VietNamNet Bridge - Hanoi Party Committee’s Secretary Pham Quang Nghi said it was not surprising that some PhDs and masters had failed civil service exams for Hanoi’s state agencies.

Two months ago, half of the candidates with master’s degrees granted by foreign schools failed the 2015 civil service exam. However, numerous officers with master’s degree and doctorates work at agencies in the capital city of Hanoi.

The participants at a conference reviewing the implementation of Program No 04 on cultural development and human resource improvement on July 2 heard that 54 PhDs, 900 master’s and 11,870 bachelor’s now work as civil servants at state agencies in Hanoi.

Nghi, when talking about the human resources upgrade, recalled the 2015 civil service exam, where 50 percent of candidates with master’s degree granted by foreign schools failed.

He said that in a city like Hanoi, where candidates applying for the posts at state agencies are numerous, it will be normal if even good candidates are refused. 

Most of the candidates attending the exam were excellent graduates with higher education. 

“Some of them passed and others failed the exam. It is quite a normal thing,” he said.

Commenting about Hanoi’s report about the high percentage of civil servants with higher education, Vuong Van Thanh, deputy chair of Lai Chau province, said: “Hanoi is incomparable.”

In Lai Chau province, there are only 224 officers with master’s degree, two PhDs and six are defending doctoral dissertations, while there are no professors or associate professors.

Lo Van Huong, deputy director of the Lai Chau provincial Interior Affairs Department, plainly said that the work in the locality can be fulfilled well by bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates.

“We don’t need officers with doctorates to undertake the works. We need those who can fulfill the works well. It is not a good idea to send our staff to training courses to obtain doctorates,” Huong said.

“There is nothing to be proud of, if a PhD cannot fulfill any scientific research work after 10 years,” he said.

The deputy chair of Long An province, Nguyen Thanh Nguyen, could not state the exact number of civil servants with master’s degree and doctorates, but affirmed the number was modest.

Duong Xuan Hoa, chief secretariat of the Lang Son provincial People’s Council, also noted that there was no need to employ many PhDs at agencies.

“We have VND2-3 billion a year only to pay for regular expenses. How can we get money to pay to workers if they are all PhDs?” he asked.

Dat Viet