The glorious responsibility of teachers

The Party and State always affirm that education and training is the top national policy and the future of the nation; always pay special attention to and invest in education.

On November 18, in Hanoi, General Secretary To Lam met with representatives of teachers and education managers on the occasion of Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20, and presented the Third Class Labor Medal to the University of Economics - Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Breaking down barriers

At the meeting, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that after nearly 40 years of innovation, especially 10 years of implementing fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training, the education and training sector has had strong changes and achieved many important results.

Specifically, the whole country has completed universal education for 5-year-old children, universal primary and secondary education. General education has changed dramatically, shifting positively from mainly equipping knowledge to comprehensively developing the qualities, capacities and skills of learners. Schools have changed from the form to the quality of education; teachers are more proactive and creative, students are more confident; teaching and assessment methods have been fundamentally innovated...

University education continues to be innovated. Increased autonomy and international integration have created new momentum, creating strong changes in human resource training and scientific research. The country currently has nearly 7 million university graduates, 24 million people studying at different levels, degrees and types at more than 52,000 educational institutions. To date, 4 universities have been ranked in the top 1,000 of the prestigious international QS rankings, and some training majors are in the top 100 in Asia.

However, Minister Nguyen Kim Son also pointed out that our country's education is facing many great challenges. Among them, the greatest challenge is from within - the challenge of innovation, overcoming oneself, denying oneself as a "transformation" for development. According to the Minister, facing the era of national development, the education sector needs a "transformation" to move towards higher quality and comprehensive human development. At the same time, it is necessary to change old habits, ways of thinking, ways of thinking, and ways of doing things, overcoming limits to break through.

"I hope that the leaders of the Party, State, National Assembly, Government, localities, businesses and the whole society will pay more attention so that the "top national policy" is truly the top national policy; so that strategic breakthroughs truly break down barriers; so that education is no longer a sustainable education in overcoming difficulties and poverty..." - the Minister of Education and Training expressed.

General Secretary To Lam and representatives of teachers and education managers at a meeting on November 18 at Hanoi National University. Photo: TRAN HIEP

Many limitations persist

Speaking at the meeting, General Secretary To Lam emphasized that the Party and State always affirm that education and training is the top national policy and the future of the nation; always pay special attention and care, have many policies and strategies for investment in education, and determine that investment in education is investment for development and is prioritized and goes ahead compared to other fields.

According to the General Secretary, in the process of national renewal, the Party has focused on leading and directing the reform of education and training, and achieved many positive results. The national education system has been gradually improved in an open direction, building a learning society; the scale and network of education and training facilities have developed, better meeting the people's needs for lifelong learning...

To achieve these achievements and results, in addition to the regular and close leadership and direction of the Party and State, the participation of the entire political system and the entire people, there is also the solidarity, unity, joint efforts, and efforts to overcome all difficulties of the entire education sector.

In addition to the results, General Secretary To Lam said that it is necessary to frankly acknowledge that although the reform of education and training has been implemented for decades, it has not yet created strong changes, has not really changed in quality, and has not met expectations. In particular, human resources are still one of the major bottlenecks.

The General Secretary also pointed out a number of long-standing limitations such as fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training that is not yet synchronous, lacks systematicity, and is still confusing; the quality of education at all levels is still limited; university education still lags behind other countries in the region and the world; and is heavy on theory and light on practice.

In addition, there is not a close connection between training and scientific research, production - business and market demand, causing great waste. Educational methods have not promoted the positivity and creativity of learners, and have not focused on training skills and qualities for learners. There is still a shortage of schools and classes; the teaching staff is still lacking in quantity, a part is weak in professional capacity, and has not actively innovated... In particular, investment from the State budget for education and training is not commensurate with the requirements of innovation and development, while the socialization of investment resources still faces many difficulties.

Issues to be addressed immediately

General Secretary To Lam emphasized that the world is in a period of epochal change, competition between major countries is increasingly fierce, in which competition over the quality of human resources determines the development opportunities of each country and is identified as the core. The 4th industrial revolution, the formation of a knowledge-based economy and knowledge-based society; the requirement to transform the economic model from breadth to depth, restructuring the economy towards quality, efficiency, and high competitiveness... have promoted educational innovation to become a global trend and Vietnam cannot stand outside.

According to the General Secretary, to complete the strategic goals of the 100th anniversary of the Party's founding, the 100th anniversary of the country's founding, bringing the country firmly into the era of rising up, the era of prosperity, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers, high-quality human resources continue to be identified by the 10th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee as a strategic breakthrough and education and training innovation is the task and strategic solution of the 14th Party Congress.

In this context, General Secretary To Lam raised three issues.

Firstly, focus on achieving the goal of "completing the cause of education and training innovation, completing the goal of creating human resources for national construction and defense in the era of national development during the term of the 14th Party Congress". There are 4 specific contents, including: completing the cause of education and training innovation from now until the end of the term of the 14th Party Congress; focusing on building socialist people, focusing on personality education, ethics, lifestyle, legal knowledge and civic awareness; closely following the viewpoints and goals of national development to determine training needs and content, based on orders from each agency, unit, organization, and enterprise using labor; striving to improve Vietnam's education ranking on the regional and international education map.

Second, there needs to be a solution to completely eliminate illiteracy, especially in remote areas and among ethnic minorities. Launch a movement to "popularize digital education", quickly popularize basic knowledge about digital transformation for all people. Focus on reviewing and completely resolving the shortage of schools and classes in some big cities, industrial parks, densely populated areas and mountainous areas. Reinforce schools and classrooms, linked with ensuring accommodation for teachers in remote areas. Ensure that the state budget for education accounts for at least 20% of the total state budget expenditure and have preferential mechanisms and policies to attract non-state resources to invest in education and training development.

Third, focus on building a team of teachers and educational managers who are virtuous and talented, who are passionate, enthusiastic, skilled, knowledgeable, capable of imparting knowledge, eager to learn, innovative, and truly role models for students to learn and follow; sufficient in number and consistent in structure. Research and propose mechanisms and policies for mobilizing and rotating teachers to solve the problem of local teacher surplus and shortage; attract talented people and motivate teachers and educational managers to work with peace of mind.

"President Ho Chi Minh advised, "Whether Vietnam can become glorious or not, whether the Vietnamese people can step up to the stage of glory to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great powers of the five continents or not, depends largely on your studies." We are standing at the door of history to fulfill the wish of the great President Ho Chi Minh; we can only successfully fulfill his wish when and only when we successfully complete the task of reforming education and training. The glorious responsibility requires great efforts, strong breakthroughs, and the united efforts of our entire Party, people, and army," General Secretary To Lam noted.

The delegation of Ho Chi Minh City leaders led by Mr. Nguyen Ho Hai, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, visited and presented flowers to express gratitude to the families of the late Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thien Thanh and Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thien Nhan. Photo: Hue Xuan

Ho Chi Minh City: Paying tribute to outstanding teachers

On November 18, a delegation of Ho Chi Minh City leaders led by Mr. Nguyen Ho Hai, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, visited outstanding teachers and their families.

The delegation visited the family of the late Professor, Doctor, Hero of Labor Nguyen Thien Thanh - former Director of Thong Nhat Hospital (HCMC), former Head of the Department of Geriatrics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, HCMC, father of Professor, Doctor Nguyen Thien Nhan - former member of the Politburo, former Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, former Minister of Education and Training.

On behalf of the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Nguyen Ho Hai expressed his gratitude for the contributions of the late Professor Nguyen Thien Thanh to the education, health and science of Ho Chi Minh City in particular and the whole country in general. At the same time, he sent his regards and thanks to Professor Nguyen Thien Nhan for his contributions to the country's education sector over the past years.

Professor Nguyen Thien Nhan highly appreciated the happy school model and said that Ho Chi Minh City was on the right track because besides studying, the spiritual quality of students needs to be paid more attention. On behalf of his family, Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan thanked the good feelings of the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City and said that he would promote the family tradition, be worthy of the title of teacher, and continue to contribute to the development of society and the country.

On the same morning, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training held a ceremony to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of Vietnamese Teachers' Day, honoring Excellent Teachers and presenting the Vo Truong Toan Award in 2024. At the ceremony, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Nguyen Thi Le affirmed that the city's leaders will continue to pay attention, closely direct and create all favorable conditions for education. In particular, recognizing and praising the contributions of teachers and educational managers is even more necessary, creating motivation for teachers to continue to contribute to the training and fostering of high-quality human resources for the locality and the country.

On this occasion, the delegation of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, People's Council and People's Committee led by Mr. Phan Nguyen Nhu Khue - Member of the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, Head of the Propaganda Department of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee - also visited and congratulated outstanding teachers, including: Meritorious Teacher, Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Ai Phuong - former Secretary of the Party Committee, former Principal of the University of Natural Sciences, VNU-HCM; Meritorious Teacher, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Bao Lam - former Secretary of the Party Committee of Universities, Colleges, Vocational Colleges, former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City Open University.

D.Trinh - H.Xuan

The flame of love for the profession burns forever

Representing nearly 1.6 million teachers nationwide, Professor Dang Hoang Minh, lecturer at the University of Education - Vietnam National University, Hanoi, expressed his pride in being among the ranks of Vietnamese teachers. As the youngest female professor to be qualified for the title of professor in 2023 and co-author of a scientific work published in the world's leading prestigious journal Nature, Professor Dang Hoang Minh said that she is deeply aware that she is inheriting the tradition of many generations of excellent teachers. That is the ever-burning flame of dedication, passion for teaching and scientific research, the desire for innovation, creativity and contribution to the continuous development of her homeland and country.

The female professor hopes that the Party and State will continue to create favorable conditions and trust in the teaching staff, and issue many appropriate policies in using, recruiting, attracting, and rewarding the teaching staff - especially young, excellent teachers and scientists as well as teachers in remote and mountainous areas with many difficulties and hardships.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/trach-nhiem-vinh-quang-cua-nha-giao-196241118220533059.htm