VietNamNet Bridge – To deal with the criticism that the Mekong Delta region, Vietnam’s biggest “granary”, has one of the country’s weakest educational systems, more universities are being established, though their effectiveness is being questioned.

Busy before the recruitment season

Bac Lieu University is the most recent university to be established in the Mekong Delta.

“We’re now head over heels in work ranging from hiring staff to developing curricula. Everything has to be started from scratch, so we’re very busy,” said Acting President Dao Hoang Nam.

To be ready for the upcoming 2007-2008 school-year, Bac Lieu University is preparing to upgrade its rooms and to buy necessary equipment. According to President Nam, Bac Lieu will recruit only 470 students for four faculties: water product breeding, accounting, computer science and math-computer science education.

Tra Vinh University is also busily preparing for its first school year. 500 students for 6 faculties will be recruited. The university application process is expected to attract 6,000 students from Tra Vinh and neighboring provinces.

Pham Tiet Khanh, the university's president, said: “The 6 disciplines this year were selected based on a survey of labour needs of businesses as well as State-owned agencies. The goal of the school is to graduate students who can find suitable jobs rather than just confer degrees.”

Ngo Tan Luc, President of Tien Giang University, said: “As of this moment, everything necessary for the upcoming recruitment season is in place. This year, Tien Giang University will recruit 3,775 for vocational school, college and university levels."

“In 2006, the school’s first year, only 360 students for 4 undergraduate disciplines were recruited; this year’s number will be increased to 700 students for 7 disciplines. This shows that the demand for undergraduate education in Tien Giang and neighbouring provinces is increasing.”

Shortage of infrastructure, teachers and poor student performance

The recruitment season at universities in the Mekong Delta has never been so bustling as this year’s. The demand for education in this so-called “national granary” is indeed increasing.

The biggest concern, however, is that except for big old experienced schools like Can Tho University, other young universities are facing shortages of many things.

President Dao Hoang Nam of Bac Lieu University said: “The univeristy only has 35 master’s and 60 bachelor’s holders. Thus, it has to ask Can Tho University to send 50 instructors as well as invite some first-class experts in the province to teach. Bac Lieu will train 10 PhD holders and 30 masters in order to meet its own long-term instructor demand.”

Tra Vinh University currently has 340 instructors. Of these, 200 from local community colleges have been sent to additional training programmes.

Tien Giang University has a relatively good teaching staff, including 4 doctors, 7 researchers, 67 masters, and 76 bachelors who are completing master’s studies. This university’s infrastructure has also received generous investment. VND40billion has been allotted by the Ministry of Education and Training and Tien Giang People’s Committee for equipment, classrooms and teachers’ housing.

Most of the new universities in the Mekong Delta region were established through the merging of education and community colleges as well as local continuing education centres. The infrastructure and teaching staffs of these schools can only meet demands for the first few years of establishment and are yet to equal those of older universities.

Doctor Do Van Xe, Vice President of Can Tho University, said: “Compared to other regions, the number of universities in the Mekong Delta is low. Thus, it is necessary to establish more universities here in order to strengthen human resources training in the province. Yet, how to establish a university? What direction will it follow? Will it be truly a good university? All of these are difficult questions.”

According to Mr Xe, many students in the province can’t meet university requirements since they have somehow fallen behind in secondary education.

“Secondary education’s teaching methods are often ineffective and emphasise quantity rather than quality, so students find it difficult to systemise what they learn. Though there are more and more universities in the Mekong Delta region, the effectiveness of these schools is still open to debate,” he said.

(Source: SGGP)