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[news] Scholarship-A Lesson In Ineffectiveness
VIETNAM: Scholarship-A Lesson In Ineffectiveness
Vietnam Economic News
By Hau Hien
My sister told me that when she was a
student in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she
did not have to pay any tuition fee, and
received a full scholarship of
VND22,000/month at that time. This sum of
money, though not much, did bring a great
joy to students like her, since it can provide
them with food for an entire month at their
hostel. To win such a scholarship, they had
to work extremely hard and competed with
one another. they would always be looking
forward to the day on which scholarships
were granted. If you think that students still
feel the same way today, guess again.
As a subsidy economy no longer exists,
students' parents are the ones who shoulder
all of their children's expenses including
meals, clothes and tuition fees. The present
scholarship level has been applied for almost
seven years now. During this same period,
the salary system has undergone changes
twice. In the meantime, the scholarship
system remains the same, while living and
studying expenditures keep increasing. Just
do a simple math calculation: an excellent
student in accordance with the State's
regulations is granted a full scholarship of
VND49,500/month. Meanwhile, the average
monthly tuition fee that a student must pay is
VND100,000 at least. That's not to mention
extra sums of money spent on extra courses,
books and reference materials. Students who
come from distant provinces to study in the
city must, in addition, pay a lot more for their
food and accommodation. So how many days
can that VND49,500 cover?
I have been told by some students that their
scholarships are not even enough for
breakfast. Low scholarships are one of the
reasons that do not encourage students to
study, let alone to try to achieve good results,
and this has consequently led to an
lackadaisical attitude among students. At
present, excellent students get a monthly
scholarship of VND49,500, and the other two
groups achieving good and encouraging
results get 75 percent, and 50 percent of this
sum, respectively. As most students consider
scholarship amounts to be a joke in general,
75 or 50 percent of a joke is still a joke.
Nguyen Thi Hanh, an excellent junior
student at the National Economics
University, who is granted a full scholarship
confides: "My scholarship cannot cover half
of the fee for my computer course, so I just
use it to buy foreign language books. Such
books are nowadays very expensive though,
and sometimes I cannot buy a single book
with my entire scholarship". Trinh Van Hai,
a student at the Hanoi University of
Technology is somewhat luckier in that he
was born in a rather well-off family, and
doesn't worry much about fees. Speaking
about the way he spends his
VND25,000/month scholarship, Hai frankly
puts it: "It is so small that I do not know what
to spend it on, so I usually use it to treat my
friends".
As for those students from less privileged
families, the scholarship of
VND49,500/month or less is still an useful
sum of money. Nevertheless, the money can
only be used to pay half of their monthly
tuition fee, in spite of the various ways
students find to save. What about their
meals, accommodation and study
necessities? Obviously it is their parents who
expect their children to lead a better life
thanks to a good education, that have to work
harder just to provide a little extra for their
children's' educational requirements.
Searching for an appropriate solution:
That the current scholarship system is
out-of-date is well known, yet there seems
to be no feasible solution to change the
situation at present. In 1992, the then
Chairman of the Ministers' Council, now the
Prime Minister said that "the scholarship
system currently applied to tertiary
educational institutions must be changed to
encourage students to study". Nothing has
been changed so far.
Vice Secretary of the Hanoi National
University's Communist Youth Union. Vo
Viet Tan, remarks: "The present division of
scholarship levels appears to be illogical. As
the scholarship is granted basing on
students' studying results, those who are in
the city enjoying better economic and
learning conditions have a better chance to
receive scholarships than those students that
come from poor families, and have to study
and do extra work at the same time. How will
the scholarship system be changed then,
while the total fund earmarked for
scholarships is not increased? The answer is
a different method of scholarship division, or
more generally, an entirely new concept
among the educational circle. In line with the
Central Government resolution concerning
comprehensive educational development, the
Ministry of Education and Training in 1997
proposed to the Government that the number
of scholarship recipients be reduced, while
the value of the scholarship itself be
increased. Moreover, the scholarship fund
will not be evenly distributed to all
establishments, but priority will be given to
teachers' training institutions and professions
that need to attract more capable students.
Scholarships will also be based on not only
the students' studying and training results,
but also their families' actual level of income.
Part of the scholarship fund will be utilized to
give aid to poor students, particularly those
from mountainous, distant and far off areas.
Director of the Political Affairs Department
under the Ministry of Education and
Training, Do Van Chung, adds: "The
Ministry sets forth the direction of reducing
the number of scholarship recipients,
identifying the group of poor students, and
increasing the present annual scholarship of
VND300,000 to between VND1-1.5 million.
Therefore, scholarship for students will have
a more practical value".
Apart from this, the Ministry has also asked
the Government to set up a scholarship and
social aid fund for students with either of the
two following options: deducting scholarships
from the regular budget allotted to
educational institutions to form the National
Scholarship Fund to be used to encourage
good students and support poor ones; or
forming two separate funds: the scholarship
fund being deducted from the regular budget
allotted to the education and training branch,
and the aid fund handled by the Ministry of
Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
The Ministry of Education and Training's
proposal is presently taken into consideration
by the Government, who will soon produce
the most appropriate decision to ensure
equality in education. It is hoped that in the
upcoming school year, a new scholarship
system will be applied to give students more
opportunities and better studying conditions.
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