VietNamNet Bridge - Some of the proposals on Education n reform include: raising salaries for teachers, changing the Vietnamese script, removing district education sub-departments, and removing ‘Chi Pheo’ from textbooks.

MOET has proposed to raise teachers' salaries

1. The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has submitted to the government a draft of a new education law under which teachers’ salaries will be raised to the highest level in the payroll system for civil servants.

The ministry believes that the current average pay to teachers, especially preschool and general school teachers, is too low compared with their hard work and contributions.

While agreeing that it is urgently necessary to raise salaries for teachers, some experts  doubt the feasibility of the plan because the state budget is tight, while the public debt is on a sharp increase.

2. Associate Prof Dr Bui Hien, Vice Director of the Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers University, has proposed changing the Vietnamese script system.

He said he had noticed some discrepancies in the way Vietnamese consonants are written, i.e. one sound can be written using different letters, which is confusing to users.  Therefore, he has suggested changing the writing script.

Under the proposal, "giáo dục" (education) would be replaced by "záo zụk" and "Tiếng Việt"(Vietnamese language) would turn into "Tiếq Việt".

However, the lifetime work of the linguist has been facing strong opposition from the public. His suggestion has been described as ‘crazy’ and ‘nonsensical’.

3. A parent in HCMC has sent a letter to the Government Office proposing to remove the so-called ‘parents’ association’.

Vo Quoc Binh is the parent of two students, a third and eighth grader in HCMC. He said the parents’ association should represent parents who should be able to ask schools to fix existing problems and improve education quality. The association now represents schools and its only function is collecting money from parents for school projects.

Many Vietnamese parents complain that they have to pay too much money under the form of ‘school fees’ which are beyond their financial capability.

4. Nguyen Song Hien, an education PhD student in Australia, has proposed removing Chi Pheo, a short story by Vietnamese famous writer Nam Cao, from the curriculum designed for 11th graders. Chi Pheo shows the tragedy of poor Vietnamese in the old society. 

He believes that the story may have negative effects on students. However, his view has been harshly criticized by educators.

5. Bui Nam, a teacher, has proposed removing the district education sub-departments because they are unnecessary and make government cumbersome. 

He cited a report as saying that managerial officers now account for 27 percent of the total workers at preschools. The figures are 9.6 percent for primary education, 11.9 percent for secondary education, and 7 percent for high schools.

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