Capital Education: Breakthrough, fair but not equal

Assessing the contribution of the university system

Professor, what is your opinion when the Draft Document devotes 1 page to evaluating the achievements of education and training in the capital?

- The draft Political Report submitted to the 17th Congress of Hanoi City was compiled very elaborately, comprehensively, and comprehensively, but especially with highlights. I like the logic connecting the content sections, stringing together issues in a whole, looking back at the past 5 years and setting goals for the next 5 years. The structure and content of the Report are very good.

Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Head of the Department of Urban History - guides students on how to approach research on urban history around the world.

The assessment of issues in the Document is also very careful and meticulous, especially in the field of education. We all know that education and training in Hanoi does not only serve the capital, but is essentially for the whole country. Therefore, the fact that the Document devotes more than 1 page to reviewing education over the past 5 years has affirmed the interest of the Hanoi Party Committee in the field of education and training. In particular, after the general recognition, the Document has some very valuable highlights about the contributions of the university sector in the capital.

Just 3-4 sentences are enough to see that the City appropriately evaluates the mission of the university system in the development of the Capital. More meaningfully, the Document acknowledges the active innovation of the Capital's university system in improving methods and updating knowledge to improve the quality of human resource training. Universities contribute a lot of scientific, technological values and policy advice to the economic development, political stability, social justice... of the Capital.

In particular, among hundreds of universities in the area, the Document recognizes the contributions of Hanoi National University and Hanoi University of Science and Technology for their efforts to rise and enter the ranking of 1,000 excellent universities in the world. How meaningful!

Hanoi's unique general education breakthroughs

The contributions of the general education system have been adequately assessed in the Draft Document, sir?

- Hanoi is the political, economic, cultural and diplomatic center of the country, so the capital's general education is not only large in scale but also particularly complex in types. Many specialized schools, international schools... in Hanoi have nationwide enrollment scale. This is a unique feature of the capital's general education, because specialized schools in other provinces and cities only train local children.

Hanoi also has highlights and breakthroughs that many other provinces and cities do not have: International dual degree training for general education at 6 secondary schools, Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted and other private, public and international schools. I think that the education in the capital - to some extent - maintains fairness but does not equalize or eliminate international opportunities and capacities of students. The opening of international cooperation programs and dual degree training is an important breakthrough, the basis for the capital's education to make a breakthrough in the coming time.

In addition, over the past 5 years, Hanoi's implementation of the mechanism of delegating autonomy associated with building high-quality schools at all levels has also been a breakthrough, with very good results. Liberal and integrated education should not and cannot be uniform; uniform education hinders breakthrough development.

In the next 5 years, in which direction should general education in Hanoi develop, sir??

- I strongly agree with the educational focuses identified in the Document for the next 5 years such as: "Continuing to promote socialization", "developing creative capacity for schools"...

In particular, I am very impressed with the issue of breakthrough, strengthening connections, promoting connections, and internationalization. Many universities have implemented this; high schools promoting this trend will be a synergy, creating a breakthrough for education in the capital.

I really hope that there will not only be 15 international high schools, but after 5 years there will be dozens, even hundreds of schools. It would be more meaningful if international cooperation is not only focused on the inner city, but soon spread to the suburbs to ensure fairness in education. If so, the students of the capital will increasingly integrate, shaping the future of global citizens, which would be very good.

Professor Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan hopes that Hanoi's education needs to focus on educating patriotism, national pride, and pride in the thousand-year-old capital.

General education associated with Hanoi culture

Sir, in addition to implementing the general education program as prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training, schools in the capital need to have educational content on the civilized and elegant lifestyle of Hanoians?

- In recent years, Hanoi has identified and implemented very effectively educational programs that focus on ethics, behavior, and lifestyle. High schools and universities have developed subjects that focus on national culture. That is great!

The document emphasizes the aspect of elegant and civilized Hanoians, arousing pride and aspiration to develop the capital. Therefore, in addition to the focus on promoting science and technology (STEM), Hanoi education needs to focus on educating patriotism, national pride, and pride in the thousand-year-old capital. That system of values needs to be fostered in students through subjects on ethics, art, history, and about Hanoi as a cultured, elegant, and civilized city...

I believe that the humanistic knowledge system is never redundant, never outdated, no matter how advanced or “digitalized” society is. The more “connected” a society is, the more moral spirit must be the strong thread to connect the community, the nation, and humanity.

Thank you!

According to kinhtedothi