The textbooks for Ethics and Civic Education will undergo fundamental reform.
The textbook content will be changed to help students become aware of life skills and take responsibility for their own actions.
In the plan to reform the curriculum and textbooks from now until 2015, the Ministry of Education will change the content of the textbooks for the subjects of Ethics and Civic Education. Accordingly, the curriculum and textbooks for this subject will be fundamentally reformed from primary school to high school. This is one of the important contents presented by administrators at the national conference on ethics and civic education in Vietnamese general education held on August 10th in Hanoi.
Delegates attending the Workshop
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien emphasized: In recent years, the subject of Ethics and Civic Education has made important contributions to educating students on the awareness and behavior of citizens; contributing to the formation and development of essential qualities and competencies in students.
However, in reality, the teaching and learning of Ethics and Civic Education in secondary schools still has many limitations and shortcomings. The current curriculum content is still illogical in many aspects, heavily focused on political education and underestimating life skills education. It prioritizes theory over application and practice, and does not require students to demonstrate their skills through specific actions and behaviors in daily life. Many lessons in the Ethics and Civic Education textbooks are dry, forced, and unsuitable for the psychological and emotional characteristics of students...
To address this situation, according to Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien, in addition to teachers changing their methods and improving the quality of teaching, it is necessary to innovate the content and curriculum of the Ethics and Civic Education textbooks. Accordingly, the textbook content must be changed to be more engaging for students, fostering their self-learning and sense of responsibility towards themselves, their families, and the future of the country.
According to Dr. Tran Duc Thang of the Vietnam Education Publishing House, while current textbooks are compiled with a content-based approach, focusing on "teaching literacy," textbooks after 2015 need to be compiled with a competency-based approach that connects students with practical, daily life skills.
After 2015, textbooks on Ethics and Civic Education must be compiled in an open-ended manner, stimulating students' thinking, exploration, and creativity, and linking the teaching of appropriate behavior in social relationships to contribute to the formation of good citizens of the country. The new textbooks must be designed in a modern way, with a balanced combination of images and text, so as to be engaging for learners.
Dr. Duong Van Khoa, from the Department of Political Education at Hanoi Pedagogical University, suggests that the subject of Ethics should be renamed Civic Education and that the name should be standardized from grade 1 to grade 12. The Civic Education curriculum and textbooks should shape teaching methods, encourage creativity among teachers, and enable students to apply knowledge and life skills to real-life situations, so that students understand which actions are appropriate, which are to avoid, and which are harmful to themselves and society.
According to vov.vn - LT
