Level II

Chapter 6
Listening Speaking

IC3

IC3 | IT | TOEFL | Best Answer
English | Vietnamese
Taking it Further
Assessment

Education Reforms

What are the post-conflict priorities in any country?
Câu hỏi hướng dẫn:

Skills:

In this chapter you will do these things:

English Language Skills:

Vietnamese Language Skills:

IC3 Skills: Policy Effecting Women—Women Effecting Policy

Intercultural Communicative Competence

Policy Effecting Women—Women Effecting Policy

How have Vietnamese women been effected by Đổi mới? There have been several studies to find out and here we share one article about the changes. In the United States, women have been the focus of studies that imply that women can make an impact on election outcomes.

The Doi Moi of Gender

by Suzette Mitchell, UNDP/UNV/UNIFEM Gender in Development Specialist
(from http://www.undp.org.vn/undp/unews/features/99feat02.htm )

Mini skirts, fast new motorbikes, mobile phones ... the growing trend for fashionable consumer goods amongst the young men and women of Viet Nam can be seen increasingly on city streets since the advent of doi moi.

Like every citizen, young people's lives are being influenced by greater exposure to the global community and the shift from a centrally-planned to a market-oriented economy which is steadily improving their well-being and future.

While doi moi has opened up new possibilities for greater economic and social improvements and opportunities, these haven't been shared equally by the population. The doi moi of gender - the shift towards increased gender equality - is still lagging behind.

A comprehensive study, funded in early 1999 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Royal Embassy of the Netherlands, looked at key gender issues in Viet Nam. Male and female officials, farmers, students, teachers and vendors were interviewed by the National Committee for the Advancement of Women.

A main finding of the study was that Viet Nam is a country in which gender roles are in transition. Gender stereotypes and gender values have changed little from centuries ago, although what women do - their daily tasks - have changed dramatically in those years.

Juggling these multiple, and sometimes contradictory, expectations has created new stresses for young Vietnamese women. The present full-time, productive workload of women is conflicting with traditional roles and values, causing anguish and confusion for many.

Mme Tran Thi Thanh Thanh, Chair of the Committee for Protection and Care of Children, says: "Viet Nam has always projected different images of women that have changed through history, but those images have never been as contradictory as they are now." (VET, January 1998:15).

Men in the study admitted that there were different standards and situations for women and their work.

These men say such differences are right and natural, because they are based on a "heavenly mandate" that women must be the ones to take care of their homes and families. These men confuse sex roles (which determine that women give birth and breastfeed children) with gender roles. Some even say that real equality would be harmful to society. A few men said that women's natural role is to serve, so that men can achieve their desires. Men holding this idea came from all categories, including farmers, workers, officials and students (NCFAW, 1999).

Traditionally, women are seen as following the ancient Chinese virtues that complement their role of looking after the family and staying in the home. The reality today is that most Vietnamese women work in full-time paid jobs outside the home. In work situations, they are doing the same tasks for the same pay as men, and making many non-family decisions. However, when they return home, they are expected not to make certain decisions and to continue their traditional role of unpaid labour in the house. Women trying to fulfil these multiple tasks often must sacrifice their sleep - sometimes even their health - through extra duties at night after work, leaving themselves with little free time to relax or take further studies.

The following pie charts illustrate the amount of time women and men in rural and urban areas spend on different daily activities.

Gender Division of Time in Rural Areas

rural women: sleep 8h00, work 8h45, eat 1h25, domestic 6h00 rural men: sleep 10h00, work 8h30, eat 5h00, domestic 0h30

Gender Division of Time in Urban Areas

urban women: sleep 6h15, work 8h50, eat 3h32, domestic 5h23 urban men: sleep 7h19, work 8h36, eat 6h48, domestic 1h17

These percentages illustrate that rural and urban women share more of a burden of productive and household work than men. This impact on them having less sleep and very little rest, leading to women becoming more tired and prone to illness.

In short, while women have begun to take on new roles in the workforce, once dominated by men, men have not taken on new roles in the household, still dominated, therefore, by women.

Women want to change this situation. Of those interviewed in the survey, the most common area of concern was housework. Women want to be free of some of the burden by sharing family work with their husbands, just as they now share the traditional male role of earning money.

Other priorities that women identified they want to change include:

• Women say they do not want to be considered inferior anymore. They want to change the negative stereotypes of women, so they are given more respect;
• Women say they want better paid jobs, opportunity for promotion, opportunity to travel for better paid work, access to loans and part-time work for farmers;
• Women say they want to be able to decide important matters in the family and to join men in this decision-making. Women want to be able to make the initiative in love, to choose when and whom to marry and remarry, and decide whether or not to have more children;
• Women say they want to reduce the pressure from in-laws, husbands and neighbors so that they have more freedom to act without fear of criticism; and
• Women say they want to be healthier.

Equality, of course, means changing gender roles for men as well as women, and women are recognizing this in the way they are approaching their relationships with the men in their lives. The NCFAW study looked at men's and women's perceptions of the ideal man. While men perceived this as a person earning a lot of money for his family, women - particularly young women - considered the ideal man to be a good father and husband who loves, understands and supports his wife actively.

Girls and boys seem to agree. It is interesting to see the congruence of these statements of women, with the images of gender equality drawn in an innovative competition held in 1998. Through the initiative of UNDP, the UN system in Viet Nam, with OXFAM Great Britain, provided funding to the Pioneer Council of the Youth Union last year to run a school poster competition. More than 38,000 young artists drew their visions of gender equality for Viet Nam in the year 2000 and beyond. Children aged from four to 14 drew posters titled 'Daddy helps mum take care of my little sister', 'Grandparents return from shopping' and ÆMy father is a good cook'. These images are strong in their symbolism of equality between men and women and the idea of men taking on some of women's traditional household tasks. Other images clearly showed women progressing in traditionally male dominated areas such as politics and business - even as astronauts!

Supporting women in non-traditional roles in leadership is another area that UNDP and other international donors (the Netherlands Government, Danish Embassy, AusAID, Canadian International Development Agency and Freiderich Ebert Stiftung) are eager to support. They are currently funding the National Committee for the Advancement of Women to conduct training of hundreds of women who, in turn, will train 16,700 women candidates in the upcoming People's Councils elections at the commune, district and provincial levels in November.

The National Assembly elections in 1997 were highly successful in increasing the percentage of women from 18.5% to 26.2%. There is now a need to address the representation of women at the grassroots level in management and decision-making, and to assist People's Councils level to work towards the government target of 25%. It is hoped that this training will facilitate this goal.

Representation of women in People's Councils (1994-1999)

Provincial 20.4%  -  District 18.1%  -  Commune 14.4%

The importance of women being involved and participating on an equal footing to men at all levels of decision-making is a key goal of the National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Vietnamese Women to the Year 2000. This national women's policy was signed by the Prime Minister of Viet Nam in October 1997. It outlines 11 critical areas of concern which focus on:

• Jobs, poverty alleviation, hunger eradication;
• equal opportunities in education and training;
• improved health care;
• enhanced role and position of women in leadership mechanisms and decision-making;
• protection and promotion of women's rights;
• enhanced role of the family;
• role of women in environment and sustainable development;
• intensified information and communication activities on equal rights;
• contribution to peace;
• enhanced national machinery; and
• protection of the girl child.

For the doi moi of gender in Viet Nam to be successful, the goals of the National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Vietnamese women must be brought to life by creating a bridge between the equality enshrined in the policy, and the everyday lives of men and women.

This challenge is one where the future generations of Vietnamese men and women can take an active lead to ensure that they - and their children - benefit from gender equality.

Ultimately, the doi moi of gender will only be achieved when all young men and women can equally reap the benefits of a market-oriented economy - through their equal ability to purchase consumer goods because of their economic strength; their equal involvement as leaders in business, government and civil society; and in the fair distribution of work and family responsibilities.

Women Voters Key in 2004 Presidential Election
By Darlisa Y. Crawford, Washington File Staff Writer
April 15, 2004 (from: http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2004/Apr/14-284075.html)

Eligible women may be more likely to vote than men

An eligible woman voter is more likely to cast a ballot in the next presidential election than her male counterpart if a pattern identified in the 2000 election continues. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 61 percent of eligible women voters cast a ballot in the 2000 presidential election. That level of participation is higher than the 58 percent of eligible males who voted.

The "gender gap"

In the 1960s American women were more likely to identify with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. Richard Nixon narrowly carried the women's vote in 1960 after the first televised debate against Kennedy. Political analyst Rachel Alexander concluded that for the first time voters evaluated a presidential candidate's performance on television, which influenced how voters cast their ballots. By the 1980 election between Reagan and Carter, this partiality toward the Republican Party had changed. Carter won the women's vote.

The Gallup Organization, a major independent polling firm, concludes that in every presidential election since 1980 a gender gap has existed. Women have more often supported Democratic candidates while men have more often supported Republican candidates. In presidential elections the gap has ranged from 4 percent to 11 percent. In 1992 women voters supported Clinton in larger numbers than men by 4 percent. In the 2000 election, Al Gore won the women's vote by 11 percent.

Recent Gallup polls report that Republican incumbent President George W. Bush has received higher job approval ratings from men than from women in all but three polls conducted since he took office more than three years ago. In 2004, men have given Bush a job approval rating that is seven points higher than women have given him. Ballot tests this year also show that Bush receives greater support in his bid for re-election among men than among women, according to the Gallup Organization.

"Security moms"

On the other hand, women support the war on terrorism and military spending at the same level as men, according to recent polls. Some political analysts attribute the narrowed gender gap to the September 11 terrorist attacks. They suggest that women who have been reticent to support the use of military force now view it as essential for the protection of their families and communities. Women's support for higher defense budgets increased to 47 percent in October 2001 from 24 percent earlier in the year. The swing voters referred to as "soccer moms" of 2000 may be replaced with "security moms" in 2004.

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, women's support for military spending remains at levels much higher now. "There is no gender gap on this point, because people are united behind the president," says Linda Divall, a Republican pollster.

The Single Vote

An important disparity exists between married women voters and unmarried women voters. Women of voting age who have never been married, divorced or widowed comprise 42 percent of all registered women voters. In the 2000 presidential election, unmarried women voters represented the same percentage of the electorate as Jewish, African American, and Latino voters combined. For this group, the highest priority issues are health care, employment, education, job security, and retirement benefits. Over 21 million unmarried women voters never cast a ballot on election day, according to data from Women's Voices. Women Vote, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing women's voter registration.

"We have to help these women understand they can absolutely determine the outcome of the election," says Christina Desser, co-founder of the organization.

In the 2002 mid-term elections, 56 percent of married women voted for Republican Party candidates, compared to 39 percent of unmarried women. Harvard University assistant professor of public policy Anna Greenberg associates "moral traditionalism" that appeals to married women with the Republican Party.

Campaigning for the Women's Vote

Women's concerns will be important topics of debate on the campaign trail this election season. The Republican National Committee has launched a program called Winning Women, designed to recruit and train female Republican candidates for public office and to reach out to female voters. The Democratic National Committee has created the DNC Women's Vote Center that educates and mobilizes women voters about electing Democratic candidates for public office.

Both Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and President Bush have emphasized issues that resonate with women “job creation, healthcare and education” in recent campaign speeches. First Lady Laura Bush features prominently in her husband's re-election advertisements. Kerry's daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa, promote their father's concerns with jobs and the environment on the campaign trail.

"The women's vote will decide the next election, as it has since 1980," stated political psychologist Dr. Martha Burke. "Candidates have an opportunity to showcase their views on the issues women care most about — violence, the pay gap, education, and economic security. Those who address women's concerns directly are likely to strike a chord."

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Information Technology

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The Internet is a good place to read the news. And because it is so far reaching it is possible to read the news from the other side of the world on your computer. This lesson will show you some of the websites that provide good sources of news.

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1. Open the Internet
2. Go to Google.com and search for “BBC News”
3. Click on the link that reads “BBC News, News Front Page”
4. This is the main website for the British Broadcasting Corporation, one of the world’s best sources for news. What are some of the main stories on the BBC News homepage today?
5. Notice on the left-hand side of the page that you can click on a specific region of the world to read more about current events there. Click on the words “Asia-Pacific” What are some of the main stories on this page? Were any of them shown on the main BBC News page?
6. Scroll down and look to the left hand side of the page. Under the word “Languages” you will see the words “Tieng Viet,” clicking on them will take you to a page where all of the news is reported in Vietnamese. Are all of the stories the same on the BBC page that is written in Vietnamese as they were in English?
7. Take a few minutes to explore the BBC website. When you are done go to www.cnn.com
8. CNN is an American television station that is dedicated to news. The website here is convenient if you are looking for information on current events in the United States. Can you notice any differences between the CNN website and the BBC website? Notice the number of advertisements on the CNN website. Were there as many ads on the BBC page? Are any of the stories the same on the two websites?
9. It is also possible to read thousands of newspapers on the Internet. Go to Google.com and search for “Vietnamese Newspapers” explore some of the links for newspapers in Vietnamese.
10. Now go back to Google.com and see if you can find the newspaper for Harrisonburg, Virginia, the city where Eastern Mennonite University is located.
11. If you found the website for the Daily News Record, you are in the right place. What are some of the stories on the Daily News Record website?
12. Notice on the left-hand side of the screen there is a link that is called “Archives.” Many newspapers will allow you to search their old newspapers online. Sometimes you will need to enter words just like you do on Google but because the Daily News Record is a small newspaper you can see the entire paper for any day in the archives very easily. At many larger newspapers you may also need to pay a small fee if you want to search their archives. Take a few moments to explore the archives of the Daily News Record.
13. Search Google for some of the world’s other major newspapers. If you get stuck try searching for
    1. Le Monde, France
    2. The Guardian, England
    3. The New York Times, The United States
    4. The Bangkok Post, Thailand
    5. Daily Mail and Guardian, South Africa

Taking it Further

(Journal Writing, Extra Assignments, Special Explorations, Creative Endeavors):

Use the following article as reference for some activities and discussions in this chapter. This article comes from an newsletter, ‘eWENR (eWorld Education News and Reviews) May/June 2000 Volume 13, Issue 3” The article is a sub-section in a piece entitled The Higher Education System in Vietnam by Kristy Kelly, Director, Institute of International Education/Vietnam.

"DOI MOI" AND EDUCATION IN VIETNAM

Prior to Vietnam's partition under the Geneva Agreement in 1954, formal education was constrained during the 20th century. Under French colonial rule, only a relatively small and elite group of Vietnamese attended public educational institutions, most of which were located in the larger urban areas. In response to this exclusionary policy, non-government schools were started in many parts of the country, including many of Vietnam's rural villages. This satisfied some part of the strong household demand for education, but few poor families could, in fact, afford the private school fees. Hence, illiteracy was widespread in Vietnam, at least until 1945 when Ho Chi Minh, the nationalist leader, launched a grassroots literacy campaign in those areas under the control of his revolutionary forces. At the end of French colonial rule, private schools in the North were incorporated into a free public education system. Expansion of this system was a priority goal of the Government over the next thirty years.

Despite high overall literacy and high enrollments in Vietnam today, and despite relatively small differences in access to education among males and females, wide regional differences do exist. The mountainous northern province of Lai Chau, for example, has a reported literacy rate of only 49 percent, and in this province there are twice as many literate men as women. School participation rates remain lower in the mountainous areas of Vietnam's North and Central Zones, and in the Mekong Delta Region, particularly for girls. Whereas ethnic minorities account for over 13 percent of Vietnam's population, ethnic minority individuals account for only 4 percent of the student population.

Several important changes have occurred since the introduction of "Doi Moi" and these have impacted the education sector in important ways. First, government spending on education and training has increased both in absolute terms and as a percentage of overall government spending during the 1990s. Particularly large increases occurred in 1993 and 1994 — 46% and 33% real spending on growth in these two years, respectively (figures after 1994 were not available at the time of this writing).

A second major change during the 1990s has been the elimination of many regulations restricting or proscribing the private sector's role in education and training. New decrees and resolutions have been passed that encourage the private sector's expansion. "Semi-public" and "people-founded" institutions account for only a tiny proportion of total enrollments, but are increasing rapidly in number. Non-public education is especially common in pre-school education, in vocational and technical education and training, and increasingly also at the tertiary level of general education. Non-public institutions cover nearly all of their operating costs from student fees.

A third and related policy change has been to allow public institutions to levy tuition fees, though only within rather strict limits, and to charge for other goods and services sold to the public. Household outlays on education and training at all levels accounted for 43% of total government and household spending on education and training in 1994. This proportion varied from as little as 12 percent and 19 percent in vocation/technical and tertiary education to as much as 48 percent, 59 percent and 62 percent in primary lower secondary, and upper secondary education. As in many other countries, government spending on education in Vietnam reflects an implicit bias in favor of the rich — because this spending covers a relatively small share of the costs at the lower levels of education, which are attended by more children from low-income families, and covers a larger share as one moves up the education ladder, where one finds fewer low-income students.

Activity 1.

For discussion: Which of the following should be a priority for Đổi mới policy?

1. Economic reform
2. Politics
3. Diplomacy
4. Education

Activity 2

In small groups, consider the following:

Article 5 of the current Constitution (issued in 1992) stipulates “Education is the first priority of the national policy.” The Minister of Education and Training is now Mr. Nguyen Minh Hien. If you meet him, what questions about Đổi mới in Education would you like to ask him? Generate 6 questions.

Activity 3.

Role-play. Work in groups of 4. Choose one person as a Minister of Education and Training and the rest will ask him questions you have already prepared in activity 2. Make sure that each person has a chance. You can ask more questions when communicating with him.

 

TOEFL Exercises

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"Best Answer"

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