The quality of university graduates who follow and finish in-service training courses is always questionable in Vietnam. In people’s thoughts, these graduates have lower capability than those finishing full-time training courses. 

That is why many people have suggested retaining officers with full-time university bachelor’s degrees for commune-level units and dismissing those who don’t have a bachelor’s degree, or have an in-service degree, when restructuring the local administration levels.

However, other people disagree with this view, stressing that a competency exam needs to be organized to find the best and most suitable officers for communal units.

Reader Thong Tran wrote: “In my opinion, let’s put degrees aside. Of course, candidates must have degrees. But it would be better to hold a ‘skills test’ for each position, score it, and eliminate excess based on staffing quotas. Many district and commune officers outperform leaders and could take on higher roles in administrative units."

“Why do we keep arguing about degrees? The most important thing is whether they can undertake their work well or not. Degree alone cannot show the real capability of officers,” he said.

Tran Viet, another reader, agreed with Thong Tran, saying that there are numerous bachelor’s degree holders now, and in many cases, degrees don’t truly reflect the real capability of degree holders.

Only assessing competence through real work results shows who’s better. To accurately evaluate civil servants’ abilities, a good quality control system and public feedback are essential.

He gave an example: when evaluating civil servants, use a 5-level scale from 1 to 5. The public feedback would contribute to this rating; those with high scores would get higher pay and promotion consideration, while low scorers would face lower pay and potential dismissal.

Meanwhile, reader Tran Cong Thuan proposed that for purely professional roles, civil servants should be university graduates in relevant fields, while for political or community organization roles, local cadres should be selected because they better understand local conditions.

Other readers have suggested that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) should retest professional skills, foreign language proficiency, and IT skills for professional civil servants. It must be done seriously, objectively and fairly. Those who pass the tests can continue working.

Many readers worried that transferring district cadres to communes would initially pose challenges. Higher qualifications don’t guarantee immediate success since working directly with the public requires practical experience.

Commune cadres’ weakness is low tech proficiency, but this can be improved with courses on office IT, commonly used apps, and professional tools.

“There’s no rule that all district-level cadres are better than lower-level cadres. There are both good and bad officers within an organization,” Duy Thien said.

That is why Thien believes that it is not a good idea to replace all commune-level officers with district-level officers who have higher qualifications.

At the grassroots, practicality comes first

Reader Vu Xuan Truong, who was a former provincial and district official and now works as a commune leader, said the commune level is the toughest due to its multitasking demands.

“If provincial or district cadres are sent to communes this time, it’ll take a while to figure out what needs doing. Thus, during the merger, the Party and State must carefully study task assignments for each individual to leverage their skills. At the grassroots, practicality trumps all,” the reader said.

Agreeing with Truong, reader Nha Nghi shared a story about four university classmates. After graduation, they all began to work at state administrative agencies. The biggest surprise is that the best of the four is working for a communal agency. Thus, it’s wrong to assume commune cadres are inherently less qualified.

“Choosing capable people for grassroots roles is a tough, complex issue. Sending provincial or district cadres to communes isn’t necessarily effective,” Truong Hieu said.

“During a teacher recruitment round in the district, some graduates from Hanoi Pedagogical University failed the entrance competition, while others from a southern provincial pedagogical university passed. So, to find true talent, hold a fair exam—maybe broadcast it live or use AI support,” Hieu suggested.

Per the Politburo’s policy, the country plans to merge some provinces to cut their number by 50 percent, reduce 60-70 percent of the current 10,035 commune-level administrative units to about 3,000, and eliminate all 696 districts.

The proposed two-tier local government model includes the provincial level (centrally governed cities) and the grassroots level of communes, wards, and special island zones.

Thu Hang