Money affecting quality in Vietnamese universities

by JB. VU

March 19, 2009

Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - In Vietnam, about 3 million students get their high school diploma each year. 10% of them go to the state universities, and between 20 and 30% go to private universities or colleges, while the others go wherever they can. According to a decision by state universities, since 1998 school fees have not been above 108 dollars (1,800,000 VND) per year. In 10 years, this capping of prices has made school tuition "symbolic," in order to maintain development and expand student formation.

In comparison, the private universities are increasing tuition. This makes many students leave the university early. It seems that money is not assisting development, for the complete human growth that society needs.

In addition to poverty, we are also poor in education and the traditional values of life. We cannot base ourselves solely on the accumulation of money in order to teach students, but we must change our awareness of human behavior toward one another, and improve teaching methods. Many university students had to pay 234 dollars for the 2007-2008 school year, 412 for 2008-2009, and 762 for 2009- 2010. Students are genuinely shocked and concerned about tuition expenses.

Pham Thi Lien, a student at DHAFU, tells AsiaNews that she had to write in order to get her money back, because "my family is facing many difficulties." "I have paid the tuition for the first semester of 2008-2009," says Nguyen Huu Diep, a student at DHFL&C from the province of Quang Ngai. "Now I have only ten dollars in my pocket to get by on. So I'm working part time at a café. Among my classmates, there are girls from other provinces who have to do many things in order to earn the money to go to school." Many, many other students tell AsiaNews that they will soon have to discontinue their studies, because they do not have the money for tuition.

Under a market economy, teachers and those who have the responsibility to guide them, as is the case among us, must contribute to the quality of education and formation. The rise in school tuition creates objective difficulties, while the government should have social policies, promote justice and national values. In any case, these things do not interest those who are responsible for education. If the universities are focused on raising tuition in order to improve the quality of education, it is clear that studies in Vietnam are moving backward compared to the trend of global development.

Modern education is aimed at insertion into social life, working in the field of research, and the "dan than" is bringing greater financial resources, especially for the universities. Professors can apply their studies to economic contracts, social projects, cooperation with businesses, industrial jobs, increase in production, exchanging experts, credit for students . . .

How can a society bring quality to education, when it does not have research or justice in life or cooperation with Vietnamese organizations, schools, and religions? This leads to the degradation of moral values and the current discrimination. The government, moreover, is monopolizing education by cooperating only with "foreign schools." This is leading to the loss of moral values and of the traditional culture of Vietnam.