A sleepless night in Ha noi

I cannot sleep after the first day of the 3rd U.S.-VN education conference in Ha Noi.

Three years ago, I came to Ha Noi to attend the first education conference. I returned home with a great deal of hopes and dreams. I wished Vietnamese partner would be a good companion. Good companions know where to go and always keep open dialogues to overcome any differences.

I leaved the first education with hopes because I saw a big gap between two partners. There was an indication: The Minister of Ministry of Education and Training did not show off. Instead, a deputy director of the Ministry came and brought to the conference a long and boring speech. I got my dreams because I heard many great and enthusiastic ideas in the conference that might help Vietnamese students to approach a world standard education. Well, not only were my hopes and dreams, a Vietnamese American guy and his team prematurely introduced the concept of “American University” in Vietnam at the conference. They thought, “Why not Vietnam, if there is an American University in Cairo?”

I also leaved the first conference with a lot of worries. America has been moved to a service economy. Education is one of competitive advantages of America. How Vietnamese government could ask American counterpart to build a “Harvard University” in Vietnam? Given that ambition, how American mission could give its partner a pleasure.

Seeing communication problem between two partners at the first conference, I was daring to talk with my chief, “You should create a task force for your education agenda.” A task force- I meant- an internal team within my organization. But, later on, I learnt that a task force was founded between two governments including public administrators and educators.

The second education conference was organized in Ho Chi Minh City. The task force had several meetings afterward. But, it was hard to see any progress in Vietnamese educational system.

This time, the third education conference opened in Hanoi to discuss challenges and opportunities on the partnership. However, the Minister of Ministry of Education and Training still talked about a high quality university, about American university style in Vietnam and about sending ten thousand sVietnamese to get Phd degree abroad. Interestingly, there was no one that mentioned about the education task force.