President urges education sector to focus on developing "global citizens"

President Tran Dai Quang has urged the education sector to focus on developing high-quality human resources and training “global citizens” in the wake of the fourth industrial revolution, especially in IT, nano technology, automation, telecommunications, new material and energy.

President Trai Dai Quang.

During a New Year’s visit to the Ministry of Education and Training on February 4, the President asked the sector to reform its educating approach to optimise creativity and start-up skills of learners.

The sector should work harder in supporting the cooperation between training facilities and enterprises, while seeking new training models in combination with the restructuring of training programmes in a number of areas to produce a contingent of “global engineers,” he suggested.

The State leader stressed the need to improve the capacity of teachers and management officials to serve the comprehensive reform of education and training, as well as the necessity to pay more attention to education and training in remote and poor areas, ensuring policy beneficiaries and ethnic minority people can access education.

He also asked the sector to assist labourers in switching jobs and ensure sustainable eradication of illiteracy, while expanding international partnerships and encouraging foreign and Overseas Vietnamese experts to work at education and research facilities in Vietnam.

Alongside, the sector should forge closer links between training facilities and science and technology organisations and research institutes, while building strong research groups and institutes and universities to the regional standards in various fields, he requested.

President Tran Dai Quang also asked ministries, sectors and localities to invest more in education as part of efforts to boost the country’s growth.

Looking back to the education sector’s performance in 2016, the President acknowledged the efforts and achievements of the sector, especially in fixing shortcomings of the high school graduation and university entrance exams in 2015.

Students sent to international and regional Olympiads reaped high results, he noted, adding that Vietnam successfully hosted the 27th Biology Olympiad with the participation of 250 students from 68 countries and territories. According to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment for 2015, Vietnam also ranked eight among 72 countries in terms of science.

In 2016, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha issued a decree specifying nine major tasks and five measures for the sector in the 2016-2017 academic year, focusing on improving the quality of teachers and education management officials at all levels, strengthening the autonomy of tertiary education facilities, and developing high-quality human resources.

(Source: NDO)