VietNamNet Bridge – The State’s budget for vocational training has been increasing year after year. However, the big sums of money spent have not brought the adequate effects.
A report of the Vocational Training General Directorate showed that in the last three years, VND4.778 trillion has been spent on the vocational training. Of this, VND1.64 trillion was spent on vocational training in rural areas, VND252 billion on retraining commune-level workers, and VND2.9 trillion on upgrading the material facilities at vocational schools.
Only after 3 years of the national vocational training program implementation, the expenses on materials facilities have been equal to 75 percent of the total investment expenses during 11 years, while the expenses on training laborers was just 8.08 percent.
With such a big amount of money poured into the material facilities, the vocational schools and districts’ continuation education centers, which were at the point of death because of no learners and degrading material facilities, have revived strongly.
It is estimated that each of the state owned vocational center at the district level was allocated VND40-50 billion to upgrade the material facilities and buy new equipments to serve the learning and teaching.
In Dak Nong and Lam Dong provinces, five vocational training centers were found as misspending money in equipment procurement. They bought much equipment and have never used them.
However, the huge investments seemingly have not satisfied the local authorities. Some localities have asked for bigger budgets.
The Pho Yen District in Thai Nguyen province, for example, asked for quick disbursement to build the Nam Thai Nguyen Vocational Intermediate School. Bac Giang wants money to build the districts’ vocational training centers in some areas of the province. Meanwhile, Soc Trang province wants VND20 billion from the state budget ever year to buy new equipments.
Well equipped vocational schools are believed to be the prerequisite condition to attract learners, which then led to the “equipment procurement movement.”
However, experts pointed out that the training quality does not fully depend on the material facilities and equipments.
Huynh Van Thon, General Director of the An Giang Plant Protection Chemical Company, said under his training method, farmers were organized in groups, headed by the best farmers. Farmers were taught the cultivation technique right on the fields.
Pham Vu Khiem, Headmaster of the Long Bien Vocational Junior College in Hanoi, said the school has trained 3,669 rural workers, who have got stable jobs with the average monthly income of VND2.4-4.5 million. The school itself contacted enterprises to discuss the job programs, and only after that, it enrolled learners. Meanwhile, the state did not have to spend more money on the material facilities.
Experts have pointed out that so much money was spent unnecessarily on upgrading schools, while the training quality did not get the appropriate attention. Local authorities rushed to build vocational schools in every district. Meanwhile, it’s unclear if the schools can exist after the program ends, i.e. the schools would no longer receive money from the program.
The national program aims to train rural workers and help them get stable jobs. However, the experts have commented that the biggest beneficiaries from the program are not the rural workers who need jobs, but the vocational schools themselves.
SGTT