Deputy Minister of Education and Training: Do not merge Continuing Education Centers and vocational colleges and junior colleges

Today (August 2), in Vinh city, the Ministry of Education and Training held a conference to summarize the 2018-2019 school year and guide the implementation of tasks for the 2019-2020 school year for Continuing Education.

Attending the conference were Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do, representatives of Departments and Bureaus under the Ministry and key leaders of the Department of Education and Training of 63 provinces and cities across the country. On the side of Nghe An province, there was comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do speaks at the Conference. Photo: Duc Anh

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Mr. Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee expressed his honor when Nghe An was chosen by the Ministry of Education and Training to organize the 2018-2019 school year summary conference. At the same time, he hoped that through this conference, the delegates attending would have important suggestions to help the continuing education sector grow as expected and have practical advice to solve the problems in the current operation process.

This conference also heard about the achievements of Continuing Education in the 2018-2019 school year. Accordingly, in the past year, the sector has done a good job in eliminating illiteracy and building a learning society with the literacy rate of people aged 15-60 nationwide being 97.64%, 97.8% of communes, wards and towns have community learning centers.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong delivered a welcome speech at the closing conference. Photo: Duc Anh

Besides, despite the difficulties, the number of students studying Continuing Education programs during the year is still maintained at a large level with more than 22 million people participating in specialized courses at community learning centers, foreign language and application centers, short-term vocational training...

During the one-day conference, delegates also spent most of their time discussing in groups, focusing on four groups of issues: Teaching culture at vocational schools and colleges; merging centers for continuing education and vocational education; the current lack of uniformity in granting IT and foreign language certificates and difficulties in organizing community learning centers and eliminating illiteracy.

The conference was attended by representatives of the Departments of Education and Training of 63 provinces and cities across the country. Photo: Duc Anh

Concluding the conference, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do acknowledged the efforts of continuing education in the past school year.

The Deputy Minister also frankly pointed out the current shortcomings and difficulties in continuing education and suggested that the entire industry needs to change its thinking from training according to ability to training to meet job requirements.

Representative of the Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong province speaks at the group discussion. Photo: My Ha.

In addition, special attention should be paid to planning the network of continuing education facilities and the continuing education system must be maintained within the national education system to ensure equal rights to education for all subjects.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Huu Do also affirmed: Absolutely do not merge continuing education centers with vocational colleges because vocational colleges and colleges only provide vocational training and do not have the function of teaching culture.

Vocational students at the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center of Dien Chau district. Photo: My Ha

The Ministry also discourages foreign language and information technology centers from establishing branches in localities because it causes difficulties in managing educational quality.