The 13th National Party Congress approved Vietnam's 10-year socio-economic development strategy for 2021-2030 with the general goal of: "By 2030, strive to become a developing country with modern industry and high average income... By 2045, strive to become a developed country with high income".
It is worth mentioning that to realize the above goal, human resources are the key factor determining success, in which STEM human resources (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) must be really good. However, looking at the current reality, many things are still limping.
The proof is that in recent years, the proportion of candidates who tend to choose the Natural Science combination exam in the high school graduation exam has been decreasing. For example, in 2023, according to information from the Ministry of Education and Training, the number of candidates registering for the Natural Science exam accounted for 44.7% of the total number of candidates. By 2024, this rate continued to decrease, out of nearly 1.1 million candidates registering for the high school graduation exam, only 37% of candidates chose the Natural Science exam. This has caused many opinions to wonder and worry that in the long term, this rate will cause an imbalance in the structure of human resources between fields, affecting the priority goal of developing science and technology and new industries.
According to research, the orientation for choosing the Natural Science/Social Science combination exam is advised by schools for students from grade 10. Specifically, students rely on their own career orientation to choose the appropriate subject combination (Natural Science or Social Science combination).
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| The Social Science exam is considered by many students to be "easier" than the Natural Science exam and is a safe solution to avoid failing. |
However, according to many 12th grade students, by the time the high school graduation exam combination was finalized, the early admission results for universities based on transcripts had been announced, so many students chose the easier combination exam to complete the high school graduation requirements. The Social Science exam is considered by many students to be “easier” than the Natural Science exam and is a safe solution to avoid failing.
High school teachers also explained that many candidates choose the Social Science exam because they believe that the components of this exam are close to life, allowing them to reason about situations and guess answers. For students who are not yet solid in Natural Science subjects, choosing the Social Science exam not only achieves the goal of graduation but also helps them have more time and invest in compulsory subjects for both high school graduation and university admission such as: Math, Literature, Foreign Language.
Commenting on the uneven selection rate between the two groups of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences by candidates in recent years, education experts said this is a worrying reality.
Professor, Doctor of Science Nguyen Dinh Duc - Chairman of the University Council of the University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi - said that scientific educational research has shown that, in the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution, knowledge of STEM and Natural Sciences is not only a requirement for fields related to science, technology, and engineering but also a provision for all fields.
“Human resources that are not equipped with knowledge and skills related to STEM and Natural Sciences will affect the quality of development of new industries. A country with a higher percentage of candidates choosing the Social Sciences exam for university admission than Natural Sciences has been posing a big question: how can human resources integrate in the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution?” - Mr. Duc shared.
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| Higher education institutions are places that directly train human resources for the country's industrialization and modernization. Photo: Quoc Thang |
The Chairman of the Board of the University of Technology assessed that for majors in Social Sciences, in the past, the training program often did not/had few subjects on natural sciences and technology, but now it is necessary to equip a certain proportion of knowledge on STEM and information technology in the training programs. Therefore, the fact that few candidates choose the combination of Natural Sciences subjects not only affects the quantity and quality of human resources in the technological era, but also affects the quality of human resources in other fields such as law, economics, ... which are all "backbone" majors in the current context.
“The fact that fewer and fewer candidates register for the high school graduation exam and choose the Natural Science exam shows that young people have the mentality of “following the easy, giving up the difficult”. As a result, science, engineering and technology majors have few candidates to enroll, and some schools will have to “loosen” the admission conditions, which will limit the quality of the input. On the candidate side, there will be students admitted to science, engineering and technology majors with scores that are not outstanding, and it is difficult to follow the curriculum, leading to a high rate of students dropping out of science and engineering majors after the first year,” said Mr. Duc.
It can be seen that in the process of development, some jobs will disappear and many new jobs will be born, so the choice of exam subject combinations can change to suit the trends and context of society.
The project “Developing human resources for the semiconductor industry to 2030, with a vision to 2045” clearly states that it is necessary to train 50,000 engineers to serve the semiconductor industry in all stages of the value chain; and of the 50,000 engineers, at least 5,000 personnel need to have in-depth expertise in AI (artificial intelligence).
Human resources serving the semiconductor and AI industries are often graduates of natural science majors. In order to achieve both quantity and quality of human resources serving the development of new industries, there must be a policy mechanism applied to learners and those participating in training this human resource, especially for learners (such as tuition exemption, scholarships, etc.) to create attractiveness for students to study natural science majors.
“The State needs to have policies to attract talent and support talented people to pursue engineering and technology. Because these are difficult fields, but often have many students from difficult circumstances studying, so they need support so that they can pursue their passion, aspirations, and become successful. From there, it will contribute to changing the quality and structure of human resources in training and future use,” said Mr. Duc.
Source: https://congthuong.vn/hoc-sinh-tu-choi-khoa-hoc-tu-nhien-cach-nao-hien-thuc-hoa-khat-vong-quoc-gia-co-cong-nghiep-hien-dai-339026.html
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