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A lot of excellent students scramble for seats in classes for mathematics majors at high schools. Many win medals at International Mathematics Olympiads and national competitions. However, very few would consider earning a college degree in mathematics.
As the excitement about Ngo Bao Chau’s capture of the Fields Medal subsides, thoughtful stories in Thanh Nien and Tien Phong analyze the erosion of undergraduate interest in the basic sciences and math. Science and math majors are scarce The biggest concern of Professor Nguyen Dinh Tri at the Hanoi University of Technology is the declining quality of math majors. It’s been falling for over a decade, he says. Professor Le Van Thuyet at the Hue City Science University agrees. “Young people these days do not want to learn mathematics. Even though we have dropped the score required for admission nearly to the ‘floor level,’ we cannot enroll enough mathematics learners,” he said Ta Quang Lam at the Training Division of the HCM City University of Education says the school’s mathematics faculty has a high reputation, and still can attract many students. However, the students typically aim only to qualify for jobs as math teachers after graduation. Because they can earn a lot of money from giving extra lessons to students, it’s more profitable than becoming a mathematics researcher. Professor Ha Huy Khoai, former Director of the Mathematics Institute is troubled that it’s been necessary to lower the minimum mark for entry to university math programs. “Mathematics lecturers at universities now complain much about the quality of mathematics students,” Khoai says. “Math is a difficult subject, and it is really difficult to train students who do not have high capability.” Hung Vuong University in HCM City had to shut down its mathematics department for lack of enrolment. In 1997, the school could enroll seven math majors. “In general, excellent students do not like to study mathematics, they opt for “hot” study branches,” said Nguyen Thi Mai Binh, head of the training division of the university. The falling quality of university mathematics students has led to a shortage of candidates for PhDs. The Mathematics Institute, one of only ten facilities in Vietnam that train graduate mathematicians, has averaged only five doctoral candidates each year since 2000. What’s the point of studying math? Khoai said in the pre-doi moi (renovation) period, excellent students liked to study mathematics, because whatever one’s specialty, everyone’s pay was the same, i.e., low. However, since 1990s, when Vietnam began developing the market economy, the basic sciences have been severely affected. “We cannot deny,” Khoai said, “that excellent students who choose careers in mathematics research become poor people, while lesser talents who major in economics or finance can become rich. Therefore, even students who love mathematics, opt not to major in the subject, because they can foresee big difficulties ahead,” he said. Nguyen Quan Anh, who was a math major at the high school associated with the HCM City branch of the National University, says his class had 39 students, but only a handful chose to major in math at the college level. The majority of his classmates applied for admission to “hot” schools like the Foreign Trade University, the University of Economics, or the Medical University. Quan Anh himself won admission to the Electricity and Electronics Department of the HCM City University of Technology, and then won a scholarship to study aeronautical engineering in the US. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang, a student at the HCM City University of Natural Sciences believes students become math majors in high schools mainly so that they can get high scores in the entrance exams for economic departments of universities. More resources needed for mathematics development Professor Khoai at the Mathematics Institute rates the current situation of mathematics studies and other basic sciences as “still not too bad.” Though the overall standard has fallen, Khoai said, there are still some students who are very good. Vietnam’s mathematics science can depend on the majority of students who choose math careers. However, there’s an urgent need for special policies that encourage talented youth to follow mathematics studies. He means better pay. “It is necessary to give people an income high enough to make them feel secure if they choose to become mathematicians,” Khoai says. Further, according to Khoai, it is necessary to reorganize the curriculum. Leading professors have agreed that Vietnam should have less but better classes, where the best students are given special opportunities to develop their talents. Students who win medals at international Olympiads should be sent to postgraduate study at leading foreign universities.
(Source: Tien phong)
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