Selection based on merit from an excellent policy to the challenge of effectively utilizing resources

Keywords: Selection; Ethnic policy; Human resources.

1. Introduction

Human resource development has always been identified as the “key” to narrowing the development gap between ethnic minority and mountainous areas and the national average. Higher education for ethnic minorities plays a crucial role in creating an intellectual class - individuals who possess both specialized knowledge and a deep understanding of their ethnic customs, languages, cultures and who are capable of staying in the area for a long time. The scholarship program was born out of these requirements. This is a humane policy with clear direction: the State supports all tuition and living expenses and prioritizes job placement for scholarship students after graduation.

However, after many years of implementation, a reality remains: many students who graduated from the scholarship program are not assigned jobs in their field of research; in some places, there is a shortage of staff but an excess of students; Despite large investment budgets, the social impact has not been commensurate. The question is: has the policy truly achieved its initial goals and if not, where are the bottlenecks? This article aims to evaluate the results of the scholarship program, analyzing the limitations in its implementation and proposing appropriate adjustments for the new phase.

2. Achievements in implementing the scholarship policy

2.1. The role of the scholarship policy

According to Decree No. 141/2020/ND-CP dated December 8, 2020, of the Government regulating the scholarship program for ethnic minority students, scholarship is the recruitment through selection methods into universities, colleges, and vocational schools for students from ethnic minority groups with very small populations, ethnic minorities in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions and those with few or no ethnic minority cadres, civil servants or public employees.

The policy of preferential admission is a tool to ensure equitable access to higher education for disadvantaged groups.

Firstly, given the significant gap in socio-economic conditions and educational quality between ethnic minority and mountainous areas and more developed areas, a purely competitive admissions mechanism would hardly provide opportunities for ethnic minority students in disadvantaged areas. Therefore, selective admission is not simply a preferential place to study, but a deliberate intervention by the State to redistribute educational opportunities, helping ethnic minority students overcome initial financial and academic barriers to enter higher education. From a public policy perspective, this is a proactive solution to address inequality, contributing to narrowing the development gap between regions right from the starting point of human resources.

Thirdly, the scholarship policy also creates long-term social change by altering community perceptions of the value of education. When young people from ethnic minority groups attend university, graduate and return to their localities to work, the image of “highly educated people becoming officials” becomes a vivid testament to the path of development through knowledge. This has a positive effect, encouraging families to pay more attention to their children’s education, reducing early school dropout rates and gradually fostering a culture of valuing learning within families and communities. That impact cannot be fully measured in numbers, but it is fundamentally significant, helping to break the vicious cycle of poverty - lack of education - lack of opportunity - poverty, opening up prospects for sustainable development for future generations.

Overall, with its three simultaneous roles: ensuring educational equity, creating a local workforce and promoting social awareness change, the scholarship policy acts as an important “lever” in the strategy for developing human resources in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. This is the practical basis for affirming the necessity of the policy, and also the reason for the need to continue improving the policy in order to achieve more tangible results in the new phase.

2.2. Results of implementing the scholarship policy

Annually, based on the registration of scholarship quotas by localities, which are reviewed and allocated by the Ministry of Education and Training, localities select scholarship recipients in accordance with current regulations on scholarship policies and programs, proactively sign training contracts with higher education institutions, and ensure the allocation of budget resources to implement the scholarship policy as prescribed by law.

Up to now, all 53 ethnic minority groups have had members selected for admission to vocational schools, colleges and universities. There are ethnic minority groups that previously faced difficulties in student recruitment, such as the Co, Mang, Ro Mam, Co Lao, Gie Trieng, Cong and Brau, but now have members who have studied under the scholarship program. The period of 2017-2020: The number of new students admitted through the scholarship program was 221; the number of graduates was 2,096; the number of scholarship graduates who have been placed in jobs is 1,089 (approximately 52%); the number of graduates who have not yet been placed in jobs is 1,007 (approximately 48%). During the period of 2021-2024, the demand for training under the scholarship program tended to decrease both in terms of the number of localities and the number of registered quotas. In 2021, there were 7 (former) provinces still implementing the scholarship program: Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Lang Son, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Ninh Thuan and Soc Trang; In 2022, Ninh Thuan province was included in the number; in 2023, Soc Trang province was included as well. From 2021 to 2024, there were 235 students selected for government-sponsored studies (including 74 new students selected annually, and 161 students selected before 2021 who are currently studying at universities and colleges). The number of students selected through the scholarship program who graduated was 187 people; the number of students selected through the scholarship program who graduated and have been placed in jobs is 133 people (71.12%).

According to the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, the implementation of the scholarship program and the arrangement and placement of graduates has helped develop a team of ethnic minority cadres with professional qualifications, contributing to improving the quality of human resources and meeting the development needs of ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Besides the achievements, the results of the thematic monitoring on “Implementation of policies and laws on personnel affairs for ethnic minorities, in the period of 2016-2023” conducted by the National Assembly's Ethnic Council of the 15th term show that the policy of selecting candidates for positions through the government still has many shortcomings.

Firstly, the quality of incoming students is uneven. Due to limited learning conditions in remote areas, many students selected for scholarships do not possess the necessary foundational knowledge. During their training, students admitted through the scholarship program often study the same curriculum as regular students, but their starting points are vastly different; therefore, the quality of education provided through this program is often not high.

Secondly, the fields and professions offered in the scholarship program are not suitable and do not meet practical requirements. Training is not aligned with employment needs. Many localities select students based on the school’s pre-existing quotas rather than on human resource planning. As a result, training programs are not aligned with actual needs: areas needing technical staff are being trained in economics, while areas needing preschool teachers have an oversupply of administrative graduates…

Thirdly, job placement after graduation is the biggest "bottleneck." Many students who have been selected through the government scholarship program have to wait for years after graduation, work in fields unrelated to their research, or find jobs outside the public sector. The promise of “employment upon graduation” has therefore lost its persuasiveness. Between 2017 and 2020, 1,007 students who graduated under the government-sponsored scholarship program were still unemployed (approximately 48%). However, according to monitoring reports from 25 provinces/cities, there are still 1,695 people who have not been placed in jobs.

This situation has led to many provinces no longer implementing the scholarship program since 2016, and the number of scholarship quotas and the number of students studying under this program have tended to decrease rapidly. In 2020, there were 24 students out of 50 quotas across 3 provinces (Dien Bien, Lao Cai and Tra Vinh); In 2021, there were 59 students/154 quotas/3 provinces (Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai); In 2022, the Ministry of Education and Training allocated 268 quotas for scholarship recipients to 5 provinces, but only Lao Cai province sent 9 students to study. Although the number of provinces registering for scholarship quotas and the number of scholarship students have decreased in recent years, this has been concentrated in provinces that still have a relatively large number of former scholarship students who have not yet been employed, such as Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Giang (now Tuyen Quang).

The question is whether, under the current policy, the number of students currently studying under the government-sponsored scholarship program will be considered for employment after graduation, or whether they will fall into a situation of being left unplaced and unable to be recruited, like the number of graduates in the past, especially in the context of accelerating the implementation of the policy of streamlining the workforce and reorganizing the staff of officials and civil servants, with localities prioritizing the use of allocated positions to assign officials and civil servants affected by the merger of district and commune-level administrative units.

The National Assembly’s Ethnic Council also identified another problem: the policy of giving priority points to graduates from government-sponsored programs when applying for jobs, along with the group of “Individuals who commit to volunteering to work for 5 years or more in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions” is ineffective. On the other hand, after the reorganization of the two-tiered local government structure, the communes already have enough job positions, so graduates from the government-sponsored training program no longer have the opportunity to be considered for positions as commune officials or civil servants. The monitoring report of the National Assembly's Ethnic Council of the 15^th term assessed: “The number of students studying under the scholarship program who have not yet been selected for employment remains high, causing a waste of state resources and affecting the aspirations, jobs and livelihoods of children from ethnic minority groups”.

This situation has many causes, but the core reason stems primarily from a policy implementation mindset heavily reliant on “opportunistic subsidies”, considering the number of students admitted to university as the measure of success, while neglecting the quality of training and the effectiveness of employment after graduation, thus diminishing the original purpose of the policy.

Secondly, the lack of coordination among the three stakeholders - local authorities, training institutions and state management agencies has created a gap in responsibility during implementation. In principle, local authorities should be responsible for identifying and utilizing human resources; training institutions should be responsible for ensuring quality; state management agencies should play a coordinating and supervisory role. However, in reality, local authorities propose targets but participate little in monitoring the learning process; training institutions conduct general training without specific programs; and management agencies mainly focus on allocating funds.

Thirdly, the forecasting and planning of human resource needs are still inadequate. Many localities have not specifically calculated how many officials, civil servants and public employees they will need in the next 5-10 years. Training that is not aligned with employment planning leads to a paradox: where there is a need, there are no people, and where training is completed, there are no job positions available. This is a typical example of the disconnect between training and the public sector labor market, significantly reducing the effectiveness of policies.

Fourthly, the legal and disciplinary enforcement mechanisms are not strong enough to ensure a two-way commitment between the State and students. Regulations regarding job placement responsibilities, local service obligations or reimbursement of expenses in case of violations lack feasibility in implementation. When students are not placed in jobs as promised, their rights are not guaranteed. Conversely, when students fail to fulfill their obligations, the enforcement mechanisms are difficult to apply effectively. The decline in policy discipline has led to the selection process losing the necessary binding nature of a conditional public investment program.

3. Suggesting some solutions

Firstly, it is necessary to review and assess the impact of the policy, focusing on evaluating the situation from 2016 to the present, many localities have no need for scholarship programs or the demand is decreasing, in order to propose adjustments to the mechanisms and policies accordingly.

Secondly, the scholarship program must be linked to the local plan for training and utilizing human resources; the fields of study offered through the scholarship program must be in line with the actual needs of the agencies, organizations and localities. Review and adjust regulations on government-sponsored scholarships to clearly define the responsibilities of local authorities in arranging employment for scholarship graduates. Link scholarship quotas to specific job position plans.

Thirdly, improving the quality of student intake and training for the selective admission system. Organizing preparatory university classes and provide foundational knowledge training. Strengthening academic support and mentoring. Promoting career guidance from the secondary school level.

Fourthly, link training with employment, implement a system of targeted training, and provide employment contracts after graduation. Prioritize recruitment into the public sector for students who fulfill their commitments.

Fifthly, innovating the scholarship model, not only providing college and university education but also high-quality vocational training. Encouraging the non-state sector to employ ethnic minority workers.

4. Discussion

The question is not whether or not to maintain the system of selecting candidates for government-sponsored scholarships, but rather how to maintain it. Experience shows that prioritizing entry-level positions alone is insufficient to guarantee genuine fairness. Fairness must extend to the end of the cycle: education - graduation and employment - service to the local community. If one link breaks, the entire policy loses its meaning. Therefore, we need to shift from a quota-based mindset to a training-ordering mindset, from tuition support to job placement guarantees, and from prioritizing university education to training that meets needs, including high-quality vocational education.

5. Conclusion

The policy of selective recruitment is a sound one, clearly demonstrating the State’s responsibility in ensuring educational equity and developing human resources in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. It contributes to expanding learning opportunities, creating a local workforce and promoting increased social awareness of the value of knowledge. In the context of increasingly demanding sustainable development, the selection process needs to be reformed to improve quality, clearly define output responsibilities, ensuring the efficient use of human resources, so that the policy truly becomes a lever for long-term development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

References

1. Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions (2025). Special report “Education, training and development of human resources for ethnic minorities in the period of 2021-2025 and orientation of programs and policies in the period of 2026-2030”.

2. Ministry of Education and Training (2025). Report on “Specialized priority policies on education and training development for ethnic minorities and ethnic minority and mountainous areas; Current situation and proposed solutions to meet the country’s reform requirements”.

3. Government (2020). Decree No. 141/ND-CP dated December 8^th, 2020, stipulating the selection regime for ethnic minority students.

4. National Assembly’s Ethnic Council, 15^th term (2024). Results of the thematic supervision on “Implementation of policies and laws on personnel work for ethnic minorities, in the period of 2016-2023”.