News and Events

The race to get admission to first grade in Hanoi is intense this year as baby boomers born in the lucky Year of the Pig in 2007 reach school going age. 

With the school year beginning in September, children are being forced to take entrance exams in several schools to ensure admission.

Earlier many parents spent hundreds of dollars to send them to preparatory courses. Vietnam's 2012 income per capita was US$1,555.

Many public schools have announced they only have place for a third or a quarter of the applicants.

But Pham Xuan Tien, head of the primary school section at the city Department of Education and Training, said there is place for all of them though there are 11,000 more candidates this year.

But because of a clamor for admission to some of the more prestigious public schools, the department has allowed them to hold tests - in language (including English) and mental ability.

The Ministry of Education and Training had in the past banned primary schools from testing children’s reading and writing skills before they enter school.

But now children are sent to preparatory courses costing at least VND6 million ($288) besides also having to learn at home from their parents.

Doan Thi Diem Primary School in Tu Liem District, for instance has courses for preschool children in logic, English, and others.

A woman named Quynh Anh said she paid VND4 million for her daughter’s 12-day course.

The child was among nearly 1,000 children attending 30 different courses at the school.

Pressure on

Schools blamed parents for wanting their children to study in famous schools, thus forcing the schools to put pressure on the children since they cannot take all of them in.

Regulations require schools to admit all children living in their neighborhood.

Besides knowledge, some schools even test the children’s dancing and singing skills, and physical health, thus keeping them in school for a whole day.

Understandably, many children are cranky, crying through the tests and often not performing as well as they did at home.

Thuy, a woman whose daughter took tests at three different schools, said: “My child was so anxious she did not do well in the test. Not all children can do the test properly with this kind of tension."

She is taking her child for another course besides hiring a tutor at home to prepare her for another test in May.

A man named Tuyen expressed frustration that children do not do well in the tests but are forced to put up with the system.

“I don’t want him to be haunted by failure,” he said.

Mai Ngoc Luong, former director of a research center for pre-university education at the Ho Chi Minh City Education University, said taking exams is already a haunting experience for children.

The ministry and the city education department should work together to scrap the admission tests.

“They go against children’s rights to study and puts a lot of pressure on them.

“Let them enjoy a gentle and cheerful childhood like they are supposed to.”

A WikiLeaks cable on Vietnamese education, sent from the US embassy in January 2010, said: “…The Vietnamese educational system is widely regarded as being in crisis at all levels… Teaching methods remain too passive, with students having little chance to interact with the teacher, discuss issues, or ask questions.”

A rising number of the nouveau riche, as well as some middle and upper income middle class families in Vietnam are opting to send their children abroad for higher studies.

Experts say they are “escaping” an education system that is rigid, of suspect quality and riddled with scandals in recent years.

In 2010, Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer for Vietnam found that education was perceived as the second most corrupt sector.