Hanoi Open University in the ICT-based LearningPartnership with SEA Countries

Presented by Prof. Phan Van Que,Vice-President, Hanoi Open University,

GB member of SEAMOLEC

Introduction

Education is a major factor for human resources development. Although more schools, colleges and universities have been established, and the number of students is increasing, the education cannot meet the expectation of the industries and society in terms of quantity and quality.

To improve the education system, the Government has released a number of policies, such as: expanding international co-operation, encouraging continuing education, enhancing vocational training and ICT application.

International co-operation in education has been regarded as an effective measure to improve the socio-economy in Vietnam. Expanding international co-operation by maximizing the country’s internal strengths and capacity, mobilizing support for education has been a clear policy of the Government. Local institutions are encouraged to set up links with their international partners to offer education services, exchanging information, participating in international co-operation activities with the international organizations of which Vietnam is a member.

Hanoi Open University is participating in the SEA-Edunet, contributing to the development of the consortium for the better quality of education in Southeast Asia. However, there are still challenges for us to overcome.

Education System

In terms of delivery mode, the education system includes 2 categories: formal and continuing (informal) education. Formal education operates basing on full-time, face-to-face schooling. Continuing education consists of two sub-categories: (1) part-time face-to-face training and (2) distance learning. By law (Education Law 2005), all modes of education are equally recognized.

Vertically, the education system in Vietnam is divided into 5 level categories: pre-primary, primary, junior secondary, secondary, and higher education.

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Pre-primary education

Public kindergartens usually admit children from the age of 18 months to 5 years. Children at 4 or 5 years of age are normally taught basic Vietnamese writing and reading. This is a preparation period for primary schooling.

Primary education

Children normally start their primary education at the age of six. Education at this level lasts 5 years and it is compulsory for all children. That may be one of why, despite remaining a poor country, the proportions of the country population who are literate very high, over 94%.

Junior secondary education

Junior secondary schools teach students from grade 6 to 9. This educational level is generalized throughout most of the country, except in very remote provinces, which expect to popularize and standardize middle education fully within the next few years.

Secondary education

Students who pass the Junior Secondary Examination are able to enroll in high school, which consists of grades 10, 11 and 12.

Higher education

University Entrance Examination (UEE) is very important in Vietnamese students' lives. High school graduates have to take it after the Secondary school Graduate Examination and get high results to be admitted to universities. The pressure on the candidates remains very high despite the measures that have been taken to reduce the heat around these exams, since securing a place in a public university is considered a major step towards a successful career for young people, especially those from rural areas or disadvantaged families. In the school-year 2008, it was estimated that nearly 1,400,000 Vietnamese students took the UEE, but only 1 out of 4 candidates succeeded.

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E d u c a t i o n s y s t e m i n v i e t n a m

P r e-p r i m a r y s c h o o l3 years

k i n d e r g a r t e n

S e c o n d a r y s c h o o l

3 years

V o c a t i o n a l s c h o o l

2 years

V o c a t i o n a l c o l l e g e

3 years

J u n i o r s e c o n d a r y

s c h o o l4 years

Tra i n i n g ce n t e r< 1 year

Primary school 5 years

D o c t o r2-3 years

m a s t e r2 years

u n i v e r s i t y4-6 years c o l l e g e

3 years

V o c a t i o n a l s c h o o l2-3years

Vocational Education

Vocational education has been specially paid attention to, for the industries need skilled and practical workforce. Vocational education consists of 3 levels including training centers, vocational schools, which offer degrees/certificates from a-few-month to 2-year courses, and vocational colleges offering 3-year courses.

Training centers/vocational schools offer practical courses to students. After finishing their training, the graduates are able to work with basic skills in certain jobs. Vocational schools aim at providing professional knowledge and practical skills to students. The graduates are able to apply technological skills to their jobs. They can upgrade to higher level of education if they wish. Vocational colleges offer courses of higher level in technology and skills to students. The graduates are required to work actively by themselves or in a team. They can solve complicated practical issues in their jobs.

Impressing Demand for Skilled and Productive Human Resources

Despite remarkable progress Vietnam has made for the past few years, more needs to be done to eradicate poverty and improve living standards. Rapid economic growth and programs targeting poverty and social equity need to be sustained. This implies a need to develop human resources to meet the

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increasing demand for a more skilled and productive workforce.

Currently, there are 45 million working people out of the population of 86 million, ranking 2nd in the region and 13th in the world. The skilled workforce increased from 7.6% (1986) to 30% (2007). In 2001 there were only 325 vocational training centers/schools, the number leaped to 950 institutions (2007). The total students rose from 995,000 to 1,696,500.

According to the General Statistics Center, there are still 80% of the workforce working in the industry have not been properly trained. There are around 10 million trained out of 45 working people. Especially, 65% workforce in the areas of agriculture, forestry, fishery, but 3.85% out of them have been trained. This causes low productivity and slows down the competitiveness of the economy.

International Co-operation Policies

Being aware of the pressing needs for qualified workforce while the educational system exposing shortcomings, the Government directs several solutions to the issues. International co-operation is one of the measures to take for improving the quality of the human resources.

The Government supports the expansion of international relations to exchange

views, ideas, experiences, advanced progresses in researches, studies,

technologies and to enhance mutual understanding among peoples for peace,

friendship and co-operation. International co-operation provides opportunities

to mobilize external resources for the development. The Government also

encourages foreign investments in the education system in the form of joint

training and research programs, foreign owned universities and schools,

overseas research fellowships. More importantly, the Government has reserved

funds from the state budget to send Vietnamese students overseas to study and

do researches in needed areas. Self-funding overseas studies are also

encouraged.

Open Coursewares for Teachers and Students

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has created a platform for

sharing courses between institutions, teachers and students. Since 2007, under

the sponsorship by Vietnam Education Foundation (from USA) and

Masachuset Institute of Technology, an Internet portal namely “Vietnam

OpenCourseware Program” (VOCW) has been in operation. All the courses

are from the International institutions. The mission of VOCW is to make the

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OpenCourseWare features rich, useable, re-useable, and accessible at no cost

firstly for academic environment, and later on to all in the society. Currently,

there are 1,101 courses online www.vocw.edu.vn.

T h e MoET has also launched an electronic library to the Internet

www.ebook.moet.gov.vn. By June 2009, there will be 1,000 courewares

contributed by the universities online. The electronic library is accessible to

all. Another portal namely “Vietnam Online library for E-teachers” for

teachers to exchange knowledge, experience and view is now in operation.

This website has been jointly created by a foreign institution and a Vietnamese

enterprise, www.giaoan.violet.vn.

Hanoi Open University (HOU)

Vision and Goals

HOU is a higher education institution of mixed mode, multi-areas at different levels, and a leading provider of ODL in Viet Nam. HOU aims at upgrading the people’s knowledge, training the human resources, meeting diversified needs for education of the people, providing the labor market with qualified products, contributing to build a learning society.

HOU will improve and diversify the media and technologies, keeping up with the international standards to meet the learners’ needs, and for international collaboration.

By 2010, the number of distance students will reach 100 thousand; millions of people throughout the country including rural, mountainous, remote areas and islands will be beneficial from the HOU’s programs broadcasted via radio, television and the Internet.

Technologies and Media

HOU has been developing three generations of technologies: print, audio-video and ICT, of which ICT is given priority for development, gradually changing from face-to-face tutorials to individualized two-way-communication.

In a few years ahead, print material will remain the basic platform for other media to develop. Due to the reading habit of the learner, the friendliness of access and cost effectiveness, print materials will still be of good use for students.

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Staff and Faculties

For over 15 years of development, 10 faculties have been established including Economics and Business Management, Tourism, Information Communication Technology, Electronics and Tele-Communication, Laws, Bio-technology, Foreign Languages, Industrial designing, Finance and Banking, School of Distance education. Currently, HOU employs full-time personnel of 270 members and 2,000 part-time lecturers and tutors.

Curriculum and Students

HOU is mainly offering courses at university level, some at college level and vocational training. In early 2008 the Government gave the permission to HOU to operate post-graduate courses. The majors of great demand at HOU include business management, accounting, information technology, computing, law, foreign languages, electronics - telecommunication.

Currently, over 60 thousand students are taking courses offered by HOU, 65% of which are distance students, 12% are part-time, and 13% are attending full-time face-to-face courses. To support the students, HOU has established 50 local learning centers throughout the country.

Advantages and Challenges for HOU in Participating SEA-Edunet

Advantages

Hanoi Open University is now in good conditions in participating SEA-Edunet. First, the policies by the Government and the MoET encourage us to co-operate with foreign institutions in building and sharing curriculum and courses. Therefore, the mission and vision of SEA-Edunet are highly appreciated in Vietnam. Second, ICT and tele-communication application is improving very fast. The growing speed of Internet subscribers and users is highest in ASEAN. Currently, 30% of the population can use Internet; there are 70 million telephone subscribers (80% of which are mobile phones) out the population of 86 million people. Estimatedly, there will be 100 million mobile phone subscribers by 2010. Third, in collaboration with SEAMOLEC, HOU has set up satellite receiver equipment at three locations, in Da Nang, Quang Ninh and at HOU. Moreover, HOU is experienced in operating distance education. Finally, in December 2008 the Indonesian delegation of school principals and teachers visiting 6 Vietnamese institutions has encouraged us greatly.

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Challenges

Despite of advantages, there are challenges for us to overcome. First, the mutual understanding between the participating members is still limited. The knowledge relates to the local culture, needs for education, depth of particular curriculum, etc. There should be more research, workshops, seminars and study visits among participating institutions and members. Second, language barriers cause difficulties in exchanging information. Each country has its own native language. It is easier to share curriculum and courses between institutions within one country. In the case of SEA-Edunet mobilizing all the ASEAN countries and others, English is regarded as the common language for all members. In other case, Vietnamese and other regional languages should be paid attention to, for developing the co-operation.

Conclusion

Improving education is the first priority of the national policy in Vietnam in particular and in many other ASEAN countries in general. Open and Distance Learning has been an integral part of education system in some Southeast Asian countries. ODL through the application of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been playing an important role in the acceleration of the education quality and quantity.

The creative project initiated by SEAMOLEC to develop a network namely Southeast Asian Education Network (SEA-EduNet) has been highly appreciated by educators and students. SEA-EduNet is for sharing open and educational resources and building the online learning communities among Southeast Asian educators. The management of Hanoi Open University and I myself highly appreciate the mission and objectives of SEA-Edunet.

Hanoi Open University and SEAMOLEC have been developing a partnership in open and distance learning. We have jointly conducted three international conferences and a number of short trainings in Vietnam for the past few years.

We hope that SEAMOLEC will succeed in developing SEA-Edunet; more and more people will get the benefit of the open and distance learning.

However, there are a lot of works we have to do in this partnership. Let me take this opportunity to repeat Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto’s saying in his speech on the 15th Anniversary Celebration of HOU, “Without commitment and goodwill, all the plans are not going to happen”.

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References

1. Tran Duc Vuong, International Conference Report, “Improving Oen

and Distance Larning for Sustainable development of the Educational

System in Vietnam”, Hanoi October, 2008.

2. Ministry of Education and Training, “Strategic development of ODE

2008-2020 in Vietnam”, Hanoi, 2007

3. S.R. of Vietnam’s Press release: “Socio-economic statistical data”,

Hanoi, December 31, 2007

4. Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), www.moet.gov.vn

5. Ministry of Science and Technology, daily news, www.vnexpress.net

6. Vietnam OpenCourseware Program, www.vocw.edu.vn

7. Vietnam Online Library for e-teachers, www.giaoan.violet.vn

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