VietNamNet Bridge – Trillions of dong has been spent by the state budget to train gifted students. However, experts have pointed out that this is a big waste of money.

Huynh Hoang Anh, a student of the physics majoring class of the Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted in HCM City, is busy reviewing math, chemistry and biology lessons to prepare for the national entrance exams to the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University.

Anh said that he does not intend to continue the studies in physics, and he now studies in a physics majoring class simply because he likes the subject and he is good at it.

A big waste of money

Lam Trieu Nghi, Headmaster of the Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted, said that gifted students are the best students selected from the school entrance exams. Most of the students can follow the heavy curriculums designed for them. The high schools for the gifted are the main sources which provide excellent students as the members of the national teams to attend international competitions.

Nghi also said that if the excellent students have the opportunities to continue their majoring studies at the higher education levels after they finish high school, they could become the high quality labor force for the country.

However, the problem is that many gifted students intend to follow other training majors after graduating high school.

According to Vo Anh Dung, Headmaster of the Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in HCM City, the problem is that Vietnam still does not have any special policy which aims to develop the majoring knowledge of the gifted students, especially the students with outstanding aptitudes for certain fields.

Nghi said in principle, it’s a good policy to give special training to high school gifted students. However, it would be a big waste, if the special training would come for nothing, when students give up the knowledge they receive at the schools later.

Under the national program to develop the gifted high school system in 2010-2020, the Ministry of Education and Training plans to have at least one school for the gifted in every locality. It hopes that by 2015, 100 percent of the schools can meet the national standards, of which 15 schools have the standards equal to that of the advanced schools in the region and the world.

The program is expected to cost VND2.3 trillion.

Vietnam doesn’t need schools for the gifted?

Under the program, 30 percent of the high school gifted students would be trained at the talented or high quality training courses at domestic and foreign universities, while the figure would be 50 percent by 2020.

However, the program has not been applauded by many experts.

Dr. Nguyen Kim Dung, Deputy Head of the Education Research Institute under the HCM City University of Education, said the purpose of general education is to provide students with basic knowledge in sciences and life skills, which helps them integrate into the society and continue their studies at higher education levels. Therefore, Dung does not think that the existence of the schools for the gifted is necessary.

Dung also said that while schools for the gifted “gobble up” big sums of money every year, the schools can only train small amounts of students, many of whom would follow other studies later.

NLD