Public education: From letters to numbers

Perhaps the old men and women who are still alive and witnessed the great August Revolution still remember the 'popular education' classes that appeared right after September 2, 1945. Now, many of their children and grandchildren are also attending popular education classes, but they are 'popular education in numbers'. From 'popular literacy' to 'popular education in numbers', the country has gone through a journey of 80 years!

Please understand that the concept of "popular digital literacy" is not about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as our grandparents learned 80 years ago. Here, it is "digitalization", a way to access and use the simplest skills to serve each person's life through the digital environment. General Secretary To Lam is the one who introduced this concept and also the one who initiated and marked a turning point in popularizing digital knowledge and skills, building a solid foundation for a digital society, digital economy , and digital citizens.

President Ho Chi Minh visited the popular education class of the people in Luong Yen area, Hanoi on May 27, 1956.

Photo: VNA

From "common words"

Looking back at the documentary footage from 80 years ago about the popular education classes organized by the revolutionary government in almost every remote village and hamlet, I feel sorry for my country that had to go through a period of poverty and hardship. At that time, up to 95% of the population was illiterate, a very painful number. Therefore, right after the declaration of independence and the introduction of the new Government, President Ho Chi Minh on September 3, 1945 proposed to launch a campaign to "Fight Illiteracy", because according to President Ho: "An ignorant nation is a weak nation".

At that time, although the whole country had to face internal and external enemies, illiteracy was still considered one of the three enemies that needed to be eliminated, including hunger, ignorance and foreign invaders. "Popular education" classes were opened in the way of "literate people teaching illiterate people". As long as you could read and write well, you could teach. The motto "literate people first teach those who go to school later" became a movement, bringing about very surprising results: Millions of people could read and write in just one year!

The Community Digital Transformation Team in Ho Chi Minh City supports and guides people in installing and using online public service applications.

Photo: Queen

During the day, they were concerned with eliminating hunger by increasing production, and at night, they were concerned with eliminating ignorance, considering this a mandatory duty. Many people at that time thought of a way to turn lessons into poems in the six-eight meter for easy memorization. This could be seen as a "lesson plan" to convey words to students in the best way: O is round like a chicken egg/O wears a hat/O is old and has a beard/OA (oa) is two different letters/A is different because of the added hook...

Because illiteracy was considered an "enemy", everyone had to "go to war" to destroy this enemy. However, not everyone was enthusiastic about letters, especially when they were exhausted from working during the day and had to go to class until late at night to rest. Many people "skipped school", but the government at that time had a way. One of the popular methods was to string up ropes on the roads leading to the markets. A rope was stretched across, like a barrier, next to which was a large blackboard. The people in charge of the barrier would write any word on the board, if the person being checked could read it, they would be allowed to pass to the market, if they could not read it, they would have to return. This method, although gentle, was no less drastic because to get to the market, one had to be able to read, and to be able to read, there was no other way but to diligently attend popular classes.

Remove "bottlenecks"

Before mentioning the very topical story of "universal education", let me mention the "long march" of the whole nation, both fighting foreign invaders and taking care of education for all people over the past 80 years. Vietnam is one of the developing countries but has completed universal primary education very early. Not only that, many families do not hesitate to invest so that their children can go to school, because everyone understands that only by going to school can they have the opportunity to escape poverty.

How many people have overcome their fate to change their lives with what they have learned in school. Many parents, despite being very poor and struggling to make ends meet, still insist on sending their children to school. I once witnessed my cousin holding back tears as he led the last cow in the barn out to sell to a trader to pay the final year tuition for his child studying information technology at a university in Ho Chi Minh City.

"From tomorrow, my husband and I will have to work hard to plow instead of the cows," my brother said, and my heart ached for him. But his greatest desire in life was to make sure his children no longer had to work hard to plow, so he tried his best to send them to school. Indeed, my nephew did not disappoint his parents. Now, his monthly salary can buy... 2 cows (2,000 USD, equivalent to about 50 million VND). Nothing is more expensive than investing in education, but it is also the investment that brings the most obvious results if you study hard and properly.

Since the country's renovation, the economy has been getting better and better, but the story of education, especially tuition fees, is still not a simple problem for many families, especially those with many children. Witnessing mothers in the countryside struggling to make ends meet, but every school year, they still find ways to pay tuition for their children. This can be considered a big "bottleneck" that needs to be resolved. Then, the dream of many generations has come true: free tuition for all public high school students from the 2025-2026 school year.

To the "population"

As mentioned above, the Party and State leaders have made a breakthrough decision: exempting tuition fees for general education. According to estimates, the state budget will spend 30,500 billion VND to take care of this. This is a great effort of the entire political system at a time when the country needs to invest in many large-scale national projects. But without such "activation", Vietnam will hardly be able to firmly step into the new era.

Along with free tuition, the rearrangement of administrative boundaries and the operation of two-level government requires each citizen to make personal efforts to adapt to concepts such as digital society, digital economy and digital citizenship. If you do not participate in "digital literacy" classes as General Secretary To Lam has initiated, you cannot do anything related to "digital". Simply speaking, transferring money via phone, if you do not know the necessary operations, you cannot buy what you need if the seller does not accept cash. Now, wherever you go, you only need to bring a smartphone because it has fully integrated all the necessary documents, but the user must also be "digitally illiterate" to be able to use it proficiently. Two-level government officials, especially at the commune level, must "digitally illiterate" as soon as possible if they do not want to give up their positions to others.

From a country where 95% of the population was illiterate and always faced hunger, now everyone has food and clothes, everyone can study, everyone has the opportunity to escape poverty and live happily!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/binh-dan-hoc-vu-tu-chu-den-so-185250827220918889.htm