PART V
ISSUES AND LESSONS LEARNED

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)

Developing forestry curriculum using a new approach has brought unexpected results in Vietnam. This was the first time that co-operation for curriculum development has been established with the participation of training and research units and involving many development projects. Forestry training was reviewed and updated, and the quality of training has gradually improved. A number of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can be identified.

• Strengths
  Developing a programme using the PCD approach encourages broad participation of many organizations and individuals from inside and outside training units. Close co-operation between training units and projects, development programs, agriculture-forestry extension organizations, and research units has emerged. Teaching staff have increased their knowledge and professional skills and the curriculum development process has encouraged collaboration and sharing, to the point where a network for the exchange of training information has been formed.
  
  
• Weaknesses
  A weakness of curriculum development using a new approach is that many persons have not yet recognized the significance and role of this new method. Those with a "traditional" view of education consider science, and specifically forestry, a separate discipline that does not need the participation of a wide range of people for their opinions. This remains the viewpoint of most lecturers.
  Developing a curriculum using the PCD approach requires sufficient time as well as a large amount of financial resources. These are often limited, and there are many constraints on the conditions for teaching and learning. This causes a negative influence on the progress of curriculum development. The broad participation of many interested stakeholders requires a mechanism to combine activities in a flexible and coherent way. Unfortunately, most training providers such as universities, lack the knowledge, skills and experience to organize and cope with these collaborative activities.
  Additionally, a difficulty affecting the curriculum development process is the fact that most educational institutions lack a necessary supply of information and documentation from production and research units related to extension, both inside and outside Vietnam.
  
  
• Opportunities
  Developing rural areas is the primary objective of the Vietnamese Government. Many projects and programs for forestry development pursue a people-centred development tendency. This creates favourable conditions for changing and revising teaching programs and materials. The education and training system is being reformed in a direction that meets the demands of society, increasing quality and promoting the integration with other countries. This speeds up the process of change in forestry education. The Ministry of Education and Training has many directives to revise objectives, contents and teaching methods. Development investment and assistance from international organizations and NGOs have been increasing in Vietnam and is increasing the likelihood of education and training becoming based on new and innovative approaches. Still, developing curricula using a new approach is a long-term process. The effectiveness of the approach and its long-term impacts need time to be determined.
  
  
• Threats
  There remain, however, challenges to be faced. Possibly the biggest challenge is to create a process for the development of curricula using the PCD approach which is sustainable. In the early stages of the introduction of the new approach, there has been much dependence on support, financial sources, advice and external information. If there is no policy or objectives for the long-term development of human resources - especially the training of specialist staff at higher degree level - long-term and sustainable development can not be ensured. Changes in, and lack of consistent policies are also challenges to the development of sustainable forestry training programmes.

Lessons learned from using participatory curriculum development

Since 1996, the revision and development of forestry curriculum in Vietnam has taken positive steps. Based on this experience, and from the results attained, a number of important lessons can be drawn.

• Curriculum development for forestry education should be based upon human resources development for training institutions, especially for staff members involved in the application of new curriculum development approaches. In order to facilitate this, in the case of Vietnam, the Social Forestry Support Programme provided opportunities for training and support to key persons engaged in PCD.
• Curriculum development for forestry education needs to be closely linked with scientific research and agriculture-forestry extension activities. The quality of a curriculum depends very much on the combination of three activities: training, research and extension. By integrating these activities, staff members increase their knowledge and skills, as well as broaden their attitudes, ultimately enhancing the quality of the teaching and learning process.
• In curriculum development, it is important to pay special attention to approaches and methods that integrate the development of content, teaching methods and learning materials. When training units lack basic resources, infrastructure and materials for teaching and learning, developing effective learning materials has a very strong effect on improvement of teaching methods.
• The establishment of a training network between training, research and agriculture-forestry extension organizations is an effective way to channel support and co-operation for curriculum development. However, suitable mechanisms and incentives for stakeholders are needed in order to establish a sustainable curriculum development process. As long as university teachers and other stakeholders have to struggle to earn enough to maintain a reasonable standard of living for themselves and their families, it is difficult for them to devote time and energy to curriculum development, even though they may be genuinely committed to improving their education programmes. Strategies at the institutional level need to create a realistic basis for participation.
• Linking training institutions with projects and programs of international organizations and NGOs, such as, SIDA, RECOFTC, IIRR, Reading University of UK, GTZ and SFSP, helps to disseminate "lessons learned" from wider experiences. An information-exchange system enhances the sharing of these experiences, approaches and methods, within the PCD process.
• Establishing linkages between national, regional and international organizations and networks creates a favourable dynamic and environment for curriculum development. Although Vietnamese institutions have in the past tended to think that their lack of experience made it necessary for them to learn from other contexts, a number of regional programmes are now drawing on the experiences from the Vietnam Social Forestry Training Network as they consider how to improve their own ways of working.
• Equity and democratic participation, in the whole curriculum development process, are two important reasons for Vietnamese universities' relative success on forestry education reform. PCD is based upon the principle of participation, and this permeates all processes and activities associated with the approach.