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Nearly one thousand of students at a training centre for university entrance exams in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District are instructed to learn sample literary essays to prepare for their upcoming exam.

Besides paying fees for the class, students have to spend money on buying literary questions with the answers enclosed. During the four-hour lecture, the teacher only focuses on training students to learn the answers by heart, discouraging their creativeness.

Many students take their tape-recorders to the class so they can practise the content at home. The special method is claimed to help 90% of learners to pass university entrance exams.

Speaking with Dantri/DTiNews, a student who joined the class said there were around 1,000 people attending the lecture. Every day, the teacher gives them a literary topic with the answers available and then tells them to repeat the content many times.

She said that she did not know which university the teacher works at but she was introduced by an acquaintance that had participated in the class and passed the university entrance exam.

Dubious teaching method

According to Prof. Dr. Tran Hong Quan, Former Minister of Education and Training, this is a completely wrong teaching method because literature requires feeling and awareness. It is unacceptable for all people have the same essay.

He said that it is necessary to train future teachers at their schools to raise their awareness about the bad impacts of this teaching method.

Ngo Van Son, a lecture of the Hanoi University of Education, said he was very surprised at the video published on Dantri/DTiNews, adding that despite the centre being located near his university, but he did not know anything about it.

“I’ve witnessed such cases in which the teacher provides a complete literary essay for students and then they read it loudly in chorus following her words so that they can easily learn it by heart,” he said.

Vice Headmaster of Newton High School Le Thi Bich Dung also opposed to this method, saying that, it was unacceptable because it discouraged students’ ability to think for themselves. She, however, said that the method is fuelled by demand.