'Education without breakthrough is not fulfilling responsibility to the country'

That was the affirmation of Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Council for Education and Human Resources Development.

On the morning of May 30, the Standing Committee of the National Councilfor Education and Human Resources Development held a meeting to solicit opinions on the draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education, the amended Law on Higher Education, and the amended Law on Vocational Education.

Will be "more decentralized than ever"

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that the amendment of three laws related to education stemmed from new requirements of the Politburo , Secretariat, and Government for the education sector; from the requirements of the policy of streamlining the organization and apparatus towards streamlining, effectiveness, and efficiency; and from the education sector's own requirements for synchronous and in-depth innovation.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son speaks at the meeting

PHOTO: MOET

According to Mr. Nguyen Kim Son, amending the above laws aims to create legal conditions for education and training to develop at the fastest speed, with high orientation. "Faced with new opportunities, new requirements, new investments, if education and training do not make a breakthrough at a very fast speed, we will not fulfill our responsibility to the country," said the head of the education sector.

Emphasizing the requirement to "ensure equality between the public and private education systems" when amending laws, equality does not mean "whatever the public does, the private sector can do, and whatever the private sector wants to do, the public sector also wants to do".

"It's like we talk about gender equality. Equality does not mean that women must carry the same amount of kilograms that men can carry," Mr. Kim Son compared, and explained: "Equality between public and private here means equality in the right to participate in education, equality in roles in the system, equality in access to land, taxes, orders, assignments...".

Continuing to emphasize "the spirit of decentralization is stronger than ever", the head of the education sector said that the draft laws must be designed so that the autonomy of educational institutions must be substantial and state management must be effective and efficient.

To do this, according to Minister Kim Son: "We must firmly grasp what needs to be grasped and resolutely let go of what needs to be let go, but also avoid the tendency to go from grasping everything to letting go of everything."

To effectively and efficiently manage the state in the field of education and training, the Minister believes that it is only necessary to retain a few rights, but they are key rights, with strong sanctions, enough to deter violations, such as restricting some rights of violating units, even closing schools if necessary.

Proposal to pave the way for homeschooling

According to the Ministry of Education and Training at the meeting, Mr. Le Truong Tung, Chairman of the School Council, FPT University, proposed to have regulations allowing students to freely take the high school graduation exam to pave the way for the development of homeschooling and other forms of education.

Referring to the plan to abolish school boards in public preschools and general education institutions, former Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do requested the drafting committee of the draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Education Law to clarify the pros and cons of this institution to increase its persuasiveness.

Mr. Pham Do Nhat Tien believes that the school council must be a mandatory institution in autonomous educational institutions.

PHOTO: MOET

Mr. Pham Do Nhat Tien, former Assistant Minister of Education and Training, said that the school council must be a mandatory institution if educational institutions are given autonomy.

Regarding vocational education, Mr. Tien raised the question: "Is there a limit to vocational high schools and colleges?". Mr. Tien said that this is true at present but may no longer be true in the future, when vocational education can reach university level (like many countries in the world), suggesting that there should be "soft" regulations for this issue to avoid having to amend the law later.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/giao-duc-khong-but-pha-la-khong-hoan-thanh-trach-nhiem-voi-dat-nuoc-185250530155815656.htm