From 18 to 22 September 2012, 25 participants from education sector and provincial women’s unions of 5 provinces had a chance to experience Malaysia’s education model. The purpose of the study tour was to learn and to exchange experiences regarding active teaching and learning in general, student’s performance assessment and community involvement in education in particular. This was clarified carefully to each participant during a short meeting before the trip.
The first destination of the study tour was Malaysia Ministry of Education, where the delegation met with Division of School Management and Division of Co-curriculum and Arts. The delegation was introduced to the Malaysian education system in general and evaluation of student’s performance in particular. The newly developed and piloted school based assessment includes not only academic aspects but also on non-academic aspects such as living skills, health education, extra-curricular activities, etc. This is perfectly in line with the objectives of the Vietnamese education system, making this information extra useful and very practical for the visitors.
To have a better understanding of the practical procedures of student’s assessment and community involvement, the delegation visited 3 secondary schools in different contexts: urban area, rural area and urban boarding school. In each school, the participants had a chance to obtain information through presentations, Q&A sessions, school tour, class observations and interviews with Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) or households. The new point in evaluating students’ performace is that secondary students enrolling from this school year onward would be evaluated on competencies in both academic and non-academic achievements. As one of the interviewees succinctly put it "...they should be qualified and competent persons, not bookworms...". PTAs and schools in Malaysia have a close relationship. PTAs assist in creating an education friendly environment, especially by enhancing socialization of education and improving life skills for students through social events and extra-curricular activities. These experiences were very valuable for the visiting education managers to gain ideas of flexible school management that can be applied to the Vietnamese context and for the WU participants to have a fresh view on collaboration with the education sector.
After each day, participants gathered in a reflection session, where they recalled what happened during the day, sharing feelings, experiences and lessons learnt. In the wrap-up session, they then shared lessons learnt and possible applications related to issues of interest.
The tour was genuinely useful and practical to the delegation, inspiring them with ideas and wishes to bring about changes in evaluation of students’ performance and cooperation between school and the community. Lessons learnt related to school management, active teaching and learning, and life skills for students (to help them develop holistically) were all valuable to participants. They had a chance to learn, for example, how to manage effectively school equipment, how to manage vocational education and outdoor activities more efficiently, how close the school and the parents and the community should be in organizing educational activitites, etc. Indeed, this Malaysia tour has raised the awareness for social participation, more specifically through PTA and its dynamic involvement in school activities, which is not a strong point in Vietnam.
We were happy to find out that participants would like to apply the new experiences in their daily practice; especially social participation and life skill related issues in programme supported communes with Education and Life clubs.
For more details please see attached report.
