THE CURRENT STATUS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF STUDENTS AT LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TAY NINH CITY

Students’ scientific research is an important activity in lower secondary schools. The study aims to assess the current status of scientific research of students in lower secondary schools in Tay Ninh city. The sample of the study comprises 253 administrators, teachers, and 906 students at lower secondary level. The research results show that most administrators and teachers have been aware of the role of this activity; however, many students are still not fully aware of its significance. The forms of scientific research that were widely organized were "Launching Science and Technology Contest for high school students" and "Organizing for students to perform experiments on issues of interest in the subjects", in which the form attracted the most interest of students was "Organizing students to conduct experiments on issues of interest in subjects". The results also show that students has obtained certain achievements in their scientific research, but there are some problems to be improved to match the development scale of secondary education in Tay Ninh city. The main reasons for these limitations were that the schools have not created motivations for instructors and students to participate in scientific research; Conditions of facilities, teaching equipment, and laboratories to serve the scientific and technical research activities of students in the school are inadequate and asynchronous; as well as students’ scientific research competence is still limited. The situation assessment is considered as a basis for the lower secondary schools in Tay Ninh city to propose measures to improve the efficiency of scientific research of students.