Is it a violation for a teacher training school to raise scores to fail candidates?

In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training set a separate minimum score for pedagogical schools. Accordingly, candidates applying to pedagogical universities must score 17 points or more, and pedagogical colleges must score 15 points or more. However, with this minimum score, many pedagogical schools still cannot recruit candidates. Gia Lai Pedagogical College even had to raise the benchmark score for the Literature Pedagogy major to 23 points to eliminate the only successful candidate because it could not open a major that only trained one student.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, discussed the shortcomings in recruiting students into pedagogical majors.

PV:Madam, are teacher training schools that raise their benchmark scores to "fail" candidates violating any regulations?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung:If we talk about violating a specific law, the school is not violating because the school has the right to determine the admission score. However, whether this admission score depends on the recruitment needs or not, clearly it is not.

In a situation where only a few candidates are admitted, the school cannot organize classes or does not want candidates to wait until there are enough candidates to open classes, the school must have a solution. This solution can only be implemented in some individual schools, and is not a solution for the entire system of teacher training schools.

PV:How do you evaluate the enrollment in pedagogical majors in 2018?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung:In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training still assigned quotas and set floor scores for student recruitment in pedagogical fields. This is to clearly define the determination of the entire industry as well as universities to improve the quality of training and training according to the needs of society.

The minimum score for the pedagogical major has been proposed mainly based on proposals and opinions from representatives of pedagogical schools at the university, college and intermediate levels in the regions. In general, schools all want the pedagogical major to have a relatively high minimum score compared to other majors. This is also to improve the quality of students and also to demonstrate their responsibility towards the pedagogical human resources for the country.

In transition, must accept "special" teacher training schools

PV:Madam, in this year's enrollment season, many regional pedagogical universities, especially pedagogical colleges, are facing many difficulties in enrollment this year.There are stories that are both funny and sad.How do you perceive this reality?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung:The fact that some colleges of education raise the admission scores to “fail” candidates also comes from the fact that few candidates register for the education major. When there are 1-2 students registering, the school does not have enough funds to open a class or does not want candidates to wait for the class to open and lose the opportunity to study other majors. We should understand that this is a temporary solution in some individual schools in the process of transformation.

The pedagogical sector as well as the entire university education system is shifting from the capacity of the schools or training according to the quantity depending on the capacity of the schools to training according to the quality and needs of society. In the conditions from the previous stages, the number of pedagogical training schools at all levels until now is more than 100 schools.

Thus, in the transition period, we must accept to a certain extent that there are abnormal enrollment phenomena in teacher training schools.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training is compiling statistics on the number of such cases to find appropriate solutions for the entire system. However, the Ministry also hopes that pedagogical schools as well as public opinion should be calm before the transition process because in this process there will be a period of disruption. Without disruption, we cannot innovate.

In fact, the top pedagogical schools are still recruiting well, with a number of candidates achieving high scores. Meanwhile, the lower ranked pedagogical schools are facing difficulties, so they have to change their functions and structures to better adapt to the needs of society.

Attracting students into pedagogy requires a comprehensive solution

PV:This year, the Ministry of Education and Training has set a floor score for teacher training colleges and also made a commitment to job placement for students. However, in reality, this policy is stillNot yetcan be implemented locally. Therefore, attracting students to teacher training colleges is still very difficult. What is your opinion on this issue?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung:To attract more candidates to register for pedagogical majors, many synchronous solutions are needed, such as employment issues for students after graduation, staffing, salaries, and welfare policies for teachers; the position of pedagogical majors compared to other professions... These issues need to be solved from many angles and with the participation of many ministries and branches.

There will be mergers and dissolution of teacher training colleges.

PV: So how is the arrangement and restructuring of teacher training schools, especially teacher training colleges, being carried out, madam?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung:In fact, the Ministry of Education and Training has directed the arrangement and restructuring of teacher training schools. First is the gradual reduction of teacher training quotas; converting some teacher training schools into multidisciplinary schools. Some schools have even merged and some schools have dissolved. Currently, the Ministry is planning the network of teacher training schools.

However, when the Planning Law is issued, the Ministry must also make changes according to the procedures of the newly issued Planning Law. The synchronous solution is to plan the network of pedagogical schools in particular and the system of universities in particular with the priority being to ensure quality.

Quality standards for each school are also set. Accordingly, schools that operate well and ensure quality will continue to be enrolled by the Ministry. For schools that do not ensure training quality, the governing bodies of ministries, branches and localities will have to determine if the school is really necessary and will continue to invest. If it is not necessary, it is necessary to change the functions and tasks such as merging or dissolving to ensure the health of the entire system.

Localities must also determine their future human resource needs to place orders for schools. This can be predicted based on population growth, school age forecasts, and school size.