New points in teaching National Defense and Security Education concentrated in Hoa Lac

New, different to be effective

National Defense Education is an indispensable part of the training program at universities. Based on the specific situation of VNU, the National Defense Education Center is the pioneer unit in VNU to implement training work at Hoa Lac. To facilitate student management, the Center has organized student staffing according to companies, platoons and squads. Thus, from the 59th course, VNU students will no longer study National Defense Education for 3 semesters but will have a period of time to live, study and practice together at the Center.

Mr. Dinh Van Huong, Deputy Director of the Center said: “Students can both study and practice, and voluntarily build a sense of collective awareness in an environment close to the military environment. That is the big difference that Hoa Lac will bring. Because if at school, lecturers only manage students during weekly class hours, here - we - students will accompany each other for a month to teach, study and share together.”

Mr. Dinh Van Huong shares new points in Hoa Lac

Here, the National Defense Education Center has built for students a schedule with regular, serious and scientific living hours according to 11 regimes/day and 3 regimes/week to create a living environment "close" to the military environment, helping students adapt and train themselves. "Everything, every hour must be unified with each other. All actions follow a single regulation, according to an absolute command. The national defense education method is always discipline plus planning" Mr. Huong shared.

Outside of class, students participate in many extracurricular activities such as self-management activities, teamwork, building a green, clean, beautiful environment, and cultural and artistic activities, physical education and sports. Students are divided into groups that take turns keeping watch every night; groups that participate in cooking, cleaning and preparing meals... These extracurricular activities have contributed to the high efficiency of the National Defense and Security Education work here.

Mr. Huong said: “Through extracurricular activities, students learn how to share, unite, and become closer to each other. Through this, students are also taught to proactively participate in all tasks, to share responsibility with the kitchen when they go to the kitchen to contribute, to join hands with the security department when taking turns on guard duty, and to raise awareness of maintaining public hygiene and building an environmental landscape.”

Labor and sports are extracurricular activities that unite students.

And above all, being trained in Hoa Lac brings lessons on adapting to the environment, learning how to control oneself and overcoming difficulties when living and studying away from home. Many students living far from home may be familiar with these things, but for those who have never lived away from their families, this is an extremely new and challenging experience. You must learn to be independent and self-disciplined in both studying and daily activities. The effectiveness of training in Hoa Lac reaches the highest goals in human education: "Learning to know, learning to live together, learning to work and learning to develop".

Difficulty of pioneering

The National Defense and Security Education Center is one of the first units assigned by the President of VNU to manage and exploit construction items serving the work of National Defense and Security Education for students according to the centralized model in Hoa Lac. And the pioneer is the one who brings honor but also the one who bears very heavy responsibilities. Mr. Huong confided: “When receiving the handover of facilities from VNU, we were both happy and worried. Because the progress of the investment project to build VNU in Hoa Lac was slow, the component project to invest in building the National Defense and Security Education Center was also delayed. Therefore, Hoa Lac on the day we arrived showed signs of deterioration over time. Especially the instability of the electricity and water system. This area is far from the city center, far from the center of VNU, so overcoming the remaining problems is even more difficult”. However, with the strong direction of the leaders of VNU, the outstanding efforts of the staff, civil servants and workers in the Center in preparing conditions to ensure the organization of teaching the subject of Hoa Lac. Up to now, the facilities and environmental landscape have been spacious and stable, meeting the requirements of teaching and learning for more than 1,000 students. In addition, the Center also takes advantage of the terrain features to deploy tactical lessons in the mountains, combining practical learning and experimentation.

In addition to the material difficulties and the shortages in daily life that need to be overcome, there are the "confusions" when the Center begins to enter the centralized training process and has no experience in organizing and managing a large number of students. Both teachers and students from the first courses with students from the University of Foreign Languages ​​to courses 2 and 3 must comply with a fairly high and dense training intensity combined with the harsh hot weather of summer, creating a great deal of pressure.

The changes in Hoa Lac also come with changes in teaching. Mr. Nguyen Van Hung (Head of the Department of Politics) said: “We still maintain the goal of equipping students with awareness, belief and ideals about the Party and State's national defense and security guidelines, but instead of dividing subjects by credits as before, when studying at Hoa Lac, we have built a sequence of consecutive modules and organized learning and testing in a rolling manner, learning to where - testing to where. We require lecturers to convey the most vivid and specific content associated with practice.”

An hour of class outside the barracks of Teacher and student

Hardships have never discouraged soldiers and Hoa Lac is just a challenge to overcome to train the soldiers' will. With the efforts of the Center's Board of Directors, the coordination of the Departments and Boards, and the attention and encouragement of the VNU Board of Directors, Hoa Lac has made initial steps to implement the teaching and learning program relatively effectively, overcoming all difficulties that have arisen.

Initial joy

“The greatest consolation that we, as educators, have is to see the students grow up after each course, and I have seen that,” Mr. Huong said excitedly. “There is a huge difference between the day you arrived and the day you left. The maturity in responsibility, awareness and emotion is shown on every face. I saw the eyes of the students not wanting to leave this place; I saw the sharing and helping of the students when they carried each other’s belongings to the car; the hugs and handshakes of teacher-student and team spirit. That is the fruit of education that we want to reap.”

The camaraderie of class K59 - Political Economy (University of Economics)

Another indispensable thing is the sincere understanding and sharing of students for their teachers and for each other. When having to study here, students have realized many interesting things in the life of a soldier. It turns out that the teachers are not only strict and disciplined but also caring, sociable and very funny. They realize that soldiers have to endure many hardships, but the teachers have never given up, but are always responsible and enthusiastic about their profession. When studying here, students can study - live - play together, the camaraderie, friendship become closer, understand each other more and there are even feelings that go far, grow bigger and more, and have blossomed from the sun and wind of Hoa Lac.

Mr. Hung shared: “The desire and also the responsibility of teachers is to help students train themselves to face and adapt to all environments. Therefore, students must be more mature in life skills, working skills and building team spirit. Finally, to help students clearly understand the responsibilities, obligations and duties of young people towards the Fatherland. Through the first courses, I felt a very enthusiastic training atmosphere of VNU students. That is what makes us teachers proud.”

Conclusion

“Fun – enthusiastic – memorable – experiential…” are the responses that students used to describe the concentrated QPAN course in Hoa Lac. With efforts to overcome initial difficulties, teachers and students of the Center for National Defense Education not only achieved the goal of completing the school year’s plan but also gave each other love for the Fatherland and pride in their homeland. Hoa Lac is an opportunity to test the maturity and responsibility of first-year students; Hoa Lac is also giving each other the sincere understanding of teachers, students and friends. Then, thinking about Hoa Lac, that nostalgia is imbued with the green of military uniforms, the green of mountains and hills, the green of hope.