Imprints, difficulties, and challenges of the Education sector in 2024

TPO – 2024 marks the completion of the first cycle of implementing the 2018 General Education Program for three levels of education nationwide. The list of textbooks from grades 1 to 12 has completed the review and approval process. The Ministry of Education and Training is also preparing all conditions for exam reform. However, there are still shortcomings and difficulties.

Drafting the Law on Teachers

On November 9, 2024, within the framework of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son presented to the National Assembly a summary of the draft Law on Teachers with many groups of policies to promote the development of the teaching force. At the Session, the draft Law was discussed and commented on in the hall and discussed and commented on by the National Assembly delegation. After nearly 20 years of incubation, more than a year of urgent preparation, with the dedication and efforts of the team of experts, cadres and specialists assigned to draft the Law, along with the determination of the entire sector, the draft Law on Teachers, first presented at the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, received high support and consensus from the National Assembly delegates.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training is coordinating with the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education to prepare documents for the meetings of the National Assembly Standing Committee and complete the draft Law on Teachers for the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly. It is expected that the draft Law on Teachers will be considered and approved at this Session.

Complete general education reform, prepare for examination reform

2024 marks the completion of the first cycle of implementing the 2018 General Education Program for three levels of education nationwide. The list of textbooks from grades 1 to 12 has completed the review and approval process. This is also the year to prepare for the renewal of the High School Graduation Exam according to the new program.

2024 marks the completion of the first cycle of implementing the 2018 General Education Program for three levels of education synchronously nationwide.

The Ministry of Education and Training has announced the exam plan, exam format structure, and sample exam questions for the High School Graduation Exam from 2025. Accordingly, for the first time, assessment will be based on competency instead of content and knowledge in a large-scale national exam, achieving three goals: graduation consideration; assessment of the teaching and learning process; and as a basis for university and vocational education admissions.

Along with the process of innovating high school graduation exams, preparations for innovating high school, university and college admissions have also been implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2024 through amending and supplementing current regulations.

2024 is also the year when the number of candidates applying for and enrolling in universities increases; pedagogical majors and artificial intelligence training majors. In particular, the semiconductor industry has strong attraction, showing initial progress according to the Government's major policies and plans on training human resources in the semiconductor industry.

The Politburo issued Conclusion No. 91 with many contents.

Conclusion 91-KL/TW of the Politburo assessed: After 10 years of implementing Resolution 29, education and training in our country have achieved many important results. The Politburo requested to continue to perfect and effectively implement the new general education program, focusing on strongly innovating teaching and learning methods towards promoting the positivity, proactiveness and creativity of teachers and learners; comprehensively developing learners' capacity and qualities.

Implement a unified national general education program, each subject has one or several textbooks and socializes the compilation of textbooks; implement 9-year compulsory education.

Regarding career orientation, the Politburo requested to strengthen orientation for young people right from high school level; promote streaming, increase the number of students after junior high school and high school entering vocational education; pay attention to investing and developing a number of vocational education institutions, training sectors and occupations to reach the level equivalent to the region and the world.

Regarding salary policy, the Politburo's conclusion clearly states that teachers' salaries are given the highest priority in the administrative and career salary scale system and have additional allowances depending on the nature of the job and the region.

Increasing the ranking of Vietnamese educational institutions in the region and the world

Continuing the achievements of previous years, in 2024, the rankings of higher education institutions in Asia and internationally continued to have an impressive increase. According to the announcement of the QS Ranking Organization (Quacquarelli Symonds - UK) for 1,751 higher education institutions worldwide, Vietnam has 10 higher education institutions participating, an increase of 2 institutions compared to the previous year. Notably, in this ranking, Hanoi National University has a strong increase in position when it is ranked 325th in the world (up 456 places compared to the ranking position in the top 781 - 790 in the 2024 ranking), ranked 51st in Asia and number 1 in Vietnam.

In 2024, Vietnam will have 17 higher education institutions in the QS Asia rankings, including 4 universities in the top 200.

Vietnam continues to make its mark at international competitions

In 2024, Vietnam had 7 student delegations participating in regional and international Olympic competitions with 38 students participating. The Vietnamese student delegations brought back outstanding achievements when all won prizes, with 12 Gold Medals, 15 Silver Medals, 10 Bronze Medals and 1 Certificate of Merit; an increase of 4 Gold Medals and 3 Silver Medals compared to 2023. The Vietnamese student delegations all achieved high rankings, maintaining their position in the top 10 in the world; many Vietnamese students achieved scores in the top group, especially the practical exam scores increased compared to previous years.

In 2024, the Vietnamese student delegation attending the International Science and Technology Competition in the United States also won a second prize - this is the highest prize since 2013.

Besides the positive results and achievements, last year, the education sector still had problems such as: lack of schools, lack of teachers or continuous incidents of school violence... which are difficulties and challenges in the innovation process.

Strengthening international integration in education

Last school year, the whole country had 126 private preschool and general education institutions with foreign investment (accounting for about 3.25% of the total number of preschool and general education institutions in the country) with over 33,000 students (of which about 17,850 students were foreigners); there were 166 private preschool and general education institutions with 100% Vietnamese investment capital that had foreign investment cooperation at all levels (accounting for 4.3% of the total number of preschool and general education institutions in the country). Bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the field of education and training has expanded to more than 100 countries, territories and many prestigious international organizations. The Ministry of Education and Training has negotiated, signed or submitted to competent authorities for signing 16 educational cooperation documents with 153 countries, including 8 international treaties at the Government level and 8 international agreements as the basis and important legal corridor for implementing cooperation activities between educational institutions and localities.

Many difficulties and challenges

The whole country still has a serious shortage of teachers: According to the report of the Ministry of Education and Training on the results of the implementation of tasks in the 2023-2024 school year, the direction and key tasks of the 2024-2025 school year, as of April 2024, the whole country still lacks 113,491 teachers at all levels of preschool and general education. In which, there are local surpluses and shortages between levels of education, regions with different socio-economic conditions. The teacher/class ratio at all levels is lower than the norm prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training.

There is still a shortage of teachers in the localities.

The main reasons are that the attraction to the industry is still limited; the number of teachers leaving their jobs is still high; the source of teachers for some specific subjects is still lacking; recruitment in localities is still slow. In addition, the number of classes increases due to the increase in the number of students, leading to an increase in the demand for teachers; the planning and forecasting of teacher demand from the strategic level to localities is not close, not keeping up with reality; population fluctuations, labor migration between regions in large numbers and without rules; ...

Lack of schools and learning equipment

According to the assessment of the Ministry of Education and Training, the network of schools, facilities and teaching equipment have been increased but still do not meet the requirements of scale development and improvement of education quality, especially in some schools in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. The number of unconsolidated classrooms is still high (about 15.5% of classrooms nationwide have not been consolidated). The rate of meeting the prescribed standards for teaching equipment nationwide is only over 50%, which is very low. The planning for the development of industrial parks is not in sync with the planning for the development of the system of schools and classrooms for children of workers and laborers... The procurement of minimum teaching equipment in localities is still slow and is facing many difficulties and obstacles, affecting the organization of teaching and learning in general education institutions.

Some localities, due to difficult economic conditions and limited investment capital, have not allocated adequate local budget resources to invest in improving school facilities and purchasing additional teaching equipment.

School violence incidents continue to occur.

School violence is a problem that is "known, very painful, talked about over and over again" but still happens continuously, causing pain for students and society. Although, up to this point, the Ministry of Education and Training has not announced the data on school violence incidents that occurred in 2024, however, looking back, it can be seen that school violence still occurs continuously in schools. For example: 11th grade female student in Thanh Hoa was beaten by a gang, breaking her cervical vertebrae; Students used chairs to beat their friends in Can Tho; Dak Nong students had a conflict, two female students were stabbed seriously...

Ha Linh

Source: https://tienphong.vn/dau-an-kho-khan-thach-thuc-cua-nganh-giao-duc-nam-2024-post1704618.tpo