Difficulties in teaching 9+ cultural education at vocational schools in Nghe An

The shortcomings

Grade 12 ofNghe An Ethnic Minority Secondary School(located in Con Cuong district) the 2023-2024 school year has just ended in the incomplete joy of teachers and students of the school. Because the high school graduation exam results of grade 12 students here were not as expected. Even more sadly, this year, 10 students in this class had to drop out of school because they could not attend the 9+ cultural training classes. About 20 remaining students returned to Tan Ky and Anh Son districts... to study all 7 cultural subjects and take the high school exam. For these students, reviewing for the high school graduation exam is really difficult when they have to enroll in different places, because the school does not have the conditions to teach them centrally.

Teacher Le Anh Tuan - Principal of Nghe An Ethnic Minority Secondary School said: Although the school really wants to cooperate with the continuing education (GDTX) - vocational education (GDNN) centers of the districts to be able to organize concentrated classes for students, but the current conditions are impossible, because like the GDTX - GDNN Center of Con Cuong district, for example, only has 3 teachers who cannot handle teaching 7 cultural subjects of grade 12. Therefore, students have to go to many districts to study the grade 12 program and participate in the high school exam.

This inadequacy, according to Mr. Tuan, is the school's difficult problem in attracting students after the stream, because many students in the area and surrounding areas that the school attracts want to have 2 degrees after graduating from vocational school.

Nghe An Ethnic Minority Secondary School currently has nearly 500 students studying, of which more than 100 want to have two diplomas after graduation. The two years of grade 10-11, because the amount of knowledge is not much, the school staff and the Continuing Education - Vocational Education Center in the area can still handle it, but when it comes to grade 12, because the amount of knowledge is large, students have to focus on reviewing for the final exam to take the High School Graduation Exam. Therefore, in order for grade 12 students to have a high school graduation certificate, the school must cooperate with Continuing Education Centers in other places to be qualified to teach culture to students.

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“The reason why the connection is difficult is because most of the centers also lack teachers, forcing us to divide the number of students to go to different centers. This makes management difficult, besides, students also have a lot of trouble in stabilizing their accommodation and conditions to concentrate on studying for exams."

Mr. Le Anh Tuan - Principal of Nghe An Ethnic Minority Secondary School

Nghi Loc College of Economics and Technology also faces many difficulties in teaching culture when students have to study for two degrees in parallel, both a vocational degree and a high school diploma. For many years, the school has cooperated with the Provincial Continuing Education Center No. 2 to teach culture to students. However, from here, many problems have occurred because the number of students at the school is large, while the center's teaching staff is limited, and the center is also responsible for cooperating with many other vocational schools in teaching culture. Therefore, for many years, Nghi Loc College of Economics and Technology has had to find and introduce teachers to teach cultural subjects for the center to carry out part-time teaching contracts, in order to ensure the number.

Regarding this, the Principal of Nghi Loc Technical and Vocational College - Mr. Luong Anh Tuan said: Ensuring a high school diploma is a condition to attract students after the stream, however, having one place to teach and one place to manage will cause many problems. Moreover, because many vocational schools will be linked with the center, a shortage of teachers is inevitable.

Why should we link with GDTX center?

According to the provisions of the 2019 Education Law, the general education program and the high school continuing education program must be implemented for a full 3-year period. However, the 2014 Vocational Education Law stipulates that the training time for intermediate level according to the year system for those with a junior high school diploma or higher is 2 years. With that period of time, students cannot both study the intermediate program and complete the cultural program.

In early August 2022, the Ministry of Education and Training also issued a new High School Continuing Education Program - within the framework of the 2018 general education program, implemented from the 2022-2023 school year for grade 10. The program includes 7 subjects, each school year is 35 weeks/class and must study for 3 full years to be eligible for the high school graduation exam - an important condition for students studying vocational secondary schools to be able to take the university entrance exam. Therefore, in order for students after graduating from junior high school to be able to complete the 7-subject program at the high school level of the Continuing Education system, vocational schools must coordinate and link with Vocational Education - Continuing Education Centers to organize teaching.

The 2014 Law on Vocational Education and the 2019 Law on Education also stipulate that vocational education institutions are allowed to organize the teaching of high school cultural knowledge for students who have graduated from junior high school according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training. However, the conditions of the schools in terms of total training time are only enough to teach the 4-subject program. The heads of these institutions are entitled to issue Certificates of meeting the requirements of high school cultural knowledge for the 4-subject program.

However, this certificate is not enough to take the exam and be granted a high school diploma. Meanwhile, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, up to 80% of the 350,000 junior high school graduates who enter intermediate level education every year want to learn a trade and continue their studies.

Currently, in the province, the system of vocational training centers has a low number of teachers, some centers cannot recruit teachers, and facilities have not been invested in synchronously. Therefore, vocational training facilities are in a passive position and training quality is also affected.

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In teaching culture according to the 9+ program, we have cooperated with the Provincial Continuing Education Center No. 2 to meet the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Training. However, we already have enough teachers to teach culture. So the cooperation is just a legalization work and the teachers at the center are only in charge of a few subjects.

Mr. Phan Xuan Dung - Principal of Hong Lam College of Economics and Technology

Principal Le Anh Tuan (Nghe An Ethnic Minority Secondary School) added: The fact that our school's teachers teach in class, but the management depends on another party may cause difficulties in enrollment, training records...

Mr. Tuan also suggested that there should be flexibility, allowing vocational training institutions to have the conditions to organize and manage cultural teaching. This also increases the responsibility of schools in ensuring quality, at the same time, creating initiative for training institutions to flexibly arrange programs, improving training quality. This management method first of all brings benefits to learners, encourages many learners to choose vocational training, and promotes the goal of streamlining after junior high school.