VUSTA affiliated associations must lead national Olympiad contests
Since 2010, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations(VUSTA) has been the sponsor for a number of awards and competitions. In addition to enable professional associations’ involvements, VUSTAhas also coordinated with member associations to organize awards and competitions and partially funded for awards and competitions as a support including national Olympiad contests.
The students receive Loa Thanh Award in 2020 organized by Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Association
The National Mechanical Olympiad with more than 30 years of establishment and development has strongly promoted the study and research of mechanics subjects, developed and encouraged talented students in universities and academies. This movement has really been a stimulating factor for students' scientific ambition which are not only a useful playground for students fond of mechanics but also a key activity from which it originates and spreads learning spirit of students in universities and academies.
For past 30 years, the major universities such as the University of Civil Engineering, Hanoi Architectural University, Thuy Loi University and Ho Chi Minh Architectural University are those have many contest projects and also those win the most prizes (271, 215, 150 and 89 official prizes of all kinds, respectively).
However, the students of many small and local universities have also won the top prizes in recent years showing the pervasive effect of the award to universities and society. Especially, international cooperation in training has been promoted in some universities, which has made good contribution in improving the quality of graduation projects in which the first prizes are considered as proofs.
Meeting the runners up of the Mechanical Olympiad Contest held in Thuy Loi University in 2019
Recently, there have been difficulties, limitations and recommendations for the Olympiad such as the host universities have encountered a lot of difficulties in generating funds and expenses for the competitions. In many cases, teachers have to volunteer to teach overtime without pay. Participating students also receive very little material support or other incentives in the learning process, especially the students who have taken the exam have not yet had a real connection to the agencies, businesses, where they have the conditions to develop their knowledge and intellectual abilities.
In addition, the inconsistency in terms of content, training programs in universities in Vietnam is factual at the moment, the subjects which are being taught with different contents and duration, even different symbols and professional vocabularies (many universities have gradually switched to translated textbooks or used original foreign textbooks) is also a significant obstacle for teachers and students in reviewing. Therefore, it is very necessary for a governing body to come up with a standard curriculum framework for different types of universities, from which it is possible to structure the exam questions in the specialized and non-specialized direction.
Currently, many universities have completed their organization processes and scenarios, and this Olympic movement has spread widely to universities, academies and colleges, especially those belonging to the armed forces have had more and more participation. But funding is still limited, so it is unable to extended to students who have won national and international prizes. For these students, it is required to set up a separate group for competition.
Olympiad Contest Review Workshop organized by VUSTA in 2020
Therefore, mandatory agencies should enable a conducive condition to assist and simplify administrative procedures in task registration and payment for funding annual National Olympiad contests for students, especially namely Vietnam Physics Association’s experimental tests. It is proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training should maintain the form of rewards for individuals and collectives who win prizes as agreed between the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training and those of VUSTA. The VUSTA member associations shall continue to promote and show their key role, to host of contests and awards and sponsorship, partially funding, conducting awards and contests as well as , conduct and active coordination between the host agencies, renovate the organizing content and method of awards and competitions in the direction of improving the quality of candidates, contests and prizes in order to build the contest prizes into impressive and attractive movements suitable to juniors, promoting the movement of scientific development in the new time.
Reporter
