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Economic expert Bui Van said his generation has exploited oil and coal to the end, caught all the fishes and chopped down trees to export to Japan. And they are proud of this, because they have made the filial generations realize that their children and grandchildren have no more choice than going to school and developing the country with deep knowledge, instead of depending on the natural resources.

The discussion themed “The youth and the school,” a part of the IPL program (Institute of Potential Leaders) taking place late last week in HCM City gathered a lot of young people – the students from universities, who came to listen to experts’ shared opinions about the school.

The youth learn what they like

Quoc Trung, a well-known musician in Vietnam, noted that people have to learn all their lives, while the human’s knowledge is limitless. Therefore, young people need to choose what they should study.

Trung has noted that young people nowadays know what they should study for and what they like studying. Some people learn hard, some others spend more time on playing than learning. However, there is a common thing between them is that they try to learn what they want, not to learn the things just to earn money.

Bui Van, the well-known economist, said that the school can bring the power to govern the world. 

700 years ago, the Mongol empire put the whole world under its horse hooves. 500 years ago, the world was ruled with the sailing boats, and just 250 years ago, British showed the power of the steam engine.

The recent reports showed that Vietnam’s global competitive index fell from the 59th to the 65th. Meanwhile, Vietnam is still below the average level in three sectors - the university and vocational education, the capability of receiving technologies and creativeness.

All of the figures and rankings showed the results of the Vietnamese education, according to Van.

Vo Thi Minh Anh from the US Mount Holyoke University agreed that a lot of young people keep going to school, but they don’t know what they should learn. It is clear that they need to study what they like, but when they make their way in the world, they still need to learn to experience many things in their lives and find out if the studies can serve the lives.

Le Ngoc Duy Thang, CEO of Navisto, has noted that the youth nowadays learn very hard, but they learn just because they think this is a kind of duty, while they don’t have the opportunities of choosing the study majors as they like.

School is the only choice for the youth

Trung said young people should not wait to see the changes in the national education system, but they should change themselves first and take initiative to follow studies to obtain their goals in lives.

Young people nowadays study for many reasons. Some of them study to obtain the degrees which allow them obtaining good jobs; others go to school just to show off their culture. Trung said that this is a great waste of time of people.

Trung went on to say that young people should not waste time criticizing the existing problems of the national educational system. Every person can create a learning environment friendly and suitable to him.

“There are many problems existing in the education system. However, you should not let the problems badly affect your learning,” Trung said.