VietNamNet Bridge – Teachers have been told to draw up e-lesson plans in order to improve the teaching quality. However, it seems that they are facing too many difficulties in applying information technology in teaching.

A lot of funny stories have been related about how teachers use overhead projectors in their classes.

A secondary school history teacher was in a cold sweat as she could not turn back to the home page to find the figures for the battle that she mentioned in the lesson. Finally, she had to ask for …students’ help. Another teacher, in a biology class, wanted to show her students the motions made by a flying bird . However, though the teacher tried to click the computer’s mouse for several times, the bird still… could not fly.

A primary school teacher in district 10 in HCM City used the e-lessons compiled by a colleague. However, the problem was that the font size was too small, while most of her students were short-sighted. At first, the teacher could not understand why students were so passive in the lesson and they just sat quietly. “Why are you so passive? Why don’t you say anything?” the teacher asked students. Then the class representative said: “We cannot see anything on the screen”.

Can information technology help improve teaching quality?

B, a student of TV High School in HCM City, admitted that teaching with e-lesson plans help make the classes less boring. However, B said students have many problems with the new teaching method.

“Previously, our literature teacher wrote down the main ideas on the blackboard. But now, as she has overhead projector, she only has to show slides on the screen. We now do not look at the blackboard, but look at the screen and copy the notes in our notebooks,” the student explained.

“However, the problem is that the teacher shows every slide for just several minutes, and we cannot copy all the necessary notes,” she complained.

An official of the HCM City Education and Planning Investment, who asked to be anonymous, said that e-lesson plans still do not contribute to lessons as much as expected. Some teachers use overhead projectors just to show students some images or video clips which may attract students. But they do not care about the efficiency of the new teaching method.

The official said that he cannot see many improvements in the teaching efficiency which uses the new methods. In the past, teachers lectured and students noted down in their notebooks. nowadays, teachers show slides, and students note down on their notebooks

A teacher of Phan Chu Trinh Primary School in HCM City said that e-lesson plans will help make the lecturers more lively and more attractive. However, it will take teachers more time to draw up e-lesson plans. Therefore, in order to save time, teachers copy e-lessons from each other. However, this had led to the fact that the e-lessons are nearly the same and they are not creative.

Le Thi Lien, Teacher at Duong Minh Chau Primary School in District 10, said that in order to compile the plans for 32 geography lessons, she will have to spend two years to look for materials.

Meanwhile, many teachers have doubts about the efficiency of e-lesson plans. A teacher of Trung Phung Primary School in Hanoi related that her school has purchased an overhead projector worth five million dong. However, the overhead projector has onlybeen used for workshops and conferences and special teaching hours. “It is a big waste of money. I think the money could be used for some other urgent needs,” she said.

The same thing has been happening with many other schools. A lot of overhead projectors have been left idle, because teachers are reluctant about using the “high-tech product”. Meanwhile, even the teachers keen on IT also believe that teachers should not completely rely on overhead projectors in teaching.

Source: Tuoi tre

VietNamNet Bridge – Information Technology and Communication (ICT) plays an important role in poverty reduction around the world and particularly in Vietnam. Therefore, it is necessary to universalize informational technology and application in the educational system. 

The issue relating to the universalization ICT in education, attracted many concerned people at the Vietnam National Conference Technology and Communication 2010. It is difficult to get ICT development in Vietnam, if the country fails to universalize ICT in education and develop ICT human resources.

Digital gap reduction

ICT will help the poor farmers and in particular to reduce the ‘digital gap’. It will also create opportunities to share knowledge and information, on agriculture, forestry, fishery, cultivation and animal husbandry. It will also assist with agricultural development issues such as education, training, services and e-commerce.

Over the past ten years, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT) implemented a project of internet connection in all schools. However, the project was cancelled due to increasing costs.

In September 2008, the Military Telecom Group, Viettel announced that it would provide free internet connections to all schools and educational offices across the country. Until December 2010, Viettel completed its target to fully provide free internet connections to schools and educational offices.  The program provides more than 25 million teachers and student’s access to internet for teaching, studies and research work.

Viettel also signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Training, to invest in the equipment, manuals and other related documents to help train teachers in the use of the internet. Last year, schools in Dien Bien, Lai Chau, and Central Highlands region were able to connect to the internet using this program.

Dr. Quach Tuan Ngoc, Head of the Information Technology Department from the Ministry of Education and Training, said the program help schools connect to the wider world’s communities. The internet will help reduce the technologically ‘backward gap’ that can exist among some regions in the country.

Creating electronic educational programs

According to Information Technology experts, it is difficult to develop IT human resource if schools are not able to access the internet. If teachers cannot access the internet, they will not be able to teach effectively and students will not be able to research and study.

The internet connection plays an important role in developing modern education, say experts, and the use of the internet at schools will help the IT sector train more high-quality individuals.

The educational sector needs support from the IT companies and state government, said an expert.

Colonel Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of Viettel, said Viettel would maintain and provide free internet to all schools.

Dr. Ngoc claimed that Vietnam would now be one of the few countries in the world that provides free internet access, to all its schools.

According to the 2010 report, from the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), Vietnam was ranked with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in the use of informational technology (IT) in the educational field.

Source: SGGP

VietNamNet Bridge – The project to teach English to secondary school students has been described as “setting many ambitious goals”. Teachers still have worries about the feasibility of the project, because they do not have much time – just 9 months – to prepare for to execute the program.

According to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien, under the English teaching program to secondary school students, the teaching will be provided to students from 6^th grade, and students will have a total 420 teaching hours during secondary school.

English teaching programs will be implemented nationwide by 2020.

Under the project, upon finishing secondary school, students will reach the second level in English skill standards (in all four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing). Meanwhile, students finishing high school (12^th grade) will reach the third level of English skill standards. Right from the 2011-2012 academic year, science subjects will be taught in English at gifted high schools.  For the momnt teaching in English will be applied to mathematics and informatics.

Hien said that in the first stage of the program only selected schools will to carry out the program. After that, the program will be applied in all secondary and high schools nationwide. 

Meanwhile, teachers remain cautious when talking about the feasibility of the project. Many experienced English teachers have worries that nine months will not be long enough to develop a high quality curriculum for teaching English for 6-12^th graders, including 420 teaching hours for secondary schools and 315 hours for high schools.

Haste makes waste

One of the most important conditions necessary to execute the program in the trial period is that schools must have teachers who can meet the set requirements. Meanwhile, educators all say that it is very difficult to find qualified teachers.

Nguyen Thanh Lich, Director of Lao Cai province’s Education and Training Department said even universities still do not have lecturers who have IELTS 6.0 English certificates, let alone secondary or high school teachers, especially in schools in small provinces.

In fact, in order to prepare for the program the Ministry of Education and Training plans to organize training courses, both in Vietnam and foreign countries, for the teachers of the schools. However, educators still warn that even if there is a good teaching and learning environment, where students can join activities to communicate in English, but there are no good teaching aids and good material facilities, the program will fail.

Headmasters of many general schools have asked the Ministry of Education and Training to set up standards for English teachers, i.e the skills teachers must have to be able to teach English at secondary and high schools. Besides, they have also urged the ministry to prepare for the program soon, saying that it is necessary to learn lessons from the English teaching program for 3^rd graders. A few days before the new school year, primary school teachers attend necessary training courses. Meanwhile, there has been no common and shared syllabus for teaching and every school has used its own methodology for teaching English.

Source: Nguoi lao dong

VietNamNet Bridge – The US believes that Vietnam is a good destination for its investors. Experts are now talking about the third US investment wave in Vietnam.

The last month of 2010 proves to be the busiest for the US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak, who is going to wrap up his term in Vietnam.

After bidding farewell to the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on December 13, he has been attending a lot of farewell parties with different  ministries and government agencies before ending the term of office, during which he witnessed a lot of significant events.

The US Ambassador witnessed three most important events relating to the US investment in Vietnam, including the signing of the contract on providing satellite, equipments for operation station and providing satellite launching service between the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) and the US Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems; the signing of the contract on BOT power project between Vietnamese Vinacomin Group and AES in April 2010; and the inauguration ceremony of the Intel’s factory at the HCM City High-tech Park in October 2010.

Talking about the AES’ project, Mr, Michalak said  he believed that the 1200MW project and the huge investment capital of $1.8 billion shows the AES’ long term commitments to the energy development process in Vietnam. “Long term commitments” are the words commonly seen in most of the speeches of the US officials or businessmen when talking about the investments in Vietnam.

Since 1995, the two-way trade between Vietnam and the US has increased by 33 times. In 2009, the US became the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam. In the same? year, the two way trade reached $15.4 billion.

Even in the period of the global economic recession in 2009, the US exports to Vietnam still increased by 11 percent, while the country’s exports to other ASEAN countries saw  two-digit decreases.

The new investment wave – what is it?

In April 2010, the Vietnam-US Business Forum was established, aiming to push up the trade and investment between Vietnam and the US, provide information about the laws and regulations which would have impacts on the business environment, to the Government, and foster the third-party cooperation, among the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Vietnam Labour Federation, and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

Mr. Michalak said that the US diplomatic delegation has defined the so called “the most potential areas”. These are the areas where the US companies have high competitiveness, including telecommunication, information technology, oil and gas exploration, power production, highway building, environment technology and aviation.

“Our main challenge is to make US companies understand that there are numberless business opportunities awaiting them in Vietnam,” he said.

The US investors have agreed that there is third US investment wave in Vietnam. Herb Cochran, Managing Director of AmCham, said that it is the right time to cooperate in order to serve the investment wave.

The first wave came in the period from 1995 to 2000. A lot of US companies have been very successful and expanding their business in Vietnam, including Cargill, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.

The second wave appeared after the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement which took effect in December 2001. The open US market has become the big consumer of Vietnamese products, especially garment, footwear and interior products. A lot of US companies have got involved in the distribution of the products, thus helping increase Vietnam’s exports to the US from $1.1 billion in 2001 to $14.8 billion in 2010.

The third wave is considered as starting in 2006-2007 with the huge project of Intel in Vietnam. In 2010, more than 20 US companies that top the “Fortune 1000” list arrived in Vietnam to assess business opportunities.

Mr. Herb Cochran said that the important factor in the business strategy of companies is the concept “China + 1”, or “China and India + 1”. Vietnam was aware of the phenomenon in 2008, when it began taking steps to prepare for the third investment wave.

AmCham’s Chair Hank Tomlinson, at the Vietnam Business Forum held recently, emphasized that Vietnam needs to increase its competitiveness in attracting foreign investment. “High quality investments always go to the countries which offer optimal conditions,” he said.

He has called on the Government to cooperate with investors to settle problems, and to ensure that the business environment in Vietnam is competitive compared to neighbouring countries.

Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of new policies set up in 2010 by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) has had big impacts on the telecom market. 2010 is also the year which witnesses the stiff competition among mobile phone service providers, according to VnMedia.



MIC tightens control over sale promotion campaigns



On May 14, 2010, MIC released a decision setting up the limitations for mobile service providers in promotion campaigns.



Under the new decision, mobile service providers must not offer the promotional values exceeding 50 percent of the goods’ values. Mobile service providers can offer promotion programmes for no more than 90 days within a year and every programme must not last more than 45 days. Besides, service providers are now allowed to offer sale promotions for more than 180 days a year for both pre-paid and post-paid services.



The new regulation, which took effect on July 1, 2010, was released after mobile service providers had been continuously launching promotion campaigns, trying to slash mobile service fees dramatically. At that time, MIC believed that it was necessary to take intervention to stop the race which caused an unhealthy competition.



Deputy Minister of MIC Le Nam Thang said that the decision to tighten control over sale promotion campaigns has brought the desired effects. Instead of rushing to offer promotion programmes, mobile service providers nowadays focus on improving the quality of services in order to retain clients.



Previously, when too many promotion campaigns were launched, people changed their mobile phone numbers continuously, because they would throw away simcards right after they spent all the account money and buy new simcards at low promotional prices. This had led to the big waste of the storage of numbers. However, with the stricter control, the situation has ended.



CDMA networks facing big difficulties



By 2010, Vietnam’s telecom market has had seven official mobile service providers with five GSM and two CDMA networks. The fact that the majority of service providers choose GSM networks instead of CDMA shows the difficulties that CDMA service providers face at this moment.



Since the beginning of the year, Sfone has fallen into big difficulties, when SK Telecom, the foreign partner, decided to leave S-Fone joint venture.



Sfone has to change its business mode after all the staff of SK Telecom left Vietnam in January 6, 2010. SK Telecom now just acts as a shareholder in the joint venture. Since mid 2010, S-Fone has been managed and run by Saigon Postel. The Vietnamese company is now seeking new partners to develop S-Fone network.



The fact that FPT Group purchased stakes of EVN Telecom, once again, can show the difficulties that CDMA networks are facing. In October 2010, FPT and FPT Telecom announced the purchase of 50 percent of stakes of EVN Telecom. This means that the second CDMA network has to find a partner to cooperate after a long period of operation with modest achievements.



More opportunities for new technologies



In September 2010, MIC granted license to apply 4G LTE modern technology on the trial basis to five enterprises, namely VNPT, Viettel, FPT Telecom, CMC and VTC. The trial basis will last one year, after which enterprises will have to join bids to obtain the licenses 



Doubts have been raised about whether Vietnam should allow application of 4G LTE services at this moment, when 3G network is still underdeveloped.



However, experts believe that it is not too early to grant licenses at this moment, and that the trial period is needed now to find out if the technology fits enterprises and the market.



VNPT has teamed up with a Russian company to try LTE in Hanoi in November 2010. Prior to that, in October, VDC, a member of VNPT, completed the installation of the first LTE base transceiver stations in Hanoi.



Source: VnMedia