Foreign schools oppose teaching of compulsory subjects

The curricula for Vietnamese students at international schools must have content as set by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) regulations.



One of the biggest amendments in the draft decree to replace Decree 73 on international cooperation and foreign investment in the education sector is that preschools and general schools applying foreign curricula have the right to determine the proportion of Vietnamese students at their establishments.

Under current regulations, schools can have no more than 10 percent of students for primary education and 20 percent for secondary.

However, the curricula for Vietnamese students must have compulsory content as set by MOET.

Ho Thuy Ngoc from the Hanoi Foreign Trade University commented that the requirement on compulsory subjects will be a barrier in receiving foreign curricula.

“When we mention compulsory subjects, we face strong opposition from partners. They are the ones who confer degrees to graduates and they want students to follow their curricula. They don’t agree to add Vietnamese subjects into their curricula,” she said, adding that she cannot find any convincing legal foundation in this issue.

“Their (foreign) curricula will be distorted if Vietnamese content is added,” she said.

Nguyen Xuan Dau from the Hanoi Business & Technology University also said foreign partners, when discussing joint training projects, said they were not interested in Vietnamese curricula. They award degrees and they are only interested in their curricula.

A foreign representative from the Vietnam Business Forum attending the workshop discussing the draft decree said that the requirement on Vietnamese compulsory content is difficult to apply.

Under the draft decree, foreign training establishments must have investment capital of VND1 trillion instead of VND300 billion as currently stipulated.

“What is the basis for MOET to set the requirement?” asked Vo Thanh Binh from the Vietnam Association of Universities and Junior Colleges.

The representative of ASEAN Junior College commented that VND1 trillion is too much for schools which teach foreign languages and economics, while it is too little for the schools which teach technologies or aircraft manufacturing.

Nguyen Xuan Vang, director of the MOET’s International Cooperation Department, said VND1 trillion, or $40 million, is not a huge sum of capital to foreign investors.

The foreign invested universities in Vietnam, such as the Vietnam-Germany and Vietnam-Japan schools, have the investment capital of $100-200 million.

Meanwhile, the representative from the Vietnam Business Forum questioned the requirement on lecturers’ qualifications.

Under the draft decree, lecturers must have 5 years of experience, and at least 50 percent of lecturers must have a doctorate. He said the training quality is more important than these ambiguous criteria.

Ha An / vietnamnet