Hanoi School of Art responds to Xuan Bac's wife's accusation of oppression

Although she is on a business trip abroad, Ms. Duong Minh Anh - Principal of Hanoi College of Art still gave reporters an interview about the recent scandals related to lecturer Nguyen Hong Nhung - wife of Meritorious Artist Xuan Bac, which were reported on social media.

As the Principal of Hanoi College of Arts, what do you say about Ms. Hong Nhung - Lecturer of the Department of Theater, who recently made indignant comments about the school on social media?

First of all, I must say that this is a thoughtless act of Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung and I do not agree with her way of doing it because as a state official as well as a Party member, at least she must understand and comply with the principles of the organization.

If there is any reflection, struggle or question, there must be a sequence from bottom to top, from low to high, and there are many methods to reflect, not like the way Ms. Hong Nhung is doing.

However, after the incident, we immediately organized a meeting to clarify the issues that she questioned in the request form and the request for the school's mass organizations regarding the reason why she was not allowed to participate in the graduation exam marking in 2017 and the content that Ms. Nhung reflected in the livestream clip on social networks on September 11.

Ms. Duong Minh Anh - Principal of Hanoi College of Art.

The meeting lasted 9 hours and included: Party Committee, Board of Directors, Trade Union, Head of People's Inspectorate, Secretary of the Party cell where Ms. Hong Nhung worked, Head of the Department of Theater and Dance, Head of Finance and Planning Department, Head of Administration and Management Department, Deputy Head of Training Department, Deputy Head of Organization Department and Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung... I would like to emphasize that the meeting discussed many issues but mainly clarified the issues that Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung was upset about. After the meeting, we had initial conclusions and all were clearly recorded in the minutes.

Regarding Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung's accusation that People's Artist Anh Tu intervened, leading to Ms. Nhung not being allowed to sit on the graduation exam board, what do you say about this?

I affirm that there is no way that People's Artist Anh Tu influenced or intervened so that the school would not allow Ms. Nhung to sit on the graduation exam board of the Theater Department. People's Artist Anh Tu only requested permission to grade the graduation exam for the class he was guiding for the reasons that he understood and mastered the abilities, qualifications, ethics, and professional awareness of each student he had guided. People's Artist Anh Tu's point of view is that to ensure accurate and fair evaluation, the entire learning process must be evaluated in addition to what the students performed on stage to produce the final result.

I thought that was a legitimate reason, so I discussed it with comrade Tran Vu Hoang - who was then assigned as Chairman of the Graduation Council - before making a decision. As for the other information presented by lecturer Hong Nhung at the meeting, it was only personal and no evidence was provided at the meeting.

As for Ms. Hong Nhung - the school leaders always acknowledge her contributions over the past time and have never said that Ms. Nhung is not qualified to sit on the graduation exam board because in fact, in the school's previous exam boards, Ms. Nhung was still a member of the exam board.

As for People's Artist Anh Tu, People's Artist Hoang Dung, Meritorious Artist Tran Duc, Meritorious Artist Minh Vuong, Meritorious Artist Lan Anh and many other artists and lecturers... I always respect them, although the school has many difficulties in terms of facilities, the hourly salary paid to collaborators is very little, but they have always accompanied and stuck with the school over the years just because of their love for the profession and the students.

They have helped the Department of Theatre, Cinema and Dance train many generations of students who are now the core actors of theaters across the country. It is not easy to invite these artists to teach at the school in the context of the current shortage of lecturers. Therefore, the school still hopes that the artists will continue to collaborate with the school in the future.

What about the infrastructure issue that Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung reported, madam?

Ms. Nhung's reflection that the school's facilities are lacking and deteriorating is correct, however, Ms. Nhung only mentioned one side, and did not mention the other side.

Around February 2017, the Department of Theatre, Cinema and Dance proposed to add more desks and chairs for the theatre major, which was approved by the school at the meeting and included in the school's purchasing plan. The functional units are in the process of implementation. However, right at the meeting, the Board of Directors discussed with Ms. Nhung that because this item is in the city's centralized purchasing list, it must depend on the city's regulations on procedures and time. Therefore, the school cannot proactively implement it. According to the contract, the contractor will hand over the desks and chairs to the school on September 20.

From February until now, the school has taken steps to overcome this problem by assigning functional departments to review units throughout the school to collect tables and chairs so that students have a place to sit and study, temporarily overcoming the above difficulty, so there is a situation where one room has many types of chairs like that.

There is a shortage of classrooms for the Theater and Dance majors because the characteristics of these majors require large classrooms to both study theory and practice, and to be used as practice floors. The school has given the faculty the largest classrooms in the school and also allowed the faculty to use the 4th floor auditorium for teaching. The school has agreed to ask the city to invest in building block C (currently the classrooms of the Theater, Cinema & Dance Faculty and the Fine Arts Faculty are using) and in fact this content has been included in the city's public investment portfolio. The construction design has increased the number of large and standard classrooms for the faculty. However, the city's budget has been difficult recently, so we have to wait.

Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung answered the press after the meeting on September 13.

It is not that the city does not care about investing in school facilities. In recent years, the school has received non-budgetary investment in modern equipment, theater sound systems, performance instruments and multi-purpose computer rooms...

However, because the buildings are degraded and repaired in one place, they are broken in another, so the investment is not synchronized. Regular spending sources are gradually being cut in the direction of autonomy for schools, so investment in facilities and teaching equipment in the regular budget is also limited. Meanwhile, the school trains many majors, each major has its own characteristics, each faculty needs investment, so it is necessary to consider within that limited budget, what is necessary is prioritized first and the rest will be gradually resolved later.

So in the meeting, how did the school resolve those issues with Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhung?

In the meeting on September 13, we focused on resolving Ms. Nhung's request and petition regarding the reason why she was not on the examination board. Basically, Ms. Nhung accepted the way the school's Board of Directors and the Graduation Council handled the situation at that time. However, Ms. Nhung requested that the Board of Directors of the Department of Theatre, Cinema and Dance consult with lecturers majoring in theatre and cinema before proposing to the school's Board of Directors about the members of the examination boards of the competitions.

As for other issues that Ms. Nhung raised on social networks, whether they are true or not, she will have to take responsibility before the school and public opinion.

According to you, does Ms. Hong Nhung's reporting of the incident violate the civil service law and school regulations?

We live and work according to the law. Ms. Hong Nhung is both a civil servant and a Party member, so she must understand what she is doing and be responsible for her actions. The school will have appropriate handling, in accordance with the law of the State and the school's regulations.

Thanks for sharing the information.

According to Vietnamnet/Dan Tri