The State Audit Agency’s report submitted to the National Assembly showed that VND8.8 trillion of the budget for education had gone unused.

The information surprised National Assembly deputies who, when discussing the 2012 budget allocation, assumed that the country would need to spend big money on education, healthcare and other social programs.

Analysts have pointed out that money has been misspent and used ineffectively. As a result, the investments could not help improve the education sector.

The Ministry of Education and Training admitted that money has been wasted during the implementation of many education and training programs.

Regarding the national program on teaching foreign languages to general school students, the ministry, in a report released on May 19, said the biggest waste was found in the procurement of teaching aids and training teachers.

Though money was spent on the teacher retraining program, Vietnam still needs English teachers who can meet the requirements to teach English at schools.

In addition, the HCM City authorities spent VND90 billion on a VND180 billion program on equipping schools with interactive whiteboards that serve the teaching of English at nursery and primary schools.

However, when mentioning “modern teaching equipment”, Thanh Nien commented that HCM City spent hundreds of billions of dong to buy boards that are just like normal blackboards.

Vietnam poured big money into the “bachelor’s production program”, which has resulted in a high number of bachelor’s degree graduates who can’t find jobs.