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Despite low tuition and the 100-period (one period of 45 minutes) curriculum, the majority of general school students are not interested in vocational training programs. They attend the vocational classes just to receive bonus marks.

Nguyen Ha V, a 10th grader at Kim Lien High School in Hanoi, said that she spent 1.5 years to attend training when she was at secondary school and plans to continue attending another training course at high school.

“I learned how to make flowers from paper,” V said, adding that after attending the course, she received 1.5 bonus points, which were added to the secondary-school finals’ result.

“Making paper flowers is easy so we chose it,” she explained.

Despite low tuition and the 100-period (one period of 45 minutes) curriculum, the majority of general school students are not interested in vocational training programs. They attend the vocational classes just to receive bonus marks.

However, the student admitted that though students attended the training course, they did not come to class regularly because the lessons were boring.

“My friends could not make flowers. They bought flowers in the market and submitted them to the teacher,” she said.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, a 12th grader in Hanoi, admitted that she was not interested in vocational training, but she still registered to attend a course to learn how to make paper flowers.

“We don’t think we can improve our skills or get something from the course. We registered for the course just because we hoped we could receive bonus marks when sitting the high-school finals,” Anh said.

“Someone surfs the internet, and the others sleep or do math exercises,” Anh said when asked what students do at vocational lessons.

There are 213 9th graders at the Khuong Dinh Secondary School, and 100 percent of them choose to study informatics for vocational training.

Do Viet Hien, the headmaster of Khuong Dinh, said in fact, only 90 percent of students initially wanted to study informatics. However, the school advised the other 10 percent to change their mind, because it would be easier to control students if all of them attend the same training course.

Nguyen Thi Van Hong, headmaster of Le Loi Secondary School in Hoan Kiem district, admitted that she was not sure about the efficiency of the vocational training, because many students follow training not because they want to improve their skills, but to receive preferences.

Under current regulations, vocational training at secondary school is implemented with financial support from local authorities. Therefore, each student pays only VND40,000 for a training course which lasts 1.5 years.