Re: Kho^ng co^ng ba(`ng (5)

[Tuan Pham <tuan.pham@unsw.edu.au>]

Aiviet Nguyen <aiviet@cat.syr.edu>

> Otherwise I don't believe that the scholarship should be like "Chia 
>Lo`ng heo". According to my judgement the standard in Hanoi is higher
>than other region, hence no surprise if they won more scholarships. 
>It is not to say that some special helps are not necessary for other regions.
>

Hi anh Aiviet

Actually, scholarships are ALWAYS distributed, to a certain
extent, like chia lo`ng heo. When the Australian govt gives 
out scholarship, they don't say: let the best students have a
scholarship. They give, say, 100 to VN, 20 to Cambodia,
10 to Laos, etc. I am not sure that the best scholar from
Cambodia is better than all the Vietnamese  who didn't get
scholarships, or if the Vietnamese are all better than the
Chinese who didn't get scholarships.

(An exception in Australia is the OPRS scholarship which
is given to the best applicants irrespective of country of origin. 
This is because the purpose of OPRS is to benefit Australia,
not the poorer countries.)

Further regional division within a country, in my opinion,
is only a logical extension of this principle. I think it
is desirable, if only because scholarship selection is 
governed by historical factors which, if left uncorrected,
lead to inherent injustices between regions.

It can be safely said that the education and examination
system presently in Vietnam have been evolving over many
years mainly in Hanoi, and therefore overwhelmingly favours
Hanoi students. Only 100 km from Hanoi I have seen many 
children too poor to attend school. The system in the South
has, of course, been completely dismantled to be replaced 
by the Northern system and many prominent educators have
gone abroad or lost or given up their job. Many intellectuals
had to to take jobs for a while as cyclo pushers and the like. 
When I visited the HCMC Uni of Technology almost all 
teachers were Northerners. Most of my (southerners) friends 
who used to teach there have gone overseas, and before that 
they found the atmosphere so unbearable they simply left.
For a long time also there was a loss of faith in education
as children and their parents thought that they had no future 
in the new system and therefore the only way "up" for them 
is to get on a boat. All this is bound to badly affect the 
intellectual atmosphere and cademic effort.

In the old confucian days most tie^'n si~ came from a small 
pocket of families in the North. It's not because these families 
were clever, but because they have hooked on to the tradition
and were teaching each other all the "tricks of the trade".
There is a lot to learn to become a successful exam sitter 
and it took generations to work these things out.

The true purpose of scholarships is not to reward achievement
at exams but to help in the development of a country. I am
not sure that giving a large number to Hanoi students - no
matter how deserving - serve that purpose. Of course we don't
want a return to the bad old days of ho.c ta`i thi ly' li.ch, 
but regional distribution is a different thing.


nhan@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Ngo Thanh Nhan) wrote

>Tho^ng tin la` ta`i nguye^n.  Kho^ng co^ng ba<`ng ve^`
>    tho^ng tin la` kho^ng co^ng ba<`ng no'i chung.
>

To^i ddo^`ng y' ca'i ddo'. Tho+`i to^i ddi du ho.c tru+o+'c 75
cu~ng va^.y, o+? ti?nh la` ca? 1 va^'n dde^` va` so^' ng` o+? 
ti?nh ddu+o+.c ho.c bo^?ng ra^'t i't so vo+'i so^' o+? Saigon 
(co' le~ 20%), tuy Saigon chi? la` 10% cu?a ca? mie^`n Nam. 
Ng` ta cu+' ddo^`n ra(`ng "da^n SG ho.c gio?i la('m", dde^'n 
khi ra dde^'n ngoa.i quo^'c ro^`i thi` tha^'y ma^'y xu+` Saigon 
cu~ng cha(?ng ho.c gio?i gi` ho+n ai (tuy o+? VN ho. thi 
dda^.u cao ho+n mi`nh)! O+? ti?nh ma` muo^'n ddu+o+.c ho.c
bo^?ng thi` pha?i co' "ddu+o+`ng da^y" information channel.
(To^i o+? Nhatrang, cu~ng la` ti?nh kha' lo+'n dda^'y, chu+' 
Ca` Mau thi` cha('c la` hopeless!) 

Cheers
Tuan Pham