There is an aversion to accepting any employment beyond Hanoi or
Ho Chi Minh City, much less the countryside. Vietnam’s leaders
appreciate that the economy needs to get beyond heavy reliance on
primary commodities and avoid being caught forever in the low cost
labour trap. In principle, they understand the importance of
education in moving up the value chain of production, not to
mention improving peoples’ quality of life. However, in
practice, education policy remains confused, and performance a
welter of contradictions. In those circumstances, some local
governments have acted unilaterally. Some universities have set
their own goals, located funds from diverse sources, and begun to
build a new élan among faculty and students alike. Nonetheless,
the risk of top-level disapproval and crackdown is ever present.
Watchpoint: Central government reactions, negative or
positive, to local education initiatives bear scrutiny as some of
these initiatives may have significant economic implications.
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