SESDP The selection and nurturing of gifted students in gifted schools in Vietnam International Workshop on Gifted School, 30/10/2012 Mr. Nguyen Hai Chau Deputy Director of Secondary Education Department Director of Secondary Education Sector Development Program

LOGO SESDP Contents General Introduction 1 Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools 2

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction I.Objectives 1.For the gifted students  To identify students, whose talents and gifts exist in those domains distinct from the intellectual, academic and whose achieving excellence in learning, then enable to develop their skills on a number of subjects on the basis of ensuring comprehensive secondary education;  To foster these students whose have the patriotism, the spirit of overcoming difficulties, the self-learning capability, the national self-esteem aptitude, the ability of researching and creativity; whose have good health to nurture continuously them in order to meet the requisites of national development.

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction I.Objectives 2.For gifted secondary schools system  To formulate and develop of the gifted secondary schools into the secondary school education system with high-class quality to meet the criteria of the national standards, which have the modernized and synchronized teaching equipments and facilities ensuring to distinguish students whose have the intellectual, achieving excellence in learning.  The gifted secondary schools are regarded as the model of the ones which have the better quality of facilities, teachers and educational development activities.

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction II.Specific Objectives 1.To strengthen, formulate and to develop of the existing gifted secondary schools, in parallel with the increase in scale of these schools; ensuring each city or province will have at least one gifted high school with the number of students who attend gifted high schools in a city or province accounts for about two percent of the total number of high school students in that area. 2.To focus to upgrade the gifted secondary schools into the national standard ones with high-class quality education by building and upgrading facilities, purchasing teaching and studying equipment, develop teaching staff, and improve curriculum.

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction II.Specific Objectives  The country also has set a goal that by 2015, all gifted high schools across Vietnam will reach a national standard, while there are 15 key high- quality ones with the quality of education is equivalent to the secondary schools in regional and international areas. 3.To develop the teachers and managerial cadres in order to ensure the satisfactory quantity, the reasonable structure and the high level of professional standards;

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction II.Specific Objectives  To boost the percentage of teachers, managerial staffs whose shall have the master's degree then the doctorate’s degree, in line with the upgrading of the capacity of professionals, foreign languages, information technology, pedagogical science to meet the both needs of the expansion in numbers and improve the quality and efficiency of education in the gifted high/secondary schools.  By 2015, most excellent teachers, managerial staffs will expertise on their professions and proficiently master information technology and modernized teaching equipments; 20% of managerial staffs and teachers who will be able to use foreign languages in teaching and communication on daily basis;

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction II.Specific Objectives 4.To generate the essential transformation on the quality of education within the gifted secondary schools approaching to the international advanced education level.  By 2015, 50% of students will be classified as excellent; 70% will be classified as good or fair on information technology; 30% of students will reach level 3 of foreign language assessment criteria set by the Association of European language.  By 2020, Vietnam aims that at least 70% of students will be classified as excellent; 90% will be classified as good or fair on IT; 50% of students will reach level 3 of foreign languages assessment criteria recognized by the Association of European language;

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction II.Specific Objectives 5.To formulate the inter-education between the fostering of gifted students in the gifted secondary schools with universities by selecting outstanding ones to enroll in the talent gifted classes and high- class quality engineers in prestigious local and international universities for receiving further education and development of their talents.  By 2015, Vietnam sets a goal that approximately 30% of the gifted students graduated from gifted secondary school shall have further education at high quality classes for talents, and high quality engineering classes in prestigious universities nationwide and these will grow up to 50% by 2020.

LOGO SESDP A. General Introduction II.Specific Objectives 6.To enhance the cooperation capacity between the gifted secondary schools with the prestigious foreign educational institutions in order to exchange experiences on the selection, nurturing the development of gifted students; to attract the manpower to develop the system of the gifted secondary schools.  By 2020, Vietnam targets that each gifted secondary school shall collaborate with one reputable educational institution within the regional and international framework

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools I.The enrollment of students in the gifted high/secondary schools 1.Enrollment Eligibility: Students with good academic performance and good average grade during the whole of academic year in LSSs and students graduate from LSSs with good grade. 2.Enrollment Procedures: Applicants wish to enroll are required to take two rounds of examination, including: preliminary enrollment and entrance examination. The first preliminary enrollment will be based on the following criteria: students obtained from exams at national and regional or international levels; students obtained excellent performance grade and outstanding graduation results in LSSs; students having first-rate evaluation results about Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Adversity Quotient (AQ).

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools I.The enrollment of students in the gifted high/secondary schools 3.Entrance Examination: Applicants are required to take an entrance examination with (03) obligatory subjects, which are Mathematics, Literature and Foreign Languages, and one additional subject for students who wish to be admitted in specialized classes. Thus, applicants must pass the (04) subjects, including (03) three obligatory subjects and (01) one specialized subject.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools II.Teaching Curriculum and Materials  All gifted secondary schools must comply accurately with the teaching program and the universal education development plan for secondary schools and the specialized subjects under the guidance and policy of the MOET.  Teaching materials usually are reference books for the gifted students; these materials shall be provided through the training program for specialized teachers; others shall be obtained via the internet; or by cooperation exchange the with domestic educational institutions and abroad.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 1.The purpose and requirements to the assessment  To evaluate the quality of education for students is to reaffirm the learning competencies of each gifted student during each period, each quarter and each year. But for gifted students, it is crucial to focus on tracking, discovering and assessing their academic performance in the specialized subjects which are closer to their ability tests (including innate aptitude and revealed gifted skills in the learning and studying process).  It is required to take a regular and periodically period of assessment as conform to the obligatory standard and criteria of assessing knowledge and skills and ability of gifted students for obtaining to specialized subjects.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 2.Regular and periodic assessment  Basically, the regular and periodic assessments under the provisions of MOET on all secondary school students are in a similar way. But it is only different that the total number of assessments on the specialized subjects to the gifted students. It means that besides the stipulated assessments, the principals may require others examinations for the specialized subjects.  The evaluation of talents and creativity‘s abilities of the gifted students has been implemented in many different methods (it is also noted that these results have not influenced on the gifted students’ average grade).

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 2.Regular and periodic assessment  The results have been classified into (02) two kinds of forms as below: Academic PerformanceAptitude Year Excellent % Good % Fair % Lacking % Excellent % Good % Fair % Lacking % ,145,74,796,63,60, ,944,12,995,54,30,2

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 3.Assessment on the secondary school graduation and tertiary entrance examinations  At the present, gifted secondary schools have the high rate of graduates and many with the overwhelming the rate of 100% graduates, including there are many graduates who are valedictorians.  And furthermore, the rate of the gifted secondary school students who pass the tertiary entrance examinations are constantly very high-flying, with the average rate of over 90% annually; and it is also striking that some of these schools have obtained this rate of 100%; with many students previously studied in the talents classes of universities.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 3.Assessment on the secondary school graduation and tertiary entrance examinations  It is a fact that the majority of the gifted secondary schools are among the top 100 ones which constantly attain the highest rate of tertiary entrance exams across the country.  The results of secondary school graduation and tertiary entrance exams: Year Excellent (%) Good (%) Average (%) Tertiary Entrance % No. of valedictorian No. of schools in top ,735,547,386,611670/ ,739,741,689,210070/75

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 4.Assessment on the provincial examinations  The DOET at provincial level is directly in charge of carrying out (02) two exams for evaluating the gifted and talented students, including designing and deciding the specialized subjects for exams, taking part in supervising, overseeing and finally appraising or evaluating prizes for these exams:  The 1st round of exam is to assess the results, which could help to find and to foster the outstanding students in the gifted secondary schools. Thus, the level of exam shall be tougher than the level of the normal learning program and this requires the capacity and creativity of the gifted students to a certain extent.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 4.Assessment on the provincial examinations  The 2nd round of exam is to select the outstanding students for the gifted and talented team at the province level who will be trained for taking part in the upcoming exams at national level, which will more intricate and requires the outstanding students to exploit their knowledge and competency in a more productively and specialized manner. Additionally, it is designed for gifted students who could conduct the diversified experiments and could broaden their horizons from exposing their talents and capacities.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 5.Assessment on the national examinations  The national exam for the gifted students has been held by the Ministry of Education (MOET) with the goal of evaluating the outstanding abilities and capacities of gifted students with the high-class quality on the national scale.  The results of the national exam for the gifted students: Year No. of winners Ratio of winners 1st prize 2nd prize 3rd prize Encouragement Prize No. of valedictorian % ,3%

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 6.Assessment based on the regional and international Olympiad competition  In the whole International Olympiad competitions (Vietnam began to take part in math competition in 1974; the physics, Russian competitions in 1981; the informatics competition in 1989; the chemistry, Biology competition in 1996). Accounting up to 9/2012, Vietnam had 563 students on the total of 645 students who took part in different international contests who won prizes (with winning rate of 86.82%) with 124 gold medals, 195 silver medals and 218 bronze medals, 26 awards and Vietnam is recognized as a country which has obtained high achievements in every international Olympiad competitions.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 6.Assessment based on the regional and international Olympiad competition  In particular, after the success of hosting the 38th Mathematical Olympiad Competition in 2007, Vietnam consequently organized the 39th International Physics Olympiad Competition in It helped to generate the momentum for Vietnamese gifted students in taking part in the international Olympiad competition.  (It is noted that in these competitions, Vietnam scored 3rd place in IMO in the total of (93) countries and other territories; the physics of Vietnam scored 5th place in IPhO Competition).

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 6.Assessment based on the regional and international Olympiad competition  In the upcoming 2014, Vietnam shall be the host of the International Chemistry Olympiad Competition and in 2016, Vietnam shall hold the International Biology Olympiad Competition.  Results of International Olympiad Competitions in 2012 MedalsMathInformaticsPhysicsChemistryBiologyTotal Gold Medals Silver Medals Bronze Medals Total Prizes6/64/45/54/4 31/31

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 1.Assessment on the specialized subjects: In general, all gifted secondary schools have organized the monthly specialized exams with the aim of ranking abilities or capacities for the so called the gifted students. The content of training program focuses on the complicated and in-depth specialized studies and dissertations enabling to exploit the creativity capacities of the gifted students.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 1.Assessment on the specialized subjects: This method helps teachers to evaluate the learning capacities and capture the genuine ability and innovative ability of the gifted students, then from that keystone to generate the driving forces for students to build up their genuine talents, and furthermore teachers could lend a hand to adjust their absorbing ability and learning method and to raise their awareness of broadening their new horizons.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 2.The competitions at the regional level (held by some provinces) a)The Olympiad competition for some 10th grade specialized subjects of the Hung Vuong Summer Camp. b)The Open Mathematical Olympiad Competition of Hanoi (HOMO): The cooperation program between the gifted secondary schools, the Department of Education and Training (DOET) with the Hanoi Mathematical Association (for 9 years); the Mathematic Competition in English, the Olympiad competition for the gifted students within the Asia-Pacific capitals.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 2.The competitions at the regional level (held by some provinces) a)The Olympiad competition for the coastal areas and the Northern Plains; d) The 30/4 Olympiad competition in the southern provinces of Vietnam.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 3.Club activities for specialized subjects. a)All gifted secondary schools hold club activities for each specialized subject, crafting the colorful specialized playing ground with the target of assessing the genuine talents of gifted students while they utilize their knowledge and creative intelligent abilities to solve the practical situations, besides the specialized subject, they can learn from the local socio-economic activities and this is also an alternative channel to evaluate the genuine talents of gifted students.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 3.Club activities for specialized subjects. b)The Le Hong Phong‘s gifted secondary school, Ho Chi Minh City. -The Club for creativity and science activities. -The Club for skill activities -The Club for team building and teamwork

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 3.Club activities for specialized subjects. b)The Hung Vuong ‘s gifted secondary school, Phu Tho The movement of creating Robocon was launched in very early stage. The competition was first held in Currently, Hung Vuong school is the only one in the country which successfully held the competition for creating Robot for secondary students. Hung Vuong school also had participated in the competition for chemistry organized by Australian Royal

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 4.The national and international assessment a)Assessment on the 11th grade students in 2011 b)The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 5.Other assessment activities a)The art performances and activities, folk games and artistic talents contests, fitness and sports contests, informatics, foreign languages, etc.; computer contests, Internet contests, English Olympiad contests on the internet, " the Reading festival”... towards promoting creativity of the schools; strengthening the education exchanges and to promote students to be more interested in learning, to master their life skills, and to supplement them with additional understanding on the cultural values system and cultural elite of the world;

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 5.Other assessment activities b)The Youth’s Informatics Contest in collaboration with the Youth’s Union is held annually to help students have the opportunities to train and challenge their skills and experiences for self- evaluation of their own abilities. c)Contests for the secondary students in scientific research and studies. These contests has been evaluated through the specialized articles, and the scientific research which help students to know how to conduct self-study, independent, creative and practical methods as well as to know how to bring their knowledge into practice to the scientific and technical products.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 5.Other assessment activities d)Assessment on the contest of science and technology, the Intel ISEF. This is a contest to help students to get acquaintances with scientific research. Guiding the gifted students to do scientific research in which most of research is under the form of the specialized subject for academic study and for students selected to participate in the competitions for gifted students at all levels. The gifted secondary school of the University of Natural Sciences (VNU) encourage their students to study and to report the specialized research and studies in English

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 5.Other assessment activities d)Assessment on the contest of science and technology, the Intel ISEF. The gifted secondary schools in Lam Dong province, Ho Chi Minh City, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Tri, Hanoi attended the Intel ISEF Contest. Vietnam has organized and participated in the Intel ISEF contest. From May 2012, Vietnamese delegation took part in the 63th Intel ISEF contest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, along with more than 1549 students from more than 68 countries and territories participating in 17 scientific fields.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 5.Other assessment activities d)Assessment on the contest of science and technology, the Intel ISEF. There were (03) students from Hanoi Amsterdam High School, namely Tran Bach Trung, Vu Anh Vinh and Bui Thi Quynh Trang participated the scientific research "The treatment salt water into fresh water using a vacuum technique and solar energy recovery serving for living activities". This research has won first prize in the field of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. This is Vietnam's first prize at the Intel ISEF over 4 times Vietnam took part in this event.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools III.Assessment on students in gifted secondary schools 7.Assessment on the diversified forms 5.Other assessment activities The mentioned-above contests and other local competitions have supplemented the criteria for students to assess gifted secondary schools and these contests helped the gifted students to become more confident in learning, exposure to creative work and help them grow their inherited genius talents and intelligence.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 1.Nurturing talent development for teachers a)Gifted secondary schools shall focus on fostering managerial staffs and cadres, teachers in accordance with standards stipulated by MOET. b)Capacity building program for teachers in gifted secondary schools c)Training program to improve English proficiency for teachers in gifted secondary schools: It is highlighted that many gifted secondary schools pay due attention to improve English proficiency for their teachers and students. Some gifted secondary schools have organized extra English classes for their teachers.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 1.Nurturing talent development for teachers The gifted high school for natural Sciences (belonging to VNU, Hanoi) has held weekly English classes for teachers to attend to improve their proficiency and English is used by teachers to present at seminars of different teaching departments. Many teachers from gifted secondary schools from distinct provinces such as: Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Dien Bien, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh, Lao Cai, Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Phu Yen, Ninh Thuan... were sent abroad for studying. The pilot teaching courses in English for some specialized subjects have been effectively put into practice in some gifted secondary schools.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 2.Nurturing talent development for students a)To formulate talent training and developing program for gifted students to participate in exams at national, regional and international levels; fostering students to participate in scientific research. b)To build linkage between the fostering of gifted students with higher education program. It has been proved that most gifted students are currently studying in the talent class and high quality engineering class at university level. Gifted students winning Olympiad prizes are given priority to study further at prestigious universities abroad by the state budget.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 2.Nurturing talent development for students c)To enhance the cooperation program between gifted secondary schools with prestigious educational institutions in foreign countries in order to exchange experiences on how to select and foster as well as developing the genius talents of students d)To enhance the investment for gifted secondary schools to improve English proficiency for gifted students. e)Some gifted secondary schools has brought in teaching courses in English for specialized natural science subjects into practice.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 3.Formulating policies for teachers, students in the gifted secondary schools a)To formulate and accomplish mechanisms and specific policies towards teaching cadres, teachers and students in the gifted secondary schools. To supplement and to bring the mechanism and policies into completion to enhance the capacity of investment on manpower and financial resources for the gifted secondary schools;

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 3.Formulating policies for teachers, students in the gifted secondary schools To formulate preferential policy for teachers who directly involved in teaching of specialized courses, and teachers who have gifted students winning prizes at national and international exams as well as have students with the high rate of university entry admission; to develop policies to attract high quality teachers to get involved in teaching at gifted secondary schools, especially foreign teachers to teach foreign languages;

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 3.Formulating policies for teachers, students in the gifted secondary schools To set up appropriate policies, including: full scholarship and class bypassing mechanism or sending to study abroad or study at the well- known higher education institutions for the gifted students with prominent talents and students winning national and international exams; To develop the policies and mechanisms to encourage and facilitate international cooperation between gifted secondary schools with foreign educational institutions;

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 3.Formulating policies for teachers, students in the gifted secondary schools To promote government at local and provincial level to build up recognition policies for teaching cadres and managers who achieve excellent performance in the work of finding and fostering genius talented and gifted students; To facilitate individuals, business and social organizations, as well as the vocational training organizations to invest in the development of gifted secondary schools.

LOGO SESDP B. Introduction on the enrollment, nurturing talents in gifted secondary schools IV.Nurturing talent development for teachers and students 3.Formulating policies for teachers, students in the gifted secondary schools b)Besides the central government’s policies, all provinces have stipulated the specific policies for teaching cadres and academic managers such as giving high rewards and bonus for teachers who directly involve in teaching and fostering gifted students, and have their students winning national and international prizes. Each province grants scholarship mechanism for their gifted students who achieve excellent performance and achievements during the whole academic year and who achieve high prizes in national and international examinations.

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