Specialized schools are not places to train "fighting cocks"

Students of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted (Ho Chi Minh City) during class - Photo: NHU HUNG

* Mr. Le Nhu Tien - former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children:

A truly elite training environment

In my opinion, each province should still have a specialized school. But the outline must be clearly defined so that specialized schools can truly be elite training environments in the true sense. If specialized schools are eliminated, the educational environment will find it difficult to train elite teams to spearhead and become the core force of the country.

Many people talk about privatizing specialized schools like other socialized education models. Diversifying educational models for parents to choose from is necessary, but specialized schools should not be privatized. Because if the State does not control it, it will easily lead to unpredictable negative effects.

* Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, Head of Training Department, Hanoi National University:

Not a place to train "fighting cocks"

Specialized schools must clearly set out their philosophy. It is not about training "fighting cocks" but about training talented people with full knowledge, skills and ambition. This is not just a place to nurture students to win awards but a place to create key staff and high-quality human resources.

Many students graduating from specialized schools have high scores but face problems such as poor foreign language skills, lack of skills, and difficulty integrating. To train talented people, we must not focus on "training" students to excel in one subject to compete, but first of all, we must provide comprehensive training, focusing on soft skills, foreign languages, and information technology. Next, we must have an environment to inspire and nurture passion and aspiration. This is the key point in training and nurturing talented people.

* Dr. Nguyen Sy Dung, former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office:

Re-evaluating the specialized school system

I still support public specialized schools because that system is necessary, helping to train outstanding human resources, creating conditions for talented people in each field to develop their qualities, especially for poor students. However, it is necessary to evaluate the specialized school system in the past period to adjust it to new requirements, eliminating negative aspects as reflected by public opinion to ensure fairness. We must fight against negative aspects, not eliminate them just because they are negative.

* An education expert:

Clarifying high-quality schools and specialized schools

The place to nurture and train talents is different from the model of high-quality schools, so the plan of 1-2 specialized schools in each province is a mechanical orientation. This also raises the issue of confusion between the concepts of high-quality schools and specialized schools.

High-quality schools and specialized schools are now both described as having good teachers, good facilities, and equipment such as libraries, laboratories, sports fields, etc. But while high-quality schools invest in good facilities and provide good services for those who can pay tuition, specialized schools use the State budget.

This ambiguity and lack of clarity in direction leads to wasted investment while failing to promote the strengths of nurturing talent and creating high-quality human resources for the country. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to clarify so that, in addition to the high-quality school system, specialized school models need to be re-examined to have a special development direction from enrollment to training and to provide specialized schools with breakthrough mechanisms.

Localities must train their own talent.

When he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training, Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan directed the development of a project to develop a system of specialized high schools for the period 2010 - 2020. When sharing about the specialized school model on the occasion of summarizing 10 years of implementing the project, Mr. Nhan said: "When I was a minister, I was startled because many places did not understand the purpose of the establishment and existence of specialized schools. Some localities asked to dissolve specialized schools because there were no awards for excellent students for many years. Because of that, I directed the development of the project with the hope that this would truly be a place to train talents for the country. First of all, each locality must train its own talents."

According to Tuoi Tre