Life skills should be offered as a subject in Vietnam's educationcurriculum to encourage a more well-rounded development of students, asheard at a recent education conference.
Deputy Director of SaveThe Children Vietnam Doan Anh Tuan cited increasing numbers ofVietnamese parents calling for life skills courses, arguing that suchskills are needed in addition to academic knowledge nowadays.
The Ministry of Education and Training has already taken actions to equip students with basic life skills, Tuan said.
However,the inclusion of life skills courses in Vietnamese schools isdifficult, partly due to a shortage of trained teachers and partly timeconcerns. Vietnamese students' educational programmes are alreadycriticised for being overloaded and stressful.
An officer fromSave the Children foundation, Hoang Tay Ninh, said that lack of lifeskills makes youngsters unconfident in crowds, dependent, selfish,irresponsible to family, and incapable of coping with sudden problems.
Shecited a survey of 45 students from a class in central Ha Tinh province.All 45 students rode bikes to school but few could name parts of thebike and none could fix it if needed. Only four of them can swim and athird of them can cook. All of them remember friends' birthdays but onlyfour remembered their parents' birthdays.
Others have blamed thelack of life skills for adolescent crime, for example the case of ateenager boy who killed his seven year old neighbour for money forcomputer games.
Ninh said life skills education is not an official subject at school now, it is mixed into Literature and Biology subjects.
"Whenteachers have to teach both life skills and their expertise, they areunder pressure, which makes the teaching process less effective," shesaid, adding that few teachers are trained to teach life skills.
LeAnh Lan from the United Nation Children's Fund, said that theorganisation started life skills education in Vietnam 15 years ago.
Shesaid that now, as Vietnam updates education and training systems tofoster more practical skills, is the right time to formally bring lifeskills education into the national education programme.
However, she said, life skills should not be approached as a typical subject.
"Life skills can be learnt in any subject, from anyone, anytime and anywhere," she said.
Anofficer from the Education and Training Ministry's Students AffairsDepartment, Vu Duc Binh, said the ministry issued life skills teachingmaterials to teachers to teach in five subjects at schools and outdooractivities.
Since 2009, Save The Children along with provincialand city education departments ran projects to improve students' lifeskills from primary school to university. The projects focused onhealth, money management and natural disaster response.
Le DucAnh, a tenth grader in Hai Phong city's Do Son High School, said hebenefited from the financial and money-management lessons.
"Ithelped me know more about money, the value of money, how to spend andsave money effectively, and how to talk about money with my parents," hesaid.
"I hope to have more life skill lessons," he said, "It would be great to have life skills as part of our school curriculum."-VNA
Deputy Director of SaveThe Children Vietnam Doan Anh Tuan cited increasing numbers ofVietnamese parents calling for life skills courses, arguing that suchskills are needed in addition to academic knowledge nowadays.
The Ministry of Education and Training has already taken actions to equip students with basic life skills, Tuan said.
However,the inclusion of life skills courses in Vietnamese schools isdifficult, partly due to a shortage of trained teachers and partly timeconcerns. Vietnamese students' educational programmes are alreadycriticised for being overloaded and stressful.
An officer fromSave the Children foundation, Hoang Tay Ninh, said that lack of lifeskills makes youngsters unconfident in crowds, dependent, selfish,irresponsible to family, and incapable of coping with sudden problems.
Shecited a survey of 45 students from a class in central Ha Tinh province.All 45 students rode bikes to school but few could name parts of thebike and none could fix it if needed. Only four of them can swim and athird of them can cook. All of them remember friends' birthdays but onlyfour remembered their parents' birthdays.
Others have blamed thelack of life skills for adolescent crime, for example the case of ateenager boy who killed his seven year old neighbour for money forcomputer games.
Ninh said life skills education is not an official subject at school now, it is mixed into Literature and Biology subjects.
"Whenteachers have to teach both life skills and their expertise, they areunder pressure, which makes the teaching process less effective," shesaid, adding that few teachers are trained to teach life skills.
LeAnh Lan from the United Nation Children's Fund, said that theorganisation started life skills education in Vietnam 15 years ago.
Shesaid that now, as Vietnam updates education and training systems tofoster more practical skills, is the right time to formally bring lifeskills education into the national education programme.
However, she said, life skills should not be approached as a typical subject.
"Life skills can be learnt in any subject, from anyone, anytime and anywhere," she said.
Anofficer from the Education and Training Ministry's Students AffairsDepartment, Vu Duc Binh, said the ministry issued life skills teachingmaterials to teachers to teach in five subjects at schools and outdooractivities.
Since 2009, Save The Children along with provincialand city education departments ran projects to improve students' lifeskills from primary school to university. The projects focused onhealth, money management and natural disaster response.
Le DucAnh, a tenth grader in Hai Phong city's Do Son High School, said hebenefited from the financial and money-management lessons.
"Ithelped me know more about money, the value of money, how to spend andsave money effectively, and how to talk about money with my parents," hesaid.
"I hope to have more life skill lessons," he said, "It would be great to have life skills as part of our school curriculum."-VNA
