New general education program: Experiment in difficulty

Online conference with 63 connecting points in provinces and cities across the country. Comrade Nguyen Minh Hung, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the conference at the Hai Duong connecting point.

Overcoming challenges under the negative impact of the epidemic

Assessing after 1 year of implementing the innovation of general education programs and textbooks, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do said: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire education sector is performing dual tasks in the 2020-2021 school year: both implementing solutions to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic and deploying the new primary education program for grade 1.

This school year is being implemented in a context of difficulties and differences compared to previous school years.

The Ministry of Education and Training pointed out a reality when implementing the new general education program in the school year: before entering grade 1, 6-year-old children mainly stay at home, so students almost never directly learn the preschool program for 5-year-old children in class. Therefore, recognizing letters, guiding learning activities and preparing children mentally and spiritually before entering grade 1 is very difficult and almost impossible.

Scene of the online meeting at the Hanoi bridgehead.

The next difficulty that the education sector mentioned was training teachers to implement the new general education program and textbooks. Many training programs were switched from in-person to online.

New tasks, new training formats, teachers have less interaction with colleagues and lecturers, while the new General Education Program requires teachers and schools to be more autonomous, making it difficult for schools to approach. On the other hand, parents have not been provided with full information about the program, so they are showing signs of anxiety...

The Ministry of Education and Training believes that the policy of socializing textbook compilation has initially had positive results; 5 publishing houses with a team of scientists, teachers, and managers have participated in compiling and submitting for appraisal 5 sets of textbooks for grade 1, 3 sets of textbooks for grade 2, and 3 sets of textbooks for grade 6, covering all subjects and educational activities according to the new general education program, ensuring quality.

Although both in-person and online training have been combined, the plan for training and fostering teachers and educational managers has achieved positive results. The model of regular, continuous, on-site training via the Internet with the support of core teachers, core managers and key pedagogical lecturers of pedagogical universities participating in the ETEP Program has been initially implemented effectively.

The Ministry of Education and Training stated that schools have focused on innovating school management and administration in the direction of promoting the initiative and flexibility of schools and the autonomy and creativity of professional groups and teachers in implementing the new primary education program for grade 1; exploiting and using textbooks, learning materials, and teaching equipment effectively and appropriately in practice...

Textbook compilation is still limited

At the meeting, the Ministry of Education and Training pointed out that besides efforts to implement the program, the biggest limitations that need to be resolved are related to textbook compilation; organization of selection, publication, and training in the use of textbooks in localities; local educational materials; the team of teachers and educational managers; conditions for ensuring facilities, etc.

Comrade Nguyen Minh Hung, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the conference at Hai Duong bridge point.

After implementing the new general education textbook program, there were many opinions in public opinion: Vietnamese textbooks for grade 1 according to the new general education program are still heavy compared to the 2006 program; voters are concerned and upset about the monopoly with the phenomenon of group interests in printing and distributing textbooks and the price of new grade 1 textbooks is higher than the old grade 1 textbooks; there are strong complaints about the fact that the Vietnamese textbooks for grade 1 of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House (Canh Dieu textbook series) have some inappropriate language materials included in the books.

These issues have been promptly and seriously studied by the Ministry of Education and Training and additional solutions have been provided for appropriate implementation in the coming time.

To implement the program and textbooks for general education in the coming time, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do said: "The Ministry will continue to issue policies and coordinate with central and local ministries and branches to review and evaluate to advise the Government to issue mechanisms and policies to ensure the roadmap for implementing the new general education program according to Resolution 51, focusing on preparing teachers, facilities, teaching equipment and conditions to meet the requirements for implementing the new general education program".

The Ministry also strengthens solutions to ensure the implementation of the general education program such as: Coordinating with central ministries and branches to direct localities to continue to organize the implementation of tasks according to the functions and authorities assigned by the Government in Decision 404; continuing to effectively organize the implementation of groups of solutions to ensure progress and quality as assigned by the Prime Minister to each ministry, branch and locality.

The training of teachers and managers will continue to ensure quality and efficiency; complete the planning of the network of teacher training schools, issue standards for teacher training programs at all levels; innovate the organization and management system, improve the quality and efficiency of teacher training schools; direct teacher training schools to train and foster teachers to ensure requirements on quantity, structure and quality according to the implementation roadmap.

The Ministry of Education and Training also committed to reviewing and rationally arranging the network of educational facilities; organizing a review and assessment of the current status of existing facilities, on that basis adjusting, arranging and reorganizing to improve efficiency of use; determining the need to build new, repair and renovate classrooms, ensuring sufficient conditions for implementing the new general education program; making specific detailed plans, organizing the implementation of strengthening facilities, schools and classrooms to meet the minimum conditions for implementing the new general education program according to the roadmap prescribed in Resolution 51 of the National Assembly...

At the same time, the Ministry also promotes the socialization of textbooks, creating a healthy competition mechanism to improve service quality and expand the beneficiaries of incentives, subsidies or free use of textbooks and learning materials.

VNA - PV