Full text of the Prime Minister's speech at the launching ceremony of 'Waves and computers for children'

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh launched the program “Waves and computers for children”. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

Dear comrades present at the bridge points,

Dear Comrade Nguyen Thi Doan, former member of the Party Central Committee, former Vice President, President of the Vietnam Association for Promoting Education,

Dear comrades representing agencies, units, businesses and friends!

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected the entire socio-economic life globally, changing the way of thinking, adapting, operating, and governing society, especially in the context of the digital age. One of our current priorities is to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic with the goal of controlling, repelling, and safely adapting to the pandemic due to the emergence of many new variants.

The Party, the State and the entire political system have actively participated with great determination and the consensus of the people to gradually control, repel and build safe adaptation solutions to the epidemic.

With that will, determination and drastic action, our country's epidemic control is progressing positively, especially in Ho Chi Minh City and some southern provinces.

In Hanoi, with the promotion of vaccination and appropriate testing, the epidemic is under control. That raises the hope that people's lives will gradually return to normal. However, we must not be subjective, negligent, or lose vigilance, especially hastily loosening the implementation of anti-epidemic measures.

One of the Government's key tasks now is to soon bring life back to normal according to a plan to safely adapt to the epidemic.

Accordingly, the Government has proposed solutions to: (1) Increase resources for Covid-19 vaccines and medicines (import, transfer technology, promote research progress, domestic production of vaccines and medicines); provide free vaccinations to the people; (2) Accelerate vaccination progress for those who have not been vaccinated and protect and care for the health of those who have been vaccinated; (3) Gradually reopen schools safely; (4) Increase testing and mobilize people to comply with epidemic prevention measures; (5) Improve the health system to care for and treat people infected with COVID-19 and other diseases and (6) Quickly recover the economy.

The government is very concerned about the safe reopening of schools. Safety must be put first for the health of the children, the future generation of the country, but they still have to study. Studying must be safe. We are all saddened that the epidemic has taken away the meaning of childhood for children such as not being able to go to school every day, not being able to hear the school bell, not being able to meet and interact with friends, teachers...

In many places, children have had to study online for nearly 2 years. This has affected their psychology, knowledge and comprehensive development, and disrupted the lives of many families, when their parents have no one to take care of their children while still having to go to work every day according to regulations, laws and jobs.

In many poor families, children are even more disadvantaged than their peers because they do not have computers to study online, and in many places the internet is unstable or there is no signal connection.

I understand that in order to implement the policy of “temporarily stopping going to school but not stopping learning,” many children in mountainous, remote areas have brought their books and set up huts on hilltops to have a signal to study. Many families cannot afford to buy computers for their children, so they cannot study online, and feel inferior and hurt with their friends.

Youth Union members of Nghia Dan district (Nghe An) organized support and guidance for parents and students to install online learning devices. Photo: Minh Thai

The pandemic has seriously affected education and training activities. Millions of high school students have been unable to go to school to study normally. Switching to online learning is inevitable, both a temporary solution and part of the digital transformation to develop modern education for the present and the future.

Currently, the whole country has nearly 20 million high school students. Of which, more than 7,350,000 students, in 26/63 provinces and cities nationwide are implementing online learning. However, due to economic difficulties and the unpredictable impact of the epidemic, many families in localities across the country, from the South to the North, both urban and rural, have not been able and do not have the conditions to purchase online learning facilities and equipment.

According to initial statistics, as of September 12, there were approximately more than 1.5 million students (in 213 districts) who could not attend classes with their friends due to lack of equipment. Organizing teaching on television for grades 1 and 2, and supplementary teaching for other classes on television also encountered great difficulties in terms of equipment, waves and transmission lines.

The above statistics do not include provinces and cities that are currently implementing in-person teaching and learning but also need to be ready to switch to online learning if the epidemic situation becomes complicated. The Party, State and Government have focused on fighting the epidemic, have supported many social groups, have cared for the education sector, localities and the education sector itself have tried their best, however, the difficulties caused by the epidemic are too great, the response to the epidemic requires more participation from the whole society, all classes of people at home and abroad.

The Party and State clearly understand and sympathize with families and children facing difficulties in adapting to studying under epidemic conditions.

At present, in many localities, the implementation of social distancing and increased social distancing has been quite long, so people's lives and psychology have been severely affected. The Party and the State are building short-term and long-term solutions to safely adapt to the epidemic; achieving the goal of reopening schools safely, and safely before reopening.

Dear delegates!

Less than a year after gaining power, President Ho Chi Minh said: "I have only one desire, an utmost desire, which is to make our country completely independent, our people completely free, everyone has food to eat, clothes to wear, and everyone can study." And we need to have the responsibility to fulfill his wishes in all circumstances.

The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress clearly stated that people are the center, the subject, the most important resource and the goal of development; developing education and training together with developing science and technology is the top national policy; investing in education is investing in development; perfecting the national education system to achieve the goal that every citizen can equally enjoy the fruits of education, giving priority to especially disadvantaged areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, islands, remote areas and policy subjects...

Therefore, for teaching and learning in the context of the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to assess the impact on many aspects to have solutions to each fundamental problem in the short and long term. One of the problems that arises when organizing online teaching and learning in localities affected by the pandemic is the lack of learning equipment and signal. This can lead to unfair consequences in access to education, affecting the quality of teaching and learning.

Waves and computers are new learning methods, situational but suitable in conditions of social distancing and increased social distancing so that children, especially those in remote areas, extremely difficult areas, and disadvantaged households, have conditions to study and have equal access to knowledge.

However, this is a new learning method that requires educators, educational institutions, psychologists, teachers, and students to adjust their teaching and learning methods, especially teachers must adjust the content, curriculum, duration, and amount of knowledge appropriately for students to absorb in the best way, especially for students entering grade 1 and at the end of each level of education.

The program "Waves and computers for children" launched by the Government, chaired by the Ministry of Information and Communications in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Training and localities, has profound social and humanitarian significance.

In addition to supporting children in difficult circumstances in epidemic areas with online learning devices, the "Wave and Computer for Children" program contributes to our progress towards Internet coverage in areas without signal and improving signal quality to achieve the goal of applying and developing science in education, improving people's knowledge, expanding social knowledge, digitizing learning, contributing to the development of the digital economy and digital society.

In many cases, two students have to study together on one device. Photo: VNA

Access to computers and cyberspace for children is a new and exciting experience, opening up new horizons with a lot of vast, useful and interesting knowledge, but it also poses potential dangers for children if schools, families and society do not proactively take measures to guide and prevent.

The program aims to provide cheap Internet bandwidth, remote learning platforms and tens of millions of personal computers to support children.

On behalf of the Party and State leaders, the Prime Minister acknowledged and highly appreciated the ministries, branches and localities that responded to the Plan to implement the Program "Waves and computers for children". I also warmly commended the businesses, organizations and individuals who, despite facing many difficulties due to the impact of the epidemic, were willing to support the Program immediately in the spirit of "mutual love".

I know that many businesses have greatly supported the Vaccine Fund and today continue the journey of charity to connect knowledge, connect love, connect regions, connect solidarity to contribute to realizing the aspiration of Vietnam to prosper and develop in the digital society era, especially investing in the young generation.

Dear delegates,

As I have emphasized from the beginning, one of the goals of the current response to the pandemic is to move towards the safe reopening of schools so that children do not have to learn online. Therefore, I propose:

The Ministry of Health coordinates with the Ministry of Education and Training, ministries, branches and localities to proactively develop scenarios for safe return to school in safe places, safe for learning.

Safe vaccination for children needs to be carried out early, especially for children aged 12 and above. At the same time, some countries in the world are conducting research on vaccines for children under 12 years old. I have directed and discussed many times with the Minister of Health and the Ministry is negotiating vaccine contracts for children.

The Ministry of Information and Communications is the focal point coordinating with the Ministry of Education and Training, relevant ministries, branches and localities to closely coordinate to build telecommunications infrastructure, simply understood as "having signal" for children, especially in areas without signal or signal of poor quality.

At the same time, develop criteria and conditions for supporting machines for children to ensure publicity, transparency, correct target and effective use. Continue to mobilize organizations and individuals to implement this meaningful program.

The Ministry of Education and Training is the focal point for coordinating with relevant ministries, branches and localities to develop a curriculum that ensures consistency in teaching and learning platforms, learning materials for shared use, or meets the requirements of knowledge transmission through a combination of online learning methods and the use of mass media such as television and radio.

At the same time, ministries and branches need to design exam programs and evaluate results associated with online learning to ensure quality and create peace of mind for students and parents.

Dear delegates!

Nowadays, people often mention the phrase "flat world", the strong development of technology has "flattened the world" by global connection through cyberspace.

We need to have a vision of that general trend to develop the country to bring many conveniences, values, improve and modernize the lives of the people. Those great things must originate from the change in technology application of each individual in society.

Therefore, each computer, each area with signal, each child connected, learning in cyberspace under the condition of having to solve the situation contributes to sowing each seed so that those seeds can grow and continue to spread, creating a digital society, a digital economy, creating love throughout the country, in every region of our country.

The activity of supporting, donating and mobilizing “Waves and computers for children” is an activity that demonstrates the spirit of humanity and promotes the good values ​​of the Vietnamese people, but this is also an action that carries a profound educational spirit of love and social responsibility for all students.

Supporting millions of students now is supporting a whole generation, reducing the difficulties and disadvantages for them today is reducing the social burden for decades to come. Helping them study today is taking care of the speed and quality of the country's development in the future.

Internet connections, radio waves and computer equipment for students are physical and mechanical connections for learning, but also stronger connections between people, regions and the present and the future.

Dear delegates!

Our ancestors used to say “Fire tests gold - Adversity tests strength” or “In difficulty, wisdom emerges.” The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted all aspects of social life of people around the world, including our country. But this is also the time for us to manage change, promote creativity in each individual, family, business and the whole country to increase the ability to adapt to all circumstances, especially risk management.

The government is directing the assessment, review, research, and drawing lessons for application, including lessons on technology application. The program “Waves and computers for children” is a message of adaptation to the situation, managing change, and spreading the kindness of each of us.

I believe that the program will spread positive energy and humanistic meaning to the community to contribute to building an increasingly better society in the digital age, especially to help students in remote areas, border areas, islands, and students with difficult circumstances have equal access to what the Party and State have for our people.

Today, we officially launch the program “Waves and computers for children”, and request that localities also launch this movement. We hope that comrades, delegates, ministries, branches, localities, socio-political organizations, people, and the business community will continue to participate and contribute to the success of the program, making it truly meaningful. Together, we will join hands and unite to overcome difficulties and overcome the pandemic.

Thank you very much and wish our program great success!"./.