2008 Blogs

Visiting a neighboring college

03/06/2009

This morning I visited Nha Trang National College of Pedagogy. The school is 22 years old, having started in 1987 as a one-year training course for nursemaids. In the early 1990s it began training nursery and kindergarten teachers, and in 2007 it was renamed to reflect the majors it now offers: early childhood education, music, fine arts, physical education, and special education. There are just over 2300 students enrolled. As you recall, students in Vietnam must take university entrance examinations, and their score determines which schools they are eligible to attend. The government also establishes quotas stipulating how many students may be admitted to each area of study. At this university, for example, the quota for early childhood education is much higher than the quota for music or fine arts. I also learned that education students attend school tuition free because the government wants to encourage more people to become teachers.

I received a tour of the library and then met with the librarian and some administrators to discuss ideas for improvement. The library has 10,000 titles (but approximately 95,000 books--many are duplicates).  The library holds multiple copies of course texts, which students can borrow instead of purchasing. This would not work very well in the U.S., where we are constantly updating and changing textbooks.

The faculty here are very busy writing supplemental texts--chapters or small books that the library duplicates, binds, and then makes available for sale to students.  They also are encouraged to translate English-language books into Vietnamese.  What an interesting way to cope with the shortage of expensive publisher-produced materials.

Later in the morning I visited a center for children with disabilities, which is housed at the College.  It began last April under the direction of a British VOA volunteer and has grown enough to add a couple teachers who are recent graduates of the Special Education program.  I arrived just as the last child was being picked up by his father.  The center is doing excellent work for children like this one, who at 4 years old had not left his home until a few weeks ago because his parents were afraid he would wander away and endanger himself.  As the staff explained to me, progress is slow, but it is very satisfying.

As we were preparing to leave for lunch, a group of students stopped by to present us with bouquets of flowers for International Women’s Day. They pulled up chairs, had us sit down, and then a spokesperson made a statement expressing their gratitude for the work the volunteer is doing and how much they appreciate her.  It was very sweet of them to include me too.

What an interesting day! As always, when you awake in the morning you never know what you will learn and do in the next 8-12 hours.