Falsity is permeating the Vietnamese education system, a distinguished professor told Tuoi Tre in a recent interview.

Professor Hoang Tuy, an 85-year-old veteran educator who has co-written many math works with local and international authors, said that spuriousness can be seen now in the form of score trading, diploma fabrication, title purchasing, deceptive reporting, plagiarism and misuse of funds, among other wrongdoings.

The education system is badly crippled by all of the above, Prof. Tuy said during the conversation, which was initiated by the newspaper as part of its campaign against indications of dishonesty in Vietnamese society.

He noted that deception, which has become more rampant over the last 20 years even though it did exist during wartime, has been hindering the development of the country’s education and society.

The educator advised education officials to avoid setting unfeasible targets, which could be the root of all lies and hollowness in the training sector.

“Establishing goals that are impressive but impossible to achieve would be equal to dishonesty, which would in turn trigger other forms of deceit,” he said.

Prof. Tuy pointed out that Vietnam’s policy to raise the student – population ratio by letting universities mushroom in recent years without any regard for their quality is also a sign of speciousness that could wreck the higher education segment.

He underscored that low salaries have forced many teachers to compromise on their ethics, evidenced by widespread reporting by the media on scandals of all kinds, including paying teachers to book seats in elite schools and to inflate test scores.

He elaborated that teachers would be able to support their family for one week at the most with their current salary, which Prof Tuy said is even lower than that of entry-level workers in the private sector.

The academic recommended beginning to rectify all the aforementioned negatives with raising teachers’ salary to ensure it is enough for their daily life.

“Teachers are underpaid because of irrational policies,” he said. "I have been complaining about this for 15 to 20 years now, but not much has been done."