Education
State agencies refuse bachelors of private schools
  • | VietnamNet | October 19, 2011 05:54 PM

Nam Dinh provincial authorities have released a shocking decision that they will not accept the bachelors who graduate from non-state schools as the officers in state agencies.

At the latest civil servant recruitment exams held on October 16, Nguyen Van Tuan, Chair of the Nam Dinh provincial People’s Committee, Chair of the Recruitment Council, said that the province does not employ the bachelors who graduate from people founded, private schools or those who graduate in-service training courses.

Therefore, five candidates, who graduated private schools and intended to attend the exams, were not allowed to attend the competition.

A shocking decision

The decision by the Nam Dinh provincial authorities has caused shock to headmasters of non-state owned schools and education experts.

Dang The Huy, Deputy President of the Luong The Vinh people founded University, said that on October 17, after the decision was released he received tens of calls complaining that the school’s students were refused.

Huy said that the school will petition to the Association of non-state owned Schools and the Ministry of Education and Training about the problem. He stressed that while the provincial agencies refuse Luong The Vinh’s students, enterprises and other institutions still have accepted the school’s graduates.

A recent survey has found that 100 percent of the students graduating from the agriculture faculty of the school have found jobs, while 30 percent of them have very high income.

Describing this an “unreasonable decision”, Le Truong Tung, President of the FPT University, said that there are always good and bad schools among non-state owned schools, and there are always good and bad schools among state owned schools as well.

“I wonder if Nam Dinh provincial authorities will accept the students who graduate from foreign universities, if most of the foreign universities are private schools?” Tung questioned.

According to Tung, the most important thing for employers is seeking qualified people, not seeking students from state owned schools.

However, a question has been raised on what “qualified people” means. Not all the students from state owned schools are excellent, and not all students from non-state owned schools are bad. The renowned Harvard University in the US is also a private school.

Tung said that FPT University’s graduates have been recruited by big Japanese companies. “If you believe that non-state owned school students are all bad, how can you explain the fact that FPT’s graduates have been recruited by big international groups?” Tung said.

Banh Tien Long, former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said that Nam Dinh provincial authorities’ decision needs reconsideration, stressing that good and bad students exist in every school.

He said that if there were too many candidates who applied to attend the recruitment exams, the provincial authorities should make public the criteria to choose officers for state agencies. The criteria should be based on the qualification and experiences of candidates, not on the schools they graduate.

“All the students, who graduate universities, no matter state owned or non-state owned, and get university degrees, must be treated equally,” Long said.

In fact, Nam Dinh is not the only locality which says “no” to non-state owned school graduates. One year ago, the Da Nang City’s authorities also announced that they would not accept the students who graduate from in-service training courses.

Explaining the decision, Da Nang’s authorities said that the decision aims to heighten the quality of the staff at state management agencies. In the eyes of many people, non-state owned school students do not have high quality, and students only register to study at private schools when they fail the entrance exams to state owned schools.

However, the decisions by Da Nang and Nam Dinh have been facing strong opposition from educators. Professor Pham Minh Hac, Professor Dr Dao Trong Thi, Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong and Professor Ho Ngoc Dai, the well known educators in Vietnam, all say that the decisions are “unreasonable.”

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