Training for selection: Low quality, difficult output

(Baonghean) -The recruitment policy is implemented according to Decree 134/2006/ND-CP of the government to create conditions for ethnic minority students and students in extremely disadvantaged areas to study at universities and colleges, creating a source of cadres for mountainous communes and districts. In our province, thanks to this policy, hundreds of students have been admitted to school in the past. However, the implementation process still has some shortcomings and many difficulties...

Students of the Provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities on the opening day.

Inadequate recruitment work

According to Decree 134 on admission policy, students from ethnic minorities and especially disadvantaged areas will be considered for university admission. Admission is based on annual quotas and actual local needs. Admission boards will also base on the characteristics of each region and ethnic group in the area to recommend suitable students.

However, this method currently has many shortcomings when the quality of students registering for the selection is not uniform and there are still many students with average academic performance and low university entrance exam scores who are still admitted. Looking at the list of students sent by districts to study in recent years, we can clearly see that. For example, in Ky Son district, out of 13 people registering for the selection system in the 2013 school year, only 2 students met the minimum score, and there were cases such as Gia Y Sanh (My Ly) and Hoa Ba Than (Muong Ai) who studied block C but the district sent them to study Thai Binh Medicine and Hanoi Agricultural University, so they did not meet the admission requirements. Hoa Ba Than (Muong Ai) took the C exam but registered to study at the Agricultural University. Or in Quy Hop district, the district sent Ha Thi Oanh (Chau Thai commune) to study at the Faculty of Construction, Vinh University, but she only got 4 points in the university entrance exam and studied in block C. In Tan Ky, there was also the case of Nguyen Van Hang, who studied in block C but the district sent her to study at the University of Transport... In the list of students proposed to study under the recruitment system of Que Phong district, their exam scores were only on average from 10 to 14.5 points, much lower than the regulations of universities...

According to Mr. Tho Ba Re, Deputy Head of the Internal Affairs Department, Ky Son District People's Committee, although the recruitment policy is to create conditions for children from disadvantaged areas and ethnic minorities to study at universities and colleges to improve their qualifications and create a source of cadres for the locality, because Ky Son District is a particularly disadvantaged district, the quality of training is still limited, so it is very difficult to find a truly qualified student. In addition, in the recruitment process, the balance between regions and ethnic groups must also be taken into account, so it is even more difficult. Specifically, most of the qualified students are concentrated in the town area and neighboring areas, but if only students from these areas are recruited, it is not fair. Or, in a family, only one member can be recruited, to give priority to other areas. However, most students in extremely disadvantaged areas have low test scores. If they take the exam "in vain", they will only get 1 to 2 years, which is a disadvantage for them and the communes, and it will take a long time for these areas to meet the standards for officials.

In the 2013-2014 school year, Nghe An province was allocated 60 quotas for universities and colleges. However, according to Mr. Nguyen Hai - an expert from the Department of Vocational Education, the whole province only recruited 37 applications, the rest were submitted by the districts but the review board had to reject them because they did not meet the standards, did not have enough points, and were the wrong subjects. This is a regrettable but necessary thing because if we do not do it well from the outside, even if we "get" into universities, it will be difficult for them to keep up.

In fact, in the past few years, there have been nearly 10 cases of students from the province, studying under the selection program at universities, who were forced to drop out or stop studying because they could not keep up with the program, such as the cases in 2012 of Lu Thi Nham, Vi Thi Thom, Pit Van Dong... at Thai Nguyen Medical University, Thai Binh Medical University, Hanoi Medical University. Ms. Moong Thi Tham, Deputy Director of Ky Son District General Hospital, is worried because currently there are quite a lot of students studying under the selection program in the medical field and according to the plan, in the next few years, it will cover all hospitals and commune health stations. However, medicine is a special field, requiring skills and qualifications, if the input is not qualified, it is difficult to have good training results. That greatly affects the working process, affects the examination and treatment, and even the lives of patients.

Output bundle…

The output for selected students is a worrying issue. Although the State's regulations and the annual directives of the province and the industry clearly state that districts need to base their specific calculations on the actual needs of the locality to carefully calculate the establishment of targets, especially in areas that are lacking. In addition, it is necessary to clearly identify the work addresses of selected students after the next 4 years... However, in reality, there are still many students who have graduated but have not found jobs. In Ky Son district, there are currently about 6 students who have graduated many years in the Pedagogy sector and have not yet been able to arrange jobs.

In Tuong Duong district, Mr. Vi Tan Hoi, Vice Chairman of the district People's Committee, said: The best thing about the recruitment policy is to improve the qualifications of ethnic minorities and people from especially disadvantaged areas. Arranging jobs for students after graduation is a difficult problem. Firstly, the district is not allowed to increase the number of employees, and the district and commune cannot arrange jobs based on the local budget because the province currently does not have a policy of signing district and commune contracts. Mr. Hoi also said: Although the district always has a priority policy for recruited students, at least in the coming year, all the majors in the district have basically been arranged, so recruitment must be "queued". In the whole province, from 2005 to now, the number of recruited students who have not found jobs after graduation has reached dozens of people, especially in the fields of Pedagogy, Agriculture - Forestry, Foreign Languages ​​and Chinese.

Regarding the cause, some places when sending students for recruitment did not carefully consider and review their local human resource needs to see which industries need human resources, how much is surplus or shortage, but only send to fill... quotas or send the number of students depending on the budget balance. The allocation of training quotas, planning and recruitment quota needs of districts still face many difficulties, there are no long-term plans to register quotas and suitable occupations. Objectively, in recent years, students in mountainous areas have mainly studied social subjects well, while the demand for training occupations is mainly technical and economic, so it is difficult to select candidates. The number of university and college graduates in the province in general, and mountainous districts in particular, has continuously increased in recent years, the quality of students is higher than that of recruitment. Meanwhile, the staffing needs of the districts are stable, so it is difficult to arrange for students to work according to their wishes. If exams are organized, it will be difficult for students to compete. In addition, in the review process, there are still situations where, because of favoritism and acquaintance, many students with limited abilities are still chosen to go to school. Or many parents still have the mentality that they only need their children to have a place at university when they fail the exam, so they do not consider going to school according to their abilities, leading to many difficulties after graduation.

Faced with problems that have existed for many years in the recruitment policy, especially in the quality and “output” of students after graduation, starting from the 2013-2014 school year, our province has made many changes. Accordingly, for those applying for the medical field, they must at least meet the minimum score, and priority is only given to cases such as children of war invalids, martyrs, and demobilized soldiers. The professions must be close to local needs and the districts must clearly identify the students’ work addresses after graduation – said Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha, Head of the Vocational Education Department, Department of Education and Training.

In addition, as with university admissions consulting, the preliminary selection process should also involve the participation of professionals in consulting and orienting, and the selection of majors for students should also involve the participation of training institutions. In addition, localities should carefully review their human resources when sending students to study; focus on fields and professions that are specific to the locality, and carefully consider registering for groups of majors that are too difficult or currently saturated.

My Ha - Minh Quan