Trillion-dollar education projects cause outrage

Innovative but… not new

The project "Innovation of national high school exams and university - college and intermediate pedagogical training entrance exams for the 2018-2020 period" approved by the Ministry of Education and Training on April 17 immediately received strong feedback from public opinion. Specifically, in this project, the total cost for implementation in 3 years from 2018 - 2020 will be 749 billion VND. Of which, 344 billion VND will be spent in 2018, 203 billion VND in 2019 and 201.6 billion VND in 2020. In the calculation list, the construction of a standardized question bank to serve the exam preparation is focused on with a total amount of more than 266 billion VND. Of which, in 2018, it is expected to invest more than 84.7 billion VND in building a standardized question bank...

Candidates taking the 2017 national high school exam (illustrative photo). Photo: TA

These numbers have made many people "startled", when previously, the Ministry of Education and Training had repeatedly affirmed that the 2018 national high school exam would remain stable as in 2017 and was expected to be adjusted after 2020 to match the new general education program. This was reaffirmed in the content of the new project. So, is it necessary to spend only 266 billion VND to build a standardized question bank? After 2020, when the program changes, will this question bank have to be adjusted? What will the adjustment cost be then?

In addition, other contents such as: Exam format, exam questions, exam invigilation, exam grading, exam format are also clearly stated as having nothing new in the 3 years from 2018 - 2020 except for preparing technical infrastructure and software for computer-based exams in 2021. Many people expressed skepticism about how the "huge" figure of nearly 750 billion VND will be spent in 3 years?

Upon receiving the feedback, Minister Phung Xuan Nha immediately issued an official dispatch to withdraw this project and explained that there was duplication in the calculation. Specifically, according to the explanation of the Ministry's leaders, the financial content was calculated and integrated from many related sources, some of the content was not feasible; some items were indirect costs and not directly for the organization of the exam...

Although Minister Nha has directed the drafting department to seriously learn from experience in building proposals, projects and financial calculations, public opinion is still "shocked" and "shudders" when remembering previous education reform projects that cost thousands of billions but the results were not as expected.

Ministry of Education withdraws nearly 750 billion VND project to innovate national high school exam

Considering the financial content to be problematic, the Minister of Education directed the withdrawal of the project for further improvement.

Trillion-dollar project and risk of bankruptcy

Previously, the Project “Teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in the national education system for the period 2008-2020” also set many big goals. Specifically, according to this project, by 2020, the majority of Vietnamese youth graduating from secondary schools, colleges, and universities will have the ability to use foreign languages ​​independently and confidently; making foreign languages ​​a strength of Vietnamese people... The total budget for the project is 9,378 billion VND.

In early 2018, the State Audit recommended financial handling to the Ministry of Education and Training, requesting the recovery of more than VND 50 billion to the budget because the project to train lecturers with doctoral degrees for universities and colleges in the period 2010 - 2020 did not achieve a series of goals. This project has a budget of VND 14,000 billion, the goal is to train at least 20,000 doctors by 2020. However, by 2017, the project had to stop enrolling students due to the low results. Statistics up to 2016, the total number of admitted doctoral students was 4,024, reaching 31.4% of the project's target up to 2016 and not reaching 20% ​​of the overall target of the entire project.

However, although 80% of the planned journey has been completed, the results are still not commensurate with the set goals. Specifically, by 2015, the rate of high school students studying the 10-year English program was only 23.6% (primary school reached 53.3%, secondary school reached 10.2% and high school only reached 1.3%). In particular, the team of teachers considered the core of the project, after many years of training and development, still accounts for a very low rate of meeting the standards. At the end of the 2015-2016 school year, the whole country had only 37.19% of primary school English teachers meeting the language proficiency standards; this figure was 36.7% for secondary school English teachers and 26.12% for high school English teachers. Meanwhile, the amount of money spent on this project up to 2015 was more than 3,829 billion VND.

The Vietnam New School Model Project (VNEN) has been vigorously implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training since 2011 with a total capital of 87.6 million USD (about 1,900 billion VND). By the 2015-2016 school year, over 3,700 primary schools had implemented the model; over 1,600 secondary schools had registered to participate in implementing the new school model for grade 6.

However, a series of leading provinces in applying the VNEN model to education such as Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Dak Lak... all spoke up to stop following this learning model after a period of implementation because they encountered too many difficulties when applying it in practice. Minister Phung Xuan Nha later had to admit the shortcomings and... seriously learn from experience.

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam - President of Hanoi Educational Psychology Association:Project construction needs to be accurate and correct.

“Building an education project on high school exams is something that should be done and needs to be completed soon. However, in order for the projects to be “accurate and correct”, the following issues need to be resolved: The learning process in schools needs to be real learning, real teaching, not chasing after achievements. It is necessary to build links and coordination between high school and university and vocational schools. In countries with developed education systems such as the UK, the US, Germany, etc., high school education is aimed at serving the differentiation of future careers. However, in Vietnam, that has not been done yet.”

Professor Nguyen Xuan Han (Hanoi National University):Focusing on exams more than studying is a mistake.

“For a long time now, we have focused more on exams than on studying, this is a wrong point of view. The knowledge base of high school is universal, providing the most general and minimal knowledge to the people, without any limit on quantity. On the contrary, university level is to train experts and specialized cadres in a field. Therefore, combining two exams into one causes many problems in society if there is only one exam.

Therefore, even if hundreds of billions are invested, if the initial steps are off track, it will be difficult to get the right results. We need to solve the root problem of separating the two exams, not the problem of how to conduct the exam.

In addition, starting early with innovation in learning (program - textbooks), the transmission team (teachers), and then innovation in testing methods will be more convenient and logical. Importantly, any innovation, starting from any element must be within the roadmap for fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training to be successful, avoiding waste.