Politburo Directive on universal education and illiteracy eradication for adults

On behalf of the Politburo, Standing member of the Secretariat Truong Thi Mai signed and issued Directive No. 29-CT/TW (dated January 5, 2024) of the Politburo on universal education, compulsory education, adult literacy, and promoting student streaming in general education.

Vietnam News Agency respectfully introduces the full text of the Directive:

After 10 years of implementing Directive No. 10-CT/TW, dated December 5, 2011 of the Politburo on universalizing preschool education for 5-year-old children, consolidating the results of universalizing primary and secondary education, enhancing the streamlining of students after secondary education and eliminating illiteracy for adults, important results have been achieved. The Party and the State have paid attention to directing and prioritizing resources for universalizing education, especially in areas with special socio-economic difficulties, ethnic minority areas, border areas, islands, remote and isolated areas. The whole country has completed universalizing preschool education for 5-year-old children; maintaining and improving the quality of universalizing primary and secondary education, some places have conditions to universalize secondary education. The work of eliminating illiteracy for adults has had positive changes, encouraging newly literate people to continue studying so as not to become illiterate again. Vocational education and student orientation after junior high school are given more attention, creating conditions for high school graduates to choose suitable paths, access careers and lifelong learning.

People are carefully instructed on each stroke of the alphabet in a class teaching the elderly on Tri An Lake. Photo: Le Xuan/VNA

However, the institutionalization and implementation of the Directive are not yet consistent, the rate of children accessing preschool education is still low; some localities have not paid attention to developing preschool schools and classes; the quality of universal education is not really solid, the gap between regions and areas is still large; awareness of vocational education is not adequate, the goal of student streaming after lower secondary school has not met the requirements; in some places, the results of eliminating illiteracy for adults are not sustainable, especially in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; the network of schools and classes has not met the needs of lifelong learning and building a learning society; the shortage of teachers at all levels tends to increase and has not been thoroughly resolved, especially preschool teachers and teachers of new subjects according to the general education program.

To improve the quality of universal education, eliminate illiteracy for adults and promote student streaming in general education, the Politburo requires Party committees at all levels, Party organizations, authorities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations to perform well the following main tasks and solutions:

1. Focus on leading, directing, strengthening advocacy and propaganda work, raising awareness and responsibility of Party committees at all levels, Party organizations, political systems, cadres, Party members, people, especially leaders, leaders and managers about the meaning and importance of universal education, compulsory education, eliminating illiteracy for adults and student streaming in general education, contributing to improving people's knowledge and training human resources for the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country.

Create strong changes, improve the effectiveness of implementation, ensure that all citizens of learning age fulfill their learning obligations, complete universal education and compulsory education; focus on equipping new literates with essential knowledge and skills, maintain and improve the sustainability of adult literacy results, focus on functional literacy; strengthen career counseling and stream students after lower secondary school in accordance with their abilities, strengths, aspirations, and circumstances, and have the opportunity to continue studying; create conditions for people of working age to create jobs or change careers, adapt to social changes; at the same time, develop an open education system to create lifelong learning opportunities and build a learning society, contribute to human resource training, balance the occupational structure, develop education associated with the socio-economy, and strengthen national defense and security.

Diversify propaganda and mobilization work through practical forms, suitable for each target, especially for learners and families; increase the participation of mass media agencies and promote the advantages of oral propaganda; promote the application of digital technology, social networks, and the Internet. Timely commend and replicate typical learning models and localities that do well.

2. Perfecting the system of policies and laws, creating consistency and connectivity, improving the quality of universal education, compulsory education, eliminating illiteracy for adults and streamlining post-secondary students to meet the requirements.

Focus on priority policies for investment in developing preschool education, general education, continuing education, and vocational education; have policies to remove obstacles to the development of the network of private and non-public schools and classes; maintain and improve the quality of universal education, compulsory education, and illiteracy eradication for adults in difficult areas with unstable results; support vocational training, create conditions for junior high school and high school graduates to choose appropriate educational programs, facilitate the transition between educational programs, regular learning, lifelong learning, and linkage between vocational education training levels and higher education levels; promote the application of science and technology, digital transformation, and effectively exploit open educational resources to contribute to the development of sustainable human resources and create equal opportunities in accessing education.

3. Fundamentally and comprehensively innovate the content, programs, and methods of training and fostering preschool, general education, and vocational education teachers in the direction of standardization, modernization, democratization, and gradually approaching the standards of advanced countries. Focus on training and improving the qualities, ideology, ethics, and pedagogical capacity of teachers. Improve the quality of training facilities and fostering teachers and educational managers in conjunction with human resource planning in the education sector. Focus on investing in developing a number of key pedagogical universities, forming a number of satellite pedagogical schools as the core in training high-quality teachers and educational managers. Effectively implement the linkage between pedagogical schools and localities in developing plans for recruitment, training, and fostering teachers at all levels, ensuring sufficient quantity, balanced structure, and appropriateness to practical needs, and promptly overcome the surplus and shortage of teachers.

Continue to innovate salary, recruitment, employment, treatment, attraction policies, and ensure necessary conditions for teachers to perform their tasks well; have incentive and preferential policies for teachers working in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions and specialized educational institutions.

4. Enhance the leading role and responsibility of state management, ensure effective implementation of the Party's guidelines and the State's policies and laws; increase resources and ensure budget to complete the goals of universal education, compulsory education, illiteracy eradication, student streaming in general education, and prioritize universal preschool education for children from 3 to 5 years old. Perfect the organization of the state management apparatus for education and training from the central to grassroots levels; promote decentralization and delegation of authority; strengthen inspection and supervision, and strictly handle violations.

Continue to improve the network of schools, classes, facilities, teaching equipment, ensure conditions for preschool education, general education, continuing education, vocational education in the direction of standardization, modernization, socialization associated with the planning of the national education system, national, sectoral and territorial planning. Pay special attention to developing the network of schools, school locations, classes; ethnic boarding schools, boarding classes for people, semi-boarding classes in mountainous areas, remote and isolated areas.

Promote socialization, create conditions for individuals, businesses, and organizations at home and abroad to invest in building schools and classrooms, especially non-public kindergartens and nurseries in industrial parks, export processing zones, densely populated urban areas, remote areas, and areas with difficult or especially difficult socio-economic conditions.

5. Implementation organization

- Provincial Party Committees, City Party Committees, Party Committees, Party Executive Committees, Party Delegations, and Party Committees directly under the Central Committee are responsible for disseminating, thoroughly understanding, developing programs and plans, and regularly checking and supervising the implementation of the Directive.

- The National Assembly Party Delegation and the Government Party Committee direct the review, revision, supplementation and completion of relevant legal documents; the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education strengthen supervision of the implementation of policies and laws on universal education, compulsory education, adult literacy and student streaming in general education.

- The Government Party Committee directs the development of specific goals by 2030; programs and plans for implementation; regularly inspects and checks the implementation of the Directive.

- The Party Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, the Central Secretariat of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, and mass organizations should strengthen the work of mobilizing and propagating to the people; improve the effectiveness of social supervision and criticism activities to contribute to the effective implementation of the Directive.

- The Central Propaganda Department shall preside over and coordinate with the Party Committee of the Ministry of Education and Training, the Party Committee of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant agencies to guide, monitor, inspect and supervise the implementation of the Directive, periodically review and summarize, and report to the Politburo and the Secretariat.

This directive is disseminated to the Party cell.

According to VNA/Newspaper

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