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Monday, December 20, 2010

Evaluating in-service training, why not?


VietNamNet Bridge – While educators argue about the quality of in-service training, someone has suggested that evaluating it would be the best solution to find out the actual quality. Why not?

everyone knows that evaluation allows to give exact conclusion about the quality of university training. However, in Vietnam, to date, the quality appraisal has only been implementied on the trial basis.

By November 2010, only 100 out of 180 universities had completed the quality self-assessment reports. Meanwhile, the national council for education quality assessment has appraised 20 universities to date, and the accreditation result has not been declared.

How many in-service training students?

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), in its report on the development of the university system in Vietnam in 2009, said that Vietnam had more than 1.7 million students at universities and junior colleges, inclujding 900,000 students of non-regular training mode (of which, 220,000 students followed distance training courses), or 50 percent of the total number.

However, to date, the ministry has not released any report showing the number of students, following in-service training courses. When VietNamNet’s reporters called the Planning and Finance Department of the ministry, which is in charge of collecting information about in-service training, they were told that to date, 50 universities have not sent reports about the number of in-service training..

Meanwhile, an expert asserted that in fact, MOET has the exact numbers of students, but it does not want to declare the figure. He said that the numbers should be made public in order to avoid wrongdoings in training.

“If MOET does not have such very simple figures, how can it manage the training system with so many complicated problems?” he questioned.

Accrediting universities, when?

Pham Xuan Thanh, Deputy Director of the Educational Quality Evaluation and Measurement, said that to date, 169 out of 412 schools, including 92 universities and 77 junior colleges have sent reports about self-assessment. However, Thanh admitted that the national council for education evaluation has completed the evaluation of 20 schools.

Dr Vu Thi Phuong Anh from the HCM City National University, said that the evaluation of in-service training has been “ignored”.

“MOET has been proceeding/working very slowly even with regular training, let alone in-service training,” Anh commented

Anh said that the evaluation and accreditation have become a too big task for MOET, especially when the number of schools has been increasing so rapidly,and therefore, it is necessary to socialize the service.

By September 2009, Vietnam had had 440 universities, junior colleges and other higher-education schools. In 2008-2009 academic year, Vietnam had 1,719,499 students, 13 times higher number than that in n1987.

How to evaluate in-service training?

Many people now believe that in-service training always has low quality, while universities argue that they ensure the quality of in-service training.

Dr Lam Quang Thiep, an education expert, said that it is necessary to set up a mechanism that allows to test the quality of in-service training graduates.

Other experts believe that the testing must be done by a third party in order to ensure the objectivity

According to Dr Anh, in other countries, three parties get involved in the evaluation, while the State only set rules and controls the market. All the evaluation results must be made public.

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