Uncle Ho and educational reform through his letters

1.Immediately after the August Revolution in 1945, President Ho Chi Minh proposed three urgent tasks. These were fighting hunger, fighting ignorance, and fighting foreign invaders. Thus, “ignorance” was considered a danger no less than hunger and foreign invaders.

 

In September 1945, on the first school opening day of the Democratic Republic, Uncle Ho sent a letter to all students with the message:"Whether Vietnam's mountains and rivers become beautiful or not, whether the Vietnamese people can step up to the stage of glory to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great powers of the five continents or not, depends largely on your studies."⁽¹⁾.

In the midst of the arduous days of the resistance war against America, in October 1968, Uncle Ho sent a letter to schools at the beginning of the new school year, reminding:"No matter how difficult it is, we must continue to compete to teach well and study well."”⁽²⁾This is the last letter he sent to the education sector before he passed away.

During the period between those two letters, President Ho Chi Minh mentioned education many times when he visited schools as well as in letters praising individuals or units with good achievements, from kindergarten teachers, mass education teachers to cadres and students of general schools and universities. Through that, we can draw many valuable things expressing Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on education that we need to understand and thoroughly grasp.

2. President Ho Chi Minh never used the term “philosophy of education”, but through his words or writings, we can see the following three main themes about education: learning for what, learning what and learning how. In other words, the purpose of education, the content of education and the method of education – the core issues of education, of “philosophy of education”.

Abouteducational purposesHe pointed out that an education system of an independent country must train useful citizens, an education system that can fully develop the inherent abilities of students. In a letter to professors and students of the University Preparatory School (Thanh Hoa) in 1952, he determined that "education must aim at the goal of honestly serving the people."⁽³⁾. In 1955, after the North was liberated, he pointed out: It is necessary to build the ideology of teaching and learning to serve the Fatherland and the people. To do so, we must strive to eliminate the remaining influences of enslaving education such as: indifference towards society, distance from the working life and struggle of the people; studying to get degrees, teaching by brainwashing. In another letter, he emphasized: "Family, school and society take care of education, all with the aim of making the children in the future become good citizens, good cadres, good masters of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam."⁽⁴⁾. The above teachings show that the core issue in Ho Chi Minh's ideology on education must first of all behuman problem, training teachers and learners to serve the Fatherland, serve the people, train useful citizens for the country. That is the basic and consistent purpose of education through any period of history.

Abouteducational content. In the article published in Nhan Dan newspaper on October 24, 1955 under the pen name CB, Uncle Ho stated that the content of education includes physical education, intellectual education, aesthetic education and moral education. Physical education is to make the body healthy, to know how to maintain hygiene; intellectual education is to review what has been learned and learn new knowledge; aesthetic education is to know how to distinguish between beauty and ugliness; moral education is to educate the spirit of loving the Fatherland, loving the people, loving labor, loving science, loving public property ("5 loves"). He noted the differences between levels of education to build appropriate educational content. Inelementary,need to educate "5 loves"⁽⁵⁾; cultivate the virtues of honesty and courage; at school, respect teachers, love friends, and help each other; at home, love and help parents; in society, participate in activities that benefit the common good according to one's ability. "The way of teaching must be gentle and joyful, do not force children into the framework of adults. Special attention must be paid to maintaining the health of children"^{(6. )}LIVEhigh school,"Ensure students have solid, practical general knowledge, suitable for the needs and future of building the country, and remove any parts that are unnecessary for real life"⁽⁷⁾. LIVEuniversity, "it is necessary to combine scientific theory with practice, strive to learn advanced theory and science... combined with the practice of our country, to practically help the cause of national construction"⁽⁸⁾. What Uncle Ho taught us is to choose knowledge.popular, sturdy, practical and suitableis to proposecriteriaThe basic knowledge that students need to have and should be considered today ismottoof program streamlining, of downsizing to remove unnecessary parts for real life.

In a letter to cadres, teachers, workers, employees, and students on the occasion of the start of the new school year in October 1968, he emphasized: “On the basis of good political education and ideological leadership, we must strive to improve cultural and professional quality.topracticalsolve the problems raised by our country's revolution and in the near future, reach the heights of science and technology"⁽⁹⁾. The issue of improving cultural and professional quality is not only to solve the practical demands of the country but also to reach the peaks of world science and technology. This is both a demand and an encouragement for the team of scientific staff in schools.

Abouteducational method. He pointed out: Education must be closely linked to the political line of the Party and the State, closely linked to production and people's lives. Learning must go hand in hand with practice, theory must be linked to reality. For students, learning must be linked to practice in order to fulfill the noble purpose of serving the people in the future. He always reminded how to coordinate school education with propaganda and general political education of the people. Clearly, "learning and practice", "theory combined with practice" has always been the motto of education that President Ho Chi Minh repeatedly advised teachers, students and the entire education sector.

3.What must be done to achieve the above contents? Two issues can be seen emerging through his letters:education reformandbuilding a team of teachers

When Vietnam was born, our country's education system changed from a colonial education system dominated by the colonial regime to a democratic education system controlled by the people. Therefore, as early as July 1948, President Ho Chi Minh soon proposed the requirementeducation reformwith very specific content: Must thoroughly revise the education program to suit the cause of resistance and nation building; must have resistance and nation building books for schools; must revise the teaching method to suit the training of talents for resistance and nation building; must train new cadres and help old cadres according to the principles of resistance and nation building; the majority of compatriots who can read and write must have a program to further improve their general cultural level.⁽¹⁰⁾. This is the direction of a comprehensive educational reform in terms of guidelines, programs, textbooks and staff "to suit the cause of resistance and national construction". In 1951, in a letter to the National Education Congress, he instructed to "carefully review the "reform" work in terms of programs, policies and implementation to find shortcomings to amend and advantages to further develop".⁽¹¹⁾.

President Ho Chi Minh always cared aboutteam of teachers. He affirmed that the task of teachers is very important and very glorious. He advised: Being a kindergarten teacher means teaching children on behalf of mothers. To do that, first of all, you must love children. Young children are often naughty, you must be persistent and hard-working to raise them. Teaching children is like planting young trees. If you plant young trees well, later on the children will become good people. He honored the team of teachers for popular education, those who "expanded general knowledge for the people, to build a preliminary culture for the nation".^{(12 )}are "unknown heroes" so "that honor is not equal to any bronze statue or stone stele"⁽¹³⁾. To teachers, He wrote: "Teachers have the heavy and glorious duty of training cadres for the nation."⁽¹⁴⁾He also reminded the responsibility of Party committees and local authorities to pay more attention to the cause of education, to take care of schools in all aspects, and to encourage the help of families and parents: “Up to now, our people have wholeheartedly helped with education. I hope that from now on, our people will try to help schools more and everyone will try to study hard.”⁽¹⁵⁾.

From the above quotes, it can be seen that Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on the cause of education are summarized in determining the purpose, content and method of education; the glorious responsibility of "training successors to the great revolutionary cause of our Party and people".⁽¹⁶⁾; “education is the cause of the masses” with the participation of all classes of people. Thoroughly grasping Ho Chi Minh’s educational philosophy, the educational reform during the resistance war completed its heavy mission, effectively serving the “resistance – nation building” cause of the entire nation.

4.Entering the period of national innovation and international integration, the country's education system faces new tasks, new opportunities and challenges. However, President Ho Chi Minh's basic views on education are still the guiding compass for the development of education today and in the future.

In a letter to professors and students of Thanh Hoa University Preparatory School (April 1952), President Ho Chi Minh advised: education must aim at the goal ofhonestserving the people, teachers and students musthonestunity and democracy,honestself-criticism and criticism to help each other progress strongly and continuously. Very clearly, the above lines of letter show that what Uncle Ho especially cares about ishonesty. Because only with honesty can we teach well and learn well. In other words, if we want to teach well and learn well, we must be honest in teaching and learning, which means we must teach truthfully and learn truthfully. But it should be added that, in addition to the two factors of teaching and learning, good management is also very important. Managementunrealmeans chasing after achievementsunrealwill create pressure on teachers and students, and thus will produce productsunreal. The high school graduation exams in recent years with nearly 100% passing results are afake productof the entire education sector that anyone can see, leading to many unpredictable consequences for the whole society, for the fate of the country.

Therefore, one of the things that should be considered a breakthrough in the "fundamental and comprehensive" educational reform in the entire education sector is to createan honest spirit, an honest attitude,all schoolsreal teaching, real learning and real managementto create many generations of real teachers, real students, real managers and thereby contribute to building a truly rich, democratic, fair and civilized society. That is the most practical and effective way when we study Uncle Ho's letter to the education sector and also respond to Uncle Ho's expectations for the school.

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^{(1, 2, 3, 4 , 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)}. Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 4, p. 35; vol. 15, p. 507; vol. 7, p. 400; vol. 10, 176, 186; vol. 5, p. 575; vol. 7, p. 139; vol. 4, p. 556; vol. 7, p. 400; vol. 12, p. 648, vol. 15, p. 508.

⁽⁵⁾. In 1961, in a letter to children nationwide, Uncle Ho stated 5 things: Love the Fatherland, love the people; Study well, work well; Be united, have good discipline, Maintain hygiene. Be honest, be brave. See Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, op. cit., vol. 13, p. 132.