Consensus from the grassroots contributes to perfecting the Law on Education

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education has received many contributions from National Assembly deputies, experts, industry leaders, and universities. Thereby, many enthusiastic opinions not only reflect the practical education management but also demonstrate the strategic vision of fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education in the period of integration and digital transformation.

The need for uniformity and enforceability of laws

Mr. Nguyen Van Duc - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Cang Long commune suggested that we should consider promulgating a comprehensively revised Law on Education , instead of just "amending and supplementing a number of articles".

Mr. Nguyen Van Duc - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Cang Long commune, affirmed that giving comments on the draft law is "a valuable opportunity for voices from the grassroots - those who directly implement policies - to be sent to the National Assembly ".

According to him, the scope of this amendment accounts for nearly 40% of the current law, so the National Assembly should consider issuing a comprehensive amendment to the Education Law, instead of just "amending and supplementing a number of articles". This approach will ensure consistency, transparency and legal stability, helping localities to be more convenient in practical implementation.

From the practical basis, Mr. Duc highly appreciated the addition of vocational secondary education to the national education system - a step to help streamline early, expand vocational training opportunities and meet local human resource needs. However, he suggested that the drafting committee should clarify output standards, practice rates, transfer credit recognition mechanisms and a cautious implementation roadmap, avoiding massive expansion when conditions are not yet guaranteed. It is recommended to issue a separate decree on electronic diplomas, identification data standards and information security - a breakthrough in management and combating academic fraud.

In addition to agreeing with the policy of universalizing preschool education for children aged 3-5, it is considered a humane policy, contributing to promoting gender equality and improving labor productivity.

However, Mr. Duc also recommended that it is necessary to prescribe a roadmap suitable to the conditions of each locality, while clarifying the role of the commune level in education - from mobilizing children to go to class to managing private preschools.

“Currently, most communes, including Cang Long commune, do not have specialized education staff. We have to set up a working group to recruit supporting teachers, but there is no mechanism to maintain them,” he said, suggesting that the law should allow exemptions, reductions in teaching hours or allowances for teachers participating in commune-level education management, to encourage them to work with local authorities.

Meanwhile, Mr. Be Trung Anh, a full-time member of the National Assembly's Delegation Work Committee, said that the key point in amending the law is not only in technical regulations but must start from the national education philosophy. From there, he proposed establishing four basic standards: knowledge, personality, creativity and integration.

In which, “knowledge standards” must aim at lifelong learning capacity; “personality standards” are honesty, patriotism, and social responsibility; “creativity standards” are academic freedom; and “integration standards” are international compatibility.

“Education does not just need a law, but also a belief,” he said. If this law clearly reflects values ​​and philosophy, it will be the greatest success of Vietnam's educational reform process.

Ensuring fairness, quality and humanity

Mr. Vo Van Luyen - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, agreed with the directions of amending the law, especially the addition of vocational secondary education to reduce the pressure of high school enrollment, while expanding the corridor to intermediate and college education. He proposed the need for a clear set of verification criteria: output standards linked to the qualification framework, practice rate from 50-70%, teacher standards focusing on professional experience and strict requirements on labor safety.

Regarding digital diplomas, he said this is an inevitable trend but "only makes sense when accompanied by technical standards, formats, digital signatures, authentication mechanisms and clear data access rights".

It is recommended that the Government issue a separate decree with performance measurement indicators such as online authentication rate, average authentication time and number of detected frauds.

Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training - Vo Van Luyen agreed with the directions for amending the law.

Regarding textbooks, Mr. Luyen supports a unified set of textbooks nationwide, free for students, along with a set of local documents that are updated periodically every 3 years and independently assessed, to both ensure common standards and reflect regional identity.

Regarding the high school graduation exam and diploma issuance, it is proposed to maintain the national standard exam but increase the weight of process assessment to reduce exam pressure, and at the same time pilot graduation assessment in localities with stable quality.

Mr. Luyen also noted that it is necessary to supplement teacher standards on health, pronunciation, communication skills and appearance suitable to the characteristics of the profession, in order to standardize the teaching staff in the new era.

In addition, the regulation that "teachers who are transferred to work as managers still retain their job-specific allowances" should be removed to ensure fairness between sectors and fields.

Promote the role of teachers, arouse learners' capacity, build a proactive, creative and humane learning environment.

Dr. Thach Thi Dan, Vice Principal of Tra Vinh University, affirmed that adding vocational secondary education is necessary, but "there must be strict constraints to avoid becoming a dead end."

She proposed that the law stipulate at least 60% of practice time, lecturers must have practical professional experience, and localities need to publish annual human resource demand maps to open suitable industries.

Regarding digital diplomas, she emphasized the factors of data security and the ability to connect with the VNeID identification system, and the need to support digital infrastructure for localities with limited capacity to narrow the "digital gap".

The comments not only reflect the local enthusiasm but also suggest a new approach to law-making in the spirit of "creation and service".

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education focuses on five major reform groups: adding a "vocational secondary school" level to streamline early, expand vocational training opportunities and create linkages to intermediate and college levels; legalizing electronic diplomas and certificates, ensuring data standards and information security; flexibly adjusting the conditions for entering grade 10 towards recognizing "equivalent qualifications" with independent testing; building a unified set of textbooks nationwide in parallel with local documents that are periodically assessed and improving exams, granting degrees, decentralizing management, digitizing procedures, and establishing a National Scholarship Fund, applying a "ceiling-floor" tuition fee framework to ensure fairness, efficiency and integration in education.

Article and photos: CAO HUYEN

Source: https://baovinhlong.com.vn/thoi-su/202510/dong-thuan-tu-co-so-gop-phan-hoan-thien-luat-giao-duc-37f046e/