10 outstanding educational events in 2018

The revised Law on Education and Higher Education; the number of associate professors and professors increased dramatically; Vietnamese students achieved high results in regional and international Olympic competitions... are outstanding educational events in 2018.

Law on Education and Higher Education amended

The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education was passed by the 14th National Assembly at its 6th session with many new points to promote the development of higher education. This Law will take effect from July 1, 2019. The draft Law stipulates that there is no distinction in the value of diplomas due to different forms of training.

The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education was passed by the 14th National Assembly. Photo: VNU

This draft Law expands autonomy, allowing higher education institutions that meet the conditions of quality assurance and suitability to open their own training programs at all levels of higher education, except for programs in the fields of health, teacher training, security and defense.

Announcing the new general education program

On the afternoon of December 27, 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) announced the new general education program. Accordingly, the new general education program is less burdensome than the current program, such as reducing the number of subjects, reducing the number of study hours, selecting practical educational content, innovating teaching methods, creating conditions for students to choose subjects, topics of study and increasing practical activities.

Vietnam's educational innovation results are highly appreciated by international organizations.

According to the World Bank report on March 15, 2018, 7 out of the top 10 education systems in the world are currently in the East Asia-Pacific region, with truly impressive developments in the education systems of Vietnam and China.

The results of educational innovation have been recognized and highly appreciated by countries and international organizations.

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The report states that the East Asia-Pacific region is home to around 331 million school-age children, accounting for around a quarter of the world’s total. Of these, 40% are enrolled in schools in education systems that perform above the OECD average. These schools are not only in wealthy countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Japan, but also in middle-income countries such as China and Vietnam.

Two Vietnamese universities in the world's top 1,000

In 2018, for the first time, two Vietnamese universities were ranked among the top 1,000 universities in the world according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS World University Rankings). Specifically, Ho Chi Minh City National University was ranked in the 701-750 group and Hanoi National University was ranked in the 801-1,000 group.

In 2018, QS reviewed data from 4,763 universities from 151 countries. After the preliminary round, 1,233 schools were compared. The final results showed that 1,000 universities from 85 countries were named. QS's ranking data is based on the survey opinions of 1.2 million scientists and 200,000 employers; the number of Scopus articles is calculated for 5 years (2011-2016) and the number of citations is calculated for the period 2012-2017.

Number of professors and associate professors increased to a record level

On February 2, the State Council for Professor Titles announced a list of 1,226 candidates meeting the standards for professors and associate professors in 2017. The number of people meeting the standards is 1.7 times higher than in 2016 and 2.3 times higher than in 2015, causing public opinion to doubt the quality of candidates in the "sweep train" before the new standards were set.

Faced with the above situation, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Education and Training and the Chairman of the State Council for Professor Titles to seriously consider and thoroughly review to ensure quality according to regulations and report to the Prime Minister.

Number of professors recognized in the past 5 years.

On March 6, the State Council for Professor Titles announced the decision to recognize 1,131 people who met the standards for the title of professor and associate professor in 2017. One person withdrew, 94 people including many officials are waiting for verification because they do not meet the standards, have complaints and denunciations.

One month later, the State Council for Professor Titles announced the decision to recognize 53 people as meeting the standards for the title of professor and associate professor. Among the more than 40 people who were not recognized as professors and associate professors in 2017, there were the Minister of Health, Deputy Head of the Northwest Steering Committee, Director General of Vocational Education...

From this incident, on August 31, the Prime Minister issued Decision 37 regulating standards and procedures for considering recognition of qualifications and appointing the titles of professor and associate professor with many more specific and strict criteria.

The first round of recognition of qualifications for the title of professor and associate professor according to Decision 37 will begin in 2019.

Students achieve high results in regional and international Olympic competitions

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training, in 2018, all 38/38 students from 7 teams participating in regional and international Olympic competitions won medals, including 13 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 11 bronze medals. With a total of 13 gold medals, 2018 was also the year that the excellent student delegation of Vietnam achieved high results in regional and international Olympic competitions compared to previous years.

Nguyen Phuong Thao (third from left) achieved the highest score in the world at the 2018 Biology Olympiad.

In particular, Nguyen Phuong Thao, High School for Gifted Students in Natural Sciences, Hanoi National University won a gold medal and the highest score at the International Biology Olympiad.

Eliminate textbook monopoly

Every year, the Vietnam Education Publishing House – a unit under the Ministry of Education and Training that has a monopoly on publishing textbooks – prints more than 100 million copies, most of which are used once and then discarded. According to this publishing house, every year the Education Publishing House loses around 40 billion VND from printing and publishing textbooks.

Since its establishment in 1957 until 2017, Vietnam Education Publishing House has been the only unit licensed to publish textbooks. (Photo: Document)

At the regular Government meeting in September 2018, reporting on the issue of monopoly in publishing textbooks, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha said that according to the provisions of the current Law on Education and the Law on Publishing, the Vietnam Education Publishing House is the only unit assigned to publish textbooks. Since the end of 2017, the Ministry of Education and Training has coordinated with the Ministry of Information and Communications to license 5 more publishing houses to participate in publishing textbooks and will continue to consider expanding the licensing.

Serious cheating in the national high school exam

In 2018, the results of the National High School Exam with a series of cheating in exam scores in Ha Giang, Son La, Hoa Binh and suspicions in some other provinces and cities shocked public opinion, causing society to lose faith in an honest and objective exam.

On the afternoon of July 17, the Ministry of Education and Training coordinated with the People's Committee of Ha Giang province to hold a press conference to announce unusual exam scores in the 2018 National High School Exam. Photo: Dan Tri

As a result, Ha Giang had 114 candidates with more than 330 multiple-choice tests whose total scores were raised from 1 to 29.95. In Son La and Hoa Binh, the police determined that the essay and multiple-choice test scores were tampered with.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that in the 2018 national high school exam violations, 11 people were officially disciplined according to the law, 151 candidates were disciplined according to the regulations, and more will be done in the future.

In early December 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed a plan for the 2019 national high school exam with technical adjustments to minimize negative factors.

A series of physical and mental abuse cases of students

In 2018, many cases of physical and mental abuse of students occurred in schools, causing public outrage.

Many people worry that the educational environment is no longer safe in 2018.

In early April, a teacher at An Dong Primary School (An Duong, Hai Phong) forced third grade students to drink water used to clean blackboards.

After November 20, “231 slaps” happened in Quang Binh, a teacher instructed the whole class to slap a 6th grade student so badly that he had to be hospitalized because he was accused of swearing.

While the incident of 231 slaps had not yet subsided, immediately after that, in Hanoi, another incident arose in which a teacher let a second grader slap a classmate.

In late 2018, the whole country was shocked by the incident where the Principal of Thanh Son Ethnic Boarding School in Phu Tho was accused by his students of sexually abusing dozens of male students under the age of 16.

Most recently, on December 30, Ho Trong Dang, Head of the Phan Boi Chau Secondary School (La Nan, Duc Co, Gia Lai) was prosecuted, indicted and temporarily detained by Duc Co district police for "Obscenity with children" after committing a depraved act with an 8th grade female student.

Ho Chi Minh City reduces secondary school tuition fees from 2019

At the 12th session in early December, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council approved the proposal of the City People's Committee to adjust tuition fees for secondary schools and kindergartens at public schools.

6th grade students of Saigon Practical High School. Photo: VnExpress

Tuition fees for secondary schools and secondary supplementary education will be reduced from VND100,000 per month to VND60,000, applicable to students in 19 districts. In the five districts of Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi, Can Gio, and Nha Be, tuition fees will be reduced from VND85,000 to VND30,000.

For kindergartens, students in 19 districts will keep the current level of VND200,000 per month, while children in five districts will see their tuition reduced from VND140,000 to VND120,000. The above tuition fees will be effective from January 1, 2019.

Doan Dung ( Synthesis )