UNICEF Raises Concerns over Corruption in Vietnam Education

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that Vietnam is facing with educational corruption which hinders the country from further development, state media reported Oct 13. Vietnam is dealing with three big problems including enrolment, extra teaching and additional charges which are actually variants of educational corruption, UNICEF’s educational expert Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga said at a conference taking place in Hanoi Oct 11-13. Nga’s statement is based on a survey of issues which result in educational corruption conducted by Transformation and Change Management Consulting Co., Ltd under the sponsor of the Government Inspectorate. The survey was conducted in 850 teachers and schoolchildren parents in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang in May. Final results showed that 85% of schoolchildren parents accepted extra learning, 70% of them wanted to spend more for better schools while 49% of teachers joined extra teaching and 33% of them admitted to participate in wrong enrollment activities. The UNICEF’s expert blamed the situation for the state’s loose management and parents’ expectations on children’s results“. The undisciplined extra teaching has been so familiar in the society that children are forced to have extra course without any reaction from the community,” Nga noted.
Currently, the majority of schoolchildren are taking part in extra courses despite parents’ disagreement.
“Parents are hardly to reject the extra courses in fear that their children will be treated unfairly,” Nga worried.
Additional fee is another problem worrying local authorities about the educational corruption as almost all schools require parents to pay for many things which are already included in the tuition.
Notably, schoolchildren parents in Hanoi were forced to buy projectors worth around VND60 million ($3,070) each for primary lessons.
To end this, Nga recommended some drastic measures which will help change parents’ awareness and the state’s management to the above issues. (Lao Dong- Labaor Oct 13 p1, Ha Noi Moi -Hanoi New Oct 12, www.dantri.com.vn Oct 12)