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First step for educational reform

VGP – The 11th National Party Congress set the target to implement three strategic breakthroughs, including the human resource development.

February 26, 2014 4:31 PM GMT+7

Testing methods will be reformed first

To produce a qualified workforce for national development, there is a must to comprehensively reform the country’s education and training system.

The reform means that something needs to be compulsorily changed, should be conducted in all aspects in combination with the promotion of the traditional fondness of learning that has been nurtured after years, said Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam in recent meeting of the Ministry Education held on February 13.

In recognition of shortcomings, we must be confident and determined to comprehensively reform the educational system, he added.

Deputy Prime Minister Dam emphasized the importance of renewing testing methods as the first step before reforming textbooks’ content, methodology and teacher training. Thus, he tasked the Ministry of Education and Training to deliberate the matter.

In addition, international experiences of schooling reform should also be taken into account without blindly copying  them.

One week after the meeting, in a document released by the Office of Government, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the Ministry of Education and Training to design post-2015 testing orientations and make public in the 3rd quarter this year.

He urged the Ministry of Education and Training to work towards a national examination that its results are reliable for recognition of upper secondary education graduation, for college and university enrollment.

And five days later, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung chaired the second meeting of the National Council on Education and Human Resource Development in 2011-2015.

At the Council’s meeting, the participants commented on three crucial issues related to the Draft on the Action Plan of the Government to realize Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW dated November 4, 2013 on fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education, serving industrialization and modernization in a Socialist-oriented market economy during international integration ratified at the Party Central Committee's 8th session, the establishment of the National Committee on Education and Training Renovation and the project to renew school textbooks in post 2015.  

The Ministry of Education and Training is responsible for finalizing the Action Plan so that it can be approved in March 2014.

The Government also decided to establish the National Committee on Education and Training Renovation within next month.

It is clear that the recent events reflect the Government’s determination to reform the education and training system for a qualified workforce to serve the country’s development cause and international integration.

Things would not be easy but with a clear vision, resolve, and feasible roadmap, the desire would become true./.

By Hai Minh