The Ministry of Education and Training has informed that it has stopped the state budget funded programme on sending Vietnamese students abroad – the 322 programme.
A notice has been sent to every student who has successfully obtained the state’s scholarship to study at foreign universities, saying that the programme has stopped because the programme has not been budgeted yet, while there has been no new project to replace the 322 programme.
At the press conference on May 21, Nguyen Xuan Vang, a senior official of MOET said the 322 programme was approved in 2000, under which the programme would be carried out in three phases. By the end of 2011, 2598 people had been sent to foreign training courses.
“The government believes that the programme 322 has been successfully fulfilled, and MOET is compiling a new programme to replace the programme 322 which is expected to be submitted to the government in June,” Vang said.
According to Vang, the decisive matter here in the case is the budget for 2012. MOET has submitted to the government and the Ministry of Finance--the estimates for the 911 programme on training masters and sending university lecturers abroad.
The 47 university students and tens of people planning to attend the training courses for master degree and doctorates have been influenced by the new decision.
All of them have expressed their dissatisfaction and despair about the decision. Tang Van Binh, who has been very famous after he came first at the university entrance exams to the Hanoi University of Foreign Trade in 2010.
After studying for one semester, Binh left the school to learn English to prepare for the overseas training course under the programme 322. Binh has obtained the necessary foreign language certificates and has successfully enrolled in a university in the US.
“The university in the US has accepted me. I just need to follow formalities to get visa. However, I have been told that I would not be able to attend the course because of the lack of money. I do not know what to do now,” Binh complained on VnExpress.
Pham Duc Hung, also a famous student as the gold medal winner at the 2009 Mathematics Olympiad, when he was just an 11th grader, also said he has successfully enrolled in a school in the US. “The notice from MOET has made me feel something missing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the parent of Ngo Mai Hanh, one of the “victims” of the decision, said MOET has “poured a ladle of cold water” into the heads of students and their families.
“MOET has told students to keep calm and wait. It says instead of catching this train, they would have to wait to catch the next train. However, all of them now feel very anxious when no one can be sure that they would be able to go abroad to study,” he said.
Nguoi lao dong newspaper has reported that the 47 students have sent a petition to Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, shouting for help.
MOET has suggested two solutions to the students. They can either to choose to attend the training courses in the countries with which Vietnam signs education cooperation agreements, or return to their previous universities.
However, none of the two options has been favored by the students. After a period learning the foreign languages of the previously targeted countries, they now have to begin learning other languages, if they decide to go to other countries. Meanwhile, returning to the previous Vietnamese universities is just the unwilling choice.