Innovation in specialized school operation model

Students of Lao Cai High School for the Gifted participate in the 2024 Lao Cai Province Badminton - Table Tennis Tournament for youth, teenagers and children. Photo: NTCC.

Specialized schools do not only train "fighting cocks"

Information from the 18th Hung Vuong Summer Camp Scientific Conference in 2024 held last weekend at Ha Long High School for the Gifted, Quang Ninh Province shows that the system of specialized schools nationwide currently has 77 schools, consolidated and developed from 68 specialized schools in 2010. To date, each province and centrally-run city has at least 1 specialized school, some places have 2 specialized schools.

Statistics on the scale of students in 2020 show that the total number of specialized students accounts for about 2.7% of high school students nationwide. The specialized school operation model in recent years has affirmed its pioneering position in spearhead education in terms of quantity and quality. The number of international awards of Vietnamese students has had very positive changes over the years.

However, there are still concerns about whether to continue maintaining the specialized school system in the context of implementing the 2018 general education program with the goal of helping students develop comprehensive capacities and qualities. Because some opinions say that specialized schools are places to train "fighting cocks", students are trained in specialized subjects instead of all subjects...

Regarding this opinion, Associate Professor Dr. Dang Duc Vuong - Deputy Head of the Faculty of Technical Physics, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, who has many years of leading the Vietnamese student delegation to the International Physics Olympiad, said that in order to develop in-depth in many fields, there needs to be concentrated investment. Specialized schools and selective classes, according to Mr. Vuong's point of view, are necessary investments to help create an environment for students to develop and make the best of themselves.

“I have discussed with many friendly countries and found that the selection of excellent students in many countries is very systematic. There is an opinion that in foreign countries they do not select or train fighting cocks... but in reality they have associations that are responsible for the strict selection of excellent students. After being selected, they will almost live with the laboratories at universities and be trained by leading professors in that field for a very long time. If there is competition, there must be review and training. Talent classes, selective classes or similar are the cradles to develop these talents” - Mr. Vuong shared his opinion in support of maintaining the system of specialized schools and selective classes in the current context.

Comprehensive development of Culture - Sports - Aesthetics

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh - Director of the Department of Secondary Education, Ministry of Education and Training said that nurturing excellent students is a difficult and long-term task, requiring a lot of effort from teachers and students. The Ministry of Education and Training always identifies training excellent students as the top priority of our country's education sector. One of the key tasks is to regularly commend students with outstanding achievements to arouse their will to strive to study, while at the same time encouraging and cheering on the next generation of students to constantly strive in the journey to conquer the peak of intelligence.

At the meeting between Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son and teachers and students of Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted in Da Nang City last weekend, the Minister affirmed that the specialized school system has made many contributions in leading the system, discovering and nurturing talents, and training high-quality human resources for the country. The Ministry of Education and Training has issued a Circular on specialized schools, according to which the specialized school model will be implemented stably, without any changes.

However, Mr. Son emphasized that in the new period, the specialized school model needs to be innovated. In that innovation, first of all, specialized schools must not forget to comprehensively develop students so that they can fully study other non-specialized subjects. If they only focus on specialized subjects and reduce non-specialized subjects, it is a mistake for students, leading to bias. Students must also practice sports, study art, and students with good intellectual qualities must have a good body and good emotions. Teachers are requested to increase students' initiative and creativity in specialized subjects, not just support them to compete and win awards. The path to achievements and awards needs to be innovated to stimulate students' creativity.

Mr. Son also mentioned the leading role of specialized schools in the general education system, especially in the context of implementing the 2018 general education program. This role is reflected in the fact that specialized school teachers with the necessary professional expertise need to exchange and share experiences with other schools in teaching new subjects, in testing, evaluation... because the specialized school model was not born just to make that school better.

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