Summer courses need 'filters' from authorities

DIVERSE SUMMER COURSES

Summer camps or summer courses are increasingly being chosen by many parents because of the benefits they bring to children. Children also love to participate in summer camp activities instead of traditional summer school forms that are stressful and boring. Therefore, these activities are increasingly flourishing with many different programs, contents, and models to meet the needs of students and the budgets of families: English summer camps, summer camps combined with domestic and international tours and travel; military summer camps; skill summer camps; STEM summer camps, boarding and semi-boarding summer camps; temples also organize many summer retreats...

Local police issue warnings about fake, fraudulent websites offering summer courses and summer camps

With the variety of summer camps available, many parents find it difficult to find a summer camp program that is suitable for their children, effective and safe.

Recently, parents in some localities have reported that while searching for summer courses for their children, they were "trapped" by fake websites, following the registration instructions of scammers, leading to the loss of hundreds of millions of dong. Police agencies in some localities have issued warnings about fraudulent tricks when registering for summer courses on social networks and recommend that when parents want to register their children for experiential and skill courses, they should contact or call schools and units to ask and verify clearly. Registration should be done directly instead of online or by bank transfer; absolutely do not follow instructions to transfer money to anyone and for any reason if the identity of the recipient has not been accurately determined.

Not only losing money due to sophisticated scams, what parents are most concerned about is the safety of their children. The incident caused a stir in public opinion when in the summer of 2023, a boy was suspected of being beaten by his friends while attending a summer retreat at Cu Da Pagoda (Thanh Oai District, Hanoi).

According to experts, safety and educational criteria are top priorities when children participate in summer courses. However, with the diversity of types, many summer camps and experiential courses are a business product and are not yet supervised by the education sector or local authorities. This is a gap that parents must pay special attention to.

SAFETY AND EDUCATION COMES FIRST

Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, Institute of Youth Studies, Vietnam Youth Academy, affirmed the necessity and positive impacts of letting children participate in summer activities. However, he said that in order to identify a good model, parents must carefully study the content and organization of these models and activities. First, it is necessary to learn about the units, organizations, and individuals organizing these activities, to see if they are reputable and of good quality. Learn about the legality to see if they are licensed or not. Then the system of facilities and human resources of the organizations and individuals opening the courses, from which to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the courses. At the same time, learn about the evaluations and reviews of those who have used the service before to see how they evaluate and feel about these activities...

There are positive effects of letting children participate in summer activities.

Many people believe that one of the reasons for the proliferation of "summer camp scams" on social networks is that bad guys have taken advantage of laxity in management and supervision. In fact, many courses are organized "underground", without permission or by organizations, units, and individuals who are not licensed or qualified to organize, making it more difficult to grasp information for management, supervision, and handling. In addition to the necessary caution of parents, strict control from authorities in licensing, management, and supervision of these activities is also needed. We should not wait until consequences occur before taking action.

Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), said that more filters are needed to monitor the quality of units organizing courses and summer camps. Because not all parents can thoroughly research and have enough knowledge to "rate" educational centers and facilities. Many places can borrow textbooks from abroad, then label them as international while the quality of teachers and instructors is still floating. Before there is a certain standard scale for parents to evaluate and choose summer camps for their children, the effective measure that can be taken right now is to establish a "network" of many components to help parents screen reputable centers.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cac-khoa-hoc-he-can-bo-loc-tu-co-quan-chuc-nang-185240615222812898.htm