Student streaming is not just about vocational training.

(Baonghean) - Nghe An is considered one of the provinces that has done a good job of streaming at the secondary level. However, there are still many concerns surrounding streaming, both in terms of implementation and "post" streaming work.

inferiority complex… division

The policy of streaming has been implemented by Nghe An for quite a long time and has been further promoted since 2015, after the Provincial People's Committee issued the plan "Streamlining, career guidance, and vocational training for students after junior high school and high school in Nghe An province until 2020".

In Vinh city, after having the plan of the province and the city, the work of streaming has also been implemented quite drastically by schools. In addition to promoting propaganda work, schools also direct homeroom teachers to coordinate with mass organizations to integrate career counseling sessions into flag-raising and class activities.

In addition, during the school year, parent meetings are held to provide guidance and career guidance for children based on their abilities. In particular, to have more than 200 ninth grade students classified into streams each year, one of the important bases is to classify students according to their academic performance.

Teachers from Vinh Industrial Technical and Economic Vocational College provide career guidance to parents of students in Thach Ngan commune (Con Cuong). Photo: My Ha

Class 9C, Hung Loc Secondary School (Vinh City), this school year has 4 students in the streaming category. According to teacher Ho Thi Ngoc Ha - Head teacher of the class, streaming and career guidance for students requires a long process. Due to the characteristics of students in the city, they still want to finish high school, so the streaming work mainly falls on students with weak academic performance, basic knowledge gaps, and cannot be tutored.

As one of the students in the stream, Le Duy Chien is quite shy when talking about his final grade. After being oriented, the 9th grade student also decided to study a profession, but up to now, he still does not know what profession to study or which school to study, because in fact, for many years he has been protected by his parents. Teacher Nguyen Thi Le Hang - Principal of the school said that this year, based on academic performance, the school plans to have 15 students in the stream. Due to poor academic performance, these students are not qualified to take the entrance exam to grade 10.

Not only Hung Loc Secondary School but also many other schools in Vinh city and Nghe An province also implement streaming based on students' scores. This is not wrong but it creates certain complexes for parents and students. A parent whose child is studying in class 9C, Quang Trung Secondary School (Vinh city) confided that: The class has 5-6 students who are in streaming, so at the end of the year, both parents and students are sad. Even when discussing the party plan, parents are not excited because they think their children will not be able to go to high school, so there is no party, farewell...

Mr. Nguyen Khac An - Principal of Vinh Technical Economic Vocational College also said: "Every year, Vinh city has about 120 students who are classified as enrolled in the school and most of them have poor or average academic results. Classification based on academic results may be effective in quantity, but not necessarily in quality, and may even create inferiority complex and lack of confidence in students."

Need direction

According to Mr. Nguyen Khac An, the stream is the right policy, aiming to orient students to choose their career early, creating more opportunities for them to start their own businesses instead of competing to register for universities as is currently the case. However, because vocational training is different from general education, in order to effectively encourage vocational training, it is necessary to create passion and love for students.

From this reality, to orient students to vocational training requires a long-term process, so that they can see that this is the right, practical and reasonable choice, not a "punishment" for poor academic performance. In addition, streaming is not only done in the last few months of the grade but also requires a long-term process of "slow and steady wins the race". Through counseling and orientation, students will be able to change their perceptions so that they voluntarily register for streaming.

Computer class of students at Doi Cung Secondary School (Do Luong). Photo: My Ha

It is also necessary to see that the current stream is not simply vocational training, but students are both vocational and cultural. Therefore, if students come to the stream voluntarily, it will be more effective. Moreover, vocational schools also have the opportunity to recruit qualified and capable students so that vocational training is effective, avoiding the current situation where many students do not go to high school but the number of students enrolling in vocational training is still too low.

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, in recent years, although each year the province has more than 5,000 students after junior high school who do not enter high school, only about 20% of them study at continuing education and vocational training institutions. Regarding the work of streaming, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang - Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district said: "In the past 2 years, the district has promoted streaming with the aim of guiding students to vocational training.

It is expected that this year, both at the junior high and high school levels, the district will have about 1,100 students in the stream. However, the current difficulty is how to guide them to learn vocational skills effectively. To do so, there must be active coordination between family - school and society, so that students have the mindset to choose a school and a career.

Mr. Thai Huy Vinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training also said: "If we stream students but do not orient them on what they will continue to study and do, it means we are "guilty" of students. Currently, there are many vocational training opportunities for students with many preferential policies. The Law on Vocational Education has just come into effect and has innovations in line with the trend. The most important thing now is to stream the right subjects, the right purposes and do a good job of career guidance, helping students orient their future careers according to their interests, passions and actual conditions of themselves and society".

My Ha