Dual tasks fulfilled

Vietnamese students and teachers had the longest Tet holiday in history in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), deciding that ‘students will temporarily stop going to school, but will not stop learning’, instructed higher education establishments to organize teaching via internet and TV. This was the first time online teaching was organized on a large scale throughout the country.

Vietnam’s good results in online teaching have been praised by international organizations. OECD’s PISA report released on September 29, 2020 showed positive points of online teaching in Vietnam in comparison with other countries and territories.

More than 79 percent of Vietnamese students studied online, which was higher than the average rate of OECD countries. As for higher education, over 50 percent of education establishments provided distance teaching. Some schools organized 100 percent online teaching, while others provided in-person and online classes.

National exam organized successfully

Because of Covid-19, MOET decided that the 2020 national high school finals would be one month later than usual.

Just 20 days before the scheduled national exam, Vietnam faced the second Covid-19 outbreak. MOET then decided that the exam would still be organized as planned, but would be in two phases.

The students in Quang Nam and Da Nang, where Covid-19 patients of the second outbreak were found, attended the exam some days later than other cities and provinces.

Andreas Schleicher, director of education and skills of OECD, commented that Vietnam had set a good example for organizing high-quality exams in the very difficult conditions of a pandemic.

Autonomy given to teachers

2020 is the first year of the new general education program. In order to encourage teachers’ creativity, MOET only sets the number of teaching periods they have to give during one academic year, and does not fix the number of weekly teaching periods.

Under the new program, textbooks are just to serve as materials for teachers to consider. Teachers have autonomy to determine which materials to use and which activities to organize.

2020 is the first year of the new general education program. In order to encourage teachers’ creativity, MOET only sets the number of teaching periods they have to give during one academic year, and does not fix the number of weekly teaching periods.

This allows schools to take the initiative in arranging schedules, and actively create and implement education plans in accordance with their conditions.

Teachers and students inspire society

Ha Anh Phuong, a teacher at English from Huong Can High School in Phu Tho, was honored as one of top 10 global teachers. Global Teacher Prize by Varkey Foundation aims to honour the teachers who make great contributions to education all over the world.

At least 85 percent of students at the school where Phuong is working are ethnic minority people. However, with the support of information technology and internet, Phuong led her students to cross-border teaching periods and proved that there are no boundaries in education.

Ngo Minh Hieu, a student in Thanh Hoa province, who carried his disabled friend to school for the last 10 years, was nominated by VietNamNet as one of 14 Inspiring Characters.

Hieu’s story offers a lesson of kindness and shows that good things and people exist.

Education establishments in international rankings

In addition to maintaining positions in Quacquarelli SymondsWorld University Rankings (QS) and THE’s World University Rankings, Vietnam for the first time had four education establishments listed in the top 1,000 universities in the world in 2021 Best Global Universities Rankings of US New & Word Report.

They include Ton Duc Thang University, Hanoi National University, HCM City National University and Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

Digital transformation

Vietnam made progress in 2020, becoming a pioneer in digital transformation in education and training.

The education sector completed digitizing and identifying 53,000 education establishments, 24 million students and 1.4 million teachers. It also developed a shared digital courseware, with 5,000 e-learning lessons, 2,000 videos of lessons on TV, 200 virtual experiments, 200 textbooks, 35,000 multiple-choice questions and 7,500 PhD theses. 

Le Hanh

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