Education Minister Responds to Concerns About Mass Enrollment

TPO - Answering questions before the National Assembly on the afternoon of June 19, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that he would not "encourage" universities, especially non-public ones, to pursue enrollment numbers while ignoring training quality.

'Race' to recruit students to meet enrollment quotas?

At the question and answer session on the afternoon of June 19, delegate Pham Van Hoa ( Dong Thap ) acknowledged that every year, non-public universities compete to increase enrollment targets to generate revenue, without paying attention to training quality.

According to him, this has caused many graduates to be unable to find jobs, and have to leave their majors, even after graduation. The delegate asked the Minister to tell him what the cause is and what solutions to overcome this situation are to ensure that graduates have stable jobs?

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son. Photo: Nhu Y

In response to the question, Minister Nguyen Kim Son wanted the delegates to provide the source of the above reflection. According to him, when presenting the data, it is necessary to identify who compiled it and what the source was. Otherwise, non-public universities will feel very hurt.

According to the Minister, non-public schools have a situation of massive enrollment, but there are also schools in the top 1,000 in the world . In carrying out the responsibility of state management, the Ministry has administratively punished a number of schools that enroll more students than their quota.

The Minister emphasized that currently, the quota is calculated based on training capacity. If it exceeds the capacity, the sanctions will be severe; and schools that have announced their training capacity within the scope will be reminded to make adjustments.

The Minister affirmed that he "does not encourage" schools to chase quantity but need to ensure quality, both public and private schools.

Besides, it is necessary to create conditions for non-public schools to be equal and develop, but the quality must be strict to ensure that students will have good jobs.

Each school will have a psychological counselor.

Raising questions, delegate Dang Thi Bao Trinh (Quang Nam) raised the issue of students being influenced by family circumstances leading to dropping out of school, deviant behavior, and even breaking the law.

It is noteworthy that this situation is on the rise. Meanwhile, the education system, early detection mechanism and timely support for psychological staff at most levels are not guaranteed.

Questioning session with Minister Nguyen Kim Son on the afternoon of June 19. Photo: Nhu Y

"What is the Minister's responsibility in continuing to build and arrange specialized school psychology staff at educational institutions in the 2025-2030 period? What is the Ministry's roadmap to ensure that all levels of education have specialized human resources in school social psychology?", the delegate asked.

Responding, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that in modern schools, having psychologists and student support experts is extremely necessary. According to him, from the end of 2024, the education sector has determined that at least each school will have this job position.

However, the Minister said, from the policy to ensuring all 52,000 schools nationwide have a psychological counselor is a process that cannot be done overnight, and requires preparation.

The Minister of Information said that currently only 5% of schools nationwide have school psychological counselors. This number is very small compared to the need. The remaining schools have psychological counseling teams that are part-time teachers.

In that context, the ministry has trained teachers to work as school psychologists and actively trained teachers. Currently, the scale of clinical and school psychology training is more than 9,000 people. However, compared to the demand, this is still a small number.

On the other hand, according to the Minister, each school having only one psychological counselor is not enough to handle this job.

Therefore, Mr. Son hopes that this is not only the work of teachers but also requires the sharing of parents and socio-political organizations, only then can this work be guaranteed.

Luan Dung

Source: https://tienphong.vn/bo-truong-giao-duc-phan-hoi-lo-ngai-ve-tuyen-sinh-o-at-post1752730.tpo