The moral qualities – the legacy of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is the spirit of lifelong learning. Learning here is not only learning at school, but also learning in real work, learning in life, learning anytime, anywhere.
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| Professor Mach Quang Thang stated that the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had many instructions and many profound, impressive, and practical statements... (Photo: NVCC) |
During his lifetime, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong remembered by heart the saying of the young communist Pavel Kocsaghin, a character in the novel “ How the Steel Was Tempered” by Russian writer Nicolai Ostrovsky: “The most precious thing for a human being is life and the honor of living, because a person only lives once. One must live so as not to feel regret for the years lived in vain, wasted; so as not to be ashamed of mean, cowardly actions, despised by everyone; so that when we close our eyes, we can proudly say: All my life, all my strength, I have devoted to the most noble cause in the world – the cause of fighting for national liberation, human liberation, bringing happiness to the People”.
One thing that people will always remember about the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is the beauty of his character as a man who held the highest leadership position of the Party and State but was still humble, simple and extremely honest...
The World and Vietnam Newspaper had an interview with Prof. Mach Quang Thang, former Director of the Department of Science Management of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, former Senior Lecturer of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, about the qualities, ethics, and personality of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in educating today's young generation. It is necessary to focus on personality education to create decent people, true talents in the future to achieve the goal of Vietnam being a developing country by 2030, with modern industry, high average income and by 2045 becoming a developed country, high income as set out in the Party Resolution.
A model of lifelong learning
Professor, in your opinion, which moral qualities and legacy values of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong should be replicated and spread among today's youth?
In November 2020, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of Nguyen Gia Thieu High School, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited his teachers and the school where he studied, sincerely and respectfully asking permission to call himself "em" to the teachers... "I report to the teachers that I am now the General Secretary and President (in 2020), but when I return to school, I ask for permission from the teachers to still call me Nguyen Phu Trong, a former student of the school. During the ceremony, the teachers also introduced me as a former student of Nguyen Phu Trong. I would also like to express my feelings about the memories of my student days, about the beautiful memories with the teachers and classmates".
To attend the reunion of his old class, he asked someone to take him on a motorbike. When he met his teachers and friends, he said: “Please let me, please let me give up all titles outside this room. You come here forever as the students of the teachers of the past. I come here forever as your classmate…”.
The General Secretary once said: “We are descendants of Uncle Ho, the Party is the Communist Party of Vietnam, the nation is the Vietnamese nation, this country must definitely develop and move forward, it is not allowed to fall behind other countries, and it is not willing to be inferior to others. We must determine our determination and will like that.”
In my opinion, his moral qualities – the value of his legacy – are the spirit of lifelong learning. Learning here is not only learning in school, but also learning in real work, learning in life, learning anytime, anywhere – because “reality is also a strict teacher”.
The results of learning and the cultural heritage that the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong left behind, seen from the people's "evaluation" at the funeral. How much people honored, respected and loved him.
From your perspective, how important is personality education, ethics, and a simple lifestyle in the current social context, especially in the process of international integration?
Former General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had many profound and impressive instructions and speeches that touched people's lives... In one speech, he said: With all modesty, we can still say that our country has never had such a foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today.
The current social context in the country and internationally is quite complicated. Everyone has a certain living environment, which is the natural environment and the social environment. Therefore, I think that today, personality education, ethics, and lifestyle are very important. How to educate people so that they always maintain their "good nature". That is, people with good qualities and clear intelligence, people who always have correct thinking and actions, live a good life, love good things, hate bad things, and evil. In modern times, we must pay more attention to moral training, we should slow down, live simply and healthily.
To effectively implement this slogan, what do we need to do to innovate teaching and learning methods and evaluate the quality of education? How can we make “real learning, real exams, real talent” truly come into life, sir?
In my opinion, the best way is to promote “real learning, real exams, real talent”, and to build a foundation of real learning. To bring this into life, not only does it require a high level of responsibility from the education sector, but it also requires the responsibility of four “spaces”: School – Family – Society – Individual learners. Each space is very important.
Schools not only equip students with knowledge but also educate them in morality; “cultivating people”, but in “cultivating people”, we must focus on “cultivating virtue”. To create talented people with good personalities, families must accompany the school, cannot leave the education of children to the school alone, and at the same time should not put pressure on students and teachers.
The family, as the old saying goes, must be a well-educated family, grandparents and parents must set a good example for their children. Society needs to care for the cause of cultivating people, so that the slogan "education and training is the top national policy" can be effectively put into practice. In addition, the learners themselves must also "strive", must strive to study and constantly update their knowledge so as not to "fall behind" in a world where technology is developing more and more strongly.
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| To create talented people with good personalities, families must accompany schools. (Illustration: Nguyet Anh) |
Join hands for the development of education
Can you share the importance of education in building a civilized, modern country, on par with the world's great powers?
The importance of education to the development of a society is probably understood by everyone. In my opinion, to look at a society to see whether it is progressive, civilized, modern or not, to what extent, we need to look at many indicators, especially the education development index, not just rely on the GDP index.
Besides, other indexes should also be emphasized such as: Human Development Index (HDI); Happiness Index (HI); Global Innovation Index (GII)... That is, cultural development indexes, including education, rather than some people just looking at the annual growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Gross National Product (GNP).
What challenges do you see in educating personality and ethics for young people today?
There are many challenges, depending on how each person looks at it. One of the current challenges is between the desire to equip young people with a lot of knowledge and the desire to educate them in morality and personality.
The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress stated: "Fundamentally and comprehensively innovate education and training, improve the quality of human resources, and develop people". Resolution of the 8th Central Conference, 11th tenure, No. 29-NQ/TW dated November 4, 2021 stated a breakthrough solution: "Strongly shift the education process from mainly equipping knowledge to comprehensively developing learners' capacity and qualities. Learning goes hand in hand with practice; theory is linked to practice; school education is combined with family education and social education". After 10 years of implementing the above Resolution, on August 12, 2024, the 13th Politburo issued Conclusion No. 91-KL/TW on continuing to implement Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW.
Therefore, let's overcome the challenges by doing well the above goals, as well as following Uncle Ho's words about learning: Learning to work, learning to be human, learning to serve the Fatherland and the people, serving the Fatherland and humanity.
At the same time, it is also in the spirit of UNESCO's vision of 21st century education with 4 pillars: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. Certificates and degrees are only specific marks when assessing the quality of learning of learners at a certain time, not the goal of education and training, and certainly not a measure of each person's capacity.
What suggestions do you have to raise public awareness of the importance of moral education, to create kind, socially responsible people?
Talking about community means talking about many factors: school, family, society… I hope all those communities join hands for the development of education, especially moral education for young people.
The goal set at the 13th National Party Congress is that by 2030 Vietnam will be a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045 it will become a developed country with high income. To achieve these goals, we must take care of education starting from now on, starting with those in kindergarten because they will be the main force. Before becoming famous and enriching the homeland and country, first of all, you must be kind, responsible, patriotic, peace-loving, and respectful of the historical values that our ancestors have brought.
In the future, they must be honored by the Party and loved by the people. That desire must go hand in hand with promoting comprehensive education for the young generation, with special attention paid to moral education, personality, and lifestyle. And the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is a typical example in today's era for the young generation to learn from and follow.
Thus, to raise public awareness of the importance of moral education, it is necessary to follow Uncle Ho's viewpoint stated on the first page of the book The Revolutionary Path (1927), in the section on the Qualities of a Revolutionary: "If you say something, you must do it", as he stated in his speech to the intellectual and wealthy representatives of Thanh Hoa province in February 1947: "I call on the people in the province to roll up their sleeves and get to work", or stated in the article on Mass Mobilization (October 15, 1949): "You need to think, see, listen, walk, speak, and do. Not just talk, just sit and write orders... you must honestly get your hands dirty". That is, act, act, act.
As in his speech at the opening session of the 13th National Party Congress, the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized: “With all modesty, we can still say that: Our country has never had such a foundation, potential, position and international prestige as today. Those achievements are the crystallization of creativity, the result of a process of continuous and persistent efforts over many terms of our entire Party, people and army…”.
This is a proud result and through this we can see the importance of educating ethics, lifestyle and personality for young people in today's era, to create real talents in the future to contribute to building an increasingly strong and developed country.
Thank you!
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