Reaching out to be worthy of the title 'land of learning'

Education must be real learning, real testing

PV:Dear Professor, Dr. Thai Van Thanh, we have just finished a school year with many difficulties but have reached the finish line quite successfully. Please share some of the results that the industry has achieved.GWhat has Nghe An education achieved in the past year?

Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh:As we know, the 2021-2022 school year is a school year in which the education sector continues to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, for the first time, students in the whole province have to start school online. The school year plan is disrupted, the curriculum and educational content must be changed regularly to suit both in-person and online teaching. Prolonged online teaching (for example, in Vinh city, primary school students cannot go to school directly until the beginning of April) also greatly affects the psychology of parents, students and teachers.

Director of the Department of Education and Training inspects teaching and learning in Vinh city during the epidemic season. Photo: My Ha

In that context, the education sector has flexibly responded, changed its operating status, and implemented many tasks and solutions to both do a good job of epidemic prevention and safe teaching, ensuring the program, goals, and quality of education. Carrying out two "dual" tasks in parallel was very difficult at times, but with the efforts of the collective of teachers, schools, and the consensus and support of parents and students, Nghe An completed the school year with many outstanding results at all levels.

In the 2021-2022 school year, Nghe An continues to maintain its position in the top 5 provinces nationwide in terms of excellent students; 3 students won Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals at regional and international Olympic competitions.

The sector has also implemented synchronous solutions to improve the quality of comprehensive education and stream students after junior high school and high school. Thanks to that, in the provincial excellent student exam for grade 12, 43 ethnic minority and mountainous students won first, second and third prizes (an increase of 5 students compared to 2021). The results of the 2022 high school graduation exam reached 20th place out of 63 provinces and cities, an increase of 14 places compared to 2021. This is a very remarkable achievement.

Nghe An also completed the set targets for national standard schools; achieved universal preschool and secondary education standards and was the 25th province to achieve universal primary education level 3. Completed the targets and tasks for the 2021-2022 school year, organized exams to ensure safety, seriousness, honesty and compliance with regulations.

PV:The Education sector is implementing comprehensive fundamental innovation in education and training and implementing the 2018 General Education Program. In Nghe An, how is the implementation of these contents carried out, sir?

Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh:To effectively implement the 2018 General Education Program, last school year, Nghe An continued to implement many solutions such as arranging and consolidating schools to ensure teaching of Information Technology and Foreign Languages ​​for primary school students; programs to enhance Foreign Languages, Information Technology, STEM Education. Nghe An also had breakthroughs in building and effectively implementing models to improve the quality of education: Model of coordination between families, schools and communities in caring for and educating preschool children; Model of high-quality key schools; advanced preschools and general schools following the trend of international integration; Model of schools helping schools, departments helping departments.

Extracurricular activities of students at Ky Son Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. Photo: My Ha

In particular, in the last school year, Nghe An was the first province in the country to implement a quality assurance model and made a breakthrough in school management innovation. The core and key content in quality assurance work is the process and procedures for building student output standards. It is also the basis for affirming the capacity of teachers, the direction and management of professional groups, school boards, and state management agencies. During the implementation process, this model highlights the responsibility of heads of educational institutions and the organization of teaching and learning must ensure real learning, real exams, and real products.

Teacher quality is the top priority.

PV:The new school year is approaching, but it seems like every school year, besides the joy and excitement, there are still worries, difficulties and shortcomings. What are those, sir?

Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh:The teaching staff will determine the quality of education. However, although according to the latest decision of the Politburo, Nghe An has been supplemented with more than 2,800 teachers, the number of teachers lacking in the province is still very large (in 2021, Nghe An proposed more than 7,800 positions) and the number of teachers lacking this year will increase much more with a total of nearly 6,000 teachers).

Second, the synchronous facilities and equipment to ensure teaching and learning according to the 2018 General Education Program are still inadequate and lacking in many schools.

Nghe An will consult on a mechanism for English teachers to improve the quality of foreign language learning. Photo: My Ha

Implementing the 2018 General Education Program with a new approach to developing students' qualities and abilities will lead to difficulties for teachers, especially this year when we will replace textbooks for 10th graders. There will also be difficulties in management, because the principal must simultaneously manage 2 programs, adding elective subjects.

PV:As you shared, Nghe An has just added more than 2,800 positions and this is really good news for schools and many teachers. So, how will the recruitment be carried out and who will be given priority?

Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh:The recruitment and allocation of teachers is the authority of the Department of Home Affairs. However, we have also discussed and proposed that the Department of Home Affairs prioritize the recruitment of contract preschool teachers according to Circulars 06 and 09. Next, priority is given to primary school teachers, secondary school teachers and high school teachers. The shortage of teachers has been previously compiled and calculated by the Department on the basis of each school and each district, so when assigning targets, relevant departments and branches will balance each district to promptly supplement the localities.

PV:Regarding the new school year 2022 - 2023, the Department of Education and Training is planning to pilot boarding high schools in the two districts of Ky Son and Que Phong. So, how will the implementation be, sir?

Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh:Up to now, the province has had 8 ethnic boarding schools, including 6 junior high school boarding schools, 2 high school boarding schools, 57 semi-boarding schools and 55 schools with semi-boarding students with 1,734 classes and 45,969 students. Of these, 24,061 students are entitled to the policies and regimes according to Decree No. 116/2016/ND-CP dated July 18, 2016 of the Government. The implementation of the semi-boarding and boarding school model has contributed significantly to stabilizing schools, limiting the number of students dropping out of school and improving the quality of education and training.

Students staying at boarding schools will be able to study with peace of mind. Photo: Document

For high school level, the boarding school model has been implemented in districts before and has been effective. Therefore, from this school year, the Education sector has proposed to pilot the boarding school model at Ky Son High School and Que Phong High School.

We are currently developing specific criteria, but it can be understood that the new-style boarding school for ethnic minorities is a specialized school established by the State for children of ethnic minorities and children of ethnic families residing permanently in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions, contributing to creating high-quality human resources to meet the requirements of construction and development for these areas in the new period.

The school has a friendly, positive educational environment, suitable for the cultural identity of the ethnic groups, with high quality education so that each student has the opportunity to develop their qualities and abilities, helping students develop comprehensively, have life skills, always be active, creative, confident and adapt quickly in the process of integrating into life.

Ky Son High School is being completed in time to put into use in the new school year and will pilot to become a boarding high school. Photo: Ky Son District Culture, Sports and Tourism Center

PV:This school year is the third year that the Education sector has implemented the new general education program. So, please share the sector's tasks in the 2022-2023 school year?

Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh:Promoting the results achieved in the past school year, the sector will direct the key and core contents including continuing to advise the Provincial Party Committee and the People's Committee to issue mechanisms and policies, promote and create breakthroughs in education and training innovation; continue to arrange the network, consolidate schools to ensure teaching of Information Technology and Foreign Languages ​​for 3rd grade students; implement the best conditions for the 2018 general education program.

Currently, in addition to preparing to recruit teachers, Nghe An has also reviewed the minimum equipment and materials to ensure the new program. In parallel, teacher training is being implemented and thanks to that, Nghe An teachers are very confident in implementing the new textbook program. The industry is also promoting phase 2 digital transformation, associated with administrative reform, associated with school management to create a breakthrough in education and training.

Dien Hong Secondary School (Dien Chau) invested in a modern computer room to prepare for the new General Education Program. Photo: My Ha

Before the new school year, the sector has built new educational models such as advanced schools, ethnic boarding schools at 3 levels, models to ensure the quality of general education... We also set a target that from 20th place, Nghe An will rise to 15th place to be worthy of the land of study. In addition, the sector is proposing policies for teachers with high foreign language certificates (especially in mountainous areas) to encourage improving the quality of foreign language teaching and learning in schools. From there, in the future, all Nghe An students will have life skills, life values, global skills to increase their competitive opportunities...

PV:Thank you for this conversation!