Education and Vietnam

Topic: “After studying in the United States, there are many aspects of education that may stand out to you (classroom policies, teaching styles, admission requirements, etc.). Examine the American education system and find differences and similarities in comparison to the education system in your home country. Explain the comparison with reasons and examples from your own experiences, observations or reading.”

Similarities and differences between American and Vietnamese education system
Education plays an inevitable role in people’s lives, since it provides them with essential knowledge and skills to live and succeed in an increasingly sophisticated society. Because of its importance, the teaching and learning style has been improved over years. Due to the differences in regions, cultures, the development of education system diverges from a country to other countries. As for Vietnam and America, the education systems in the two countries share some similarities and differ from each other.

In general, education in both Vietnam and America serve for the same purposes. Both systems are aiming to universalize education, to give everyone opportunities to study. In America, the wide range of universities and colleges efficaciously offer education to everyone at any level of studies as desired. Similarly, the increasingly number of schools and universities in Vietnam has met the need for education of people. Recently, it is recorded that Vietnam has successfully universalized high school education in the whole country. In addition, another mission of the education systems in Vietnam and America is to generate qualified work force and leading intellectuals, who are competent to contribute to the development of the countries. In Vietnam, the urgent need for skilled workers has forced the government to allocate more budgets for the enhancement of the education system. Likewise, as a result of great efforts, American education system has been among the top of the world and attracted a large number of elite students and intellectuals from many other countries.

Although education is of importance to both countries, there are several notable differences between the two systems in various aspects. The first difference lies in the public and private school system. In America, most of the prestige schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are private and non-profit ones. Due to the flexibility and financial independence from the government, they are generally considered better than most public schools. In contrast, the most elite schools and colleges in Vietnam are state-run and -funded ones. Most private schools in Vietnam run for profit. Although, their budgets are not dependent on the government, the school curricula and high-ranking faculties are assigned by the Minister of Education.

Secondly, the operation of American colleges is of difference to that of Vietnam. Students when attend Vietnamese universities will be assigned to a specific class, which is a group of students sharing a same major. Each class will be given a schedule and assigned a classroom for the whole semester. Professors will go from class to class to offer lectures, and the class will study together until graduation. Meanwhile, in American colleges, each professor is assigned to offer a class on a specific subject. Students will need to register for the classes that needed to graduate based on their majors. In this way, students can make their own schedules and choose the professors that they prefer.

Thirdly, there is a big difference in attitude toward plagiarism between Vietnamese and American education system. In America, plagiarism conductors are strictly punished; they can possibly be dispelled from schools, lose their jobs as professors or journalists. Therefore, in the class, American students are encouraged to develop their own opinions and discuss in the class. However, in Vietnam, ideas are usually imparted by teachers to students, and it is even encouraged to learn by heart and copy the teachers’ ideas on the exam, especially in Literature, when students are supposed to give their own opinions on literature work. Furthermore, in colleges, students’ theses are often a copy-paste work. Information is collected from various sources and then mixed together. Though plagiarism is easy to be recognized, it is often ignored when being graded. As the education level becomes higher, plagiarism might be less prevailed and considered more seriously but not as strictly as in America.

Last but not least, the college admission process is also a difference. American colleges’ admission requirement often varies from university to university. Various criteria are often used such as entrance exams, high school transcript, extracurricular activities, personal statement, financial ability, etc. Each university can have different criteria based on the characteristic of the students that the university need. On the contrary, Vietnamese students can only attend colleges by taking the entrance exam, which is operated once a year, whereas SAT or ACT in America take place several times annually. Thus, there is only one admission period per year in Vietnam, which is the start of the fall semester, while American students can apply for colleges at different time during a year such as fall, spring, summer, winter terms.

Although Vietnamese education system shares some basic similarities with American system, they are of great difference as day and night due to historical, economic and social issues. The former Vietnamese education system was mostly derived from the former Soviet Union and French, and core characteristics have been kept until today. Meanwhile, American education system has a long history of distinctive development. The difference in the origin has led to most of the differences between the education between Vietnam and America. 95

Material| Fully explains an event, including historical or other contextual details necessary to understand the effects of that event, and details the effects that event had on the student’s life or the life of someone known to the student.| 18 points| Organization| Material is organized appropriately to allow readers to clearly understand the author’s stance and how information in each paragraph supports that position.| 20 points| Expression| Uses appropriate vocabulary—including transitional devices—and sentence structure to convey meaning clearly and maintain a reader’s interest.| 19 points| Correctness| Uses appropriate word choice, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling with few grammatical errors.| 20 points| Paper Process| Completes each step of the revision process. If any of the below steps are not completed due to an absence or failure to complete an updated draft for the day it is due, points will be deducted from the process grade. 1. Submit draft to Criterion (5 points) 2. Achieve minimum Criterion score of six points (5 points) 3. Participate in peer review (5 points) 4. Complete peer review questionnaire (5 points)| 18 points|

Education plays an inevitable role in people’s lives, since it provides them with essential knowledge and skills to live and succeed in an increasingly sophisticated society. Because of its importance, the teaching and learning style has been improved over years. Due to the differences in regions, cultures, the development of education system diverges from a country to other countries. As for Vietnam and America, the education systems in the two countries share some similarities and differ from each other.

In general, education in both Vietnam and America serve for the same purposes. Both systems are aiming to universalize education, in other words, to give everyone opportunities to study. In America, the wide range of universities and colleges efficaciously offer education to everyone at any level of studies as desired. Similarly, the increasingly number of schools and universities in Vietnam has met the need for education of people. Moreover, it is recently recorded that Vietnam has successfully universalized high school education in the whole country. In addition, another mission of the education systems in Vietnam and America is to generate qualified work force and leading intellectuals, who are competent to contribute to the development of the countries. In Vietnam, the urgent need for skilled workers has forced the government to allocate more budgets to education. Likewise, as a result of great efforts, American education system has been among the top of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States#The_status_ladder) and attracted a large number of elite students and intellectuals from many other countries.

Although education is of importance to both countries, there are several notable differences between the two systems in various aspects. The first difference lies in the public and private school system. In America, most of the prestige schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are private and non-profit ones. Due to the flexibility and financial independence from the US government, they are generally considered better than most public schools. In contrast, the most elite schools and colleges in Vietnam are state-run and -funded ones. Besides, most private schools in Vietnam run for profit. Although their budgets are not dependent on the government, the school curricula and high-ranking faculties are appointed by the Minister of Education.

Secondly, the operation of American colleges is different from that of Vietnam. Students when attend Vietnamese universities will be assigned to a specific class, which is a group of students sharing a same major. Each class will be given a schedule and assigned a classroom for the whole semester. Professors will go from class to class to offer lectures, and the class will study together until graduation. Meanwhile, in American colleges, each professor is assigned to offer a class on a specific subject. Students will need to register for the classes that are needed for graduation based on their majors. In this way, students can make their own schedules and choose the professors that they prefer.

Thirdly, there is a big difference in attitude toward plagiarism between Vietnamese and American education systems. In America, plagiarism conductors are strictly punished; they can possibly be dispelled from schools as for students, or lose their jobs as professors or journalists. Therefore, in the class, American students are encouraged to develop their own opinions and practice critical thinking. However, in Vietnam, ideas are usually imparted by teachers to students.. It is even encouraged to learn by heart and copy the teachers’ ideas on exams, especially in Literature, when students are supposed to give their own opinions on literature work. Furthermore, in college, students’ theses are often a copy-paste work. Information is usually collected from various sources and then mixed together. Though plagiarism is easy to be recognized, it is often ignored when being graded. As the education level becomes higher, plagiarism might appear less prevalent and receive more serious attention but not as strict as in America.

Last but not least, the college admission process is also a difference. American colleges’ admission requirement often varies from university to university. Various criteria are often used such as entrance exams, high school transcript, extracurricular activities, personal statement, financial ability, and other conditions. Each university can have different criteria based on the characteristics of the students that the university need. On the contrary, Vietnamese students can only attend colleges by passing the entrance exam, which is operated once a year, whereas SAT or ACT in America take place several times annually. Thus, there is only one admission period per year in Vietnam, which is the start of the fall semester, while American students can apply for colleges at different time during a year such as fall, spring, summer, winter terms.

Although Vietnamese education system shares some basic similarities with American system, they are of great difference as day and night due to historical, economic and social issues. The earlier Vietnamese education system was mostly derived from the former Soviet Union and France, and some core characteristics have been kept until today. Meanwhile, American education system has a long history of distinctive development. The difference in the origin has led to most of the differences between the education in Vietnam and America.