Flexibility in teaching and learning Local Education after merger

Photo caption — First-grade students at An Dong Primary School during their first year of implementing the new General Education Program. Photo: The Duyet/TTXVN

While there is no unified document for common use, based on guidance from the Department of Education and Training, many schools in Hung Yen province have demonstrated creativity, innovation, and flexibility in teaching and learning, meeting the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program while also being suitable for the local context after the merger.

Efforts to keep the curriculum intact

According to the 2018 General Education Program, the content of Local Education is the basic or current issues of culture, history, geography, socio- economics , environment, career orientation... of the locality, supplementing the general compulsory education content unified throughout the country. In particular, at the primary level, the content of Local Education is integrated with experiential activities or in other subjects, such as: Vietnamese, Ethics, Nature and Society, Mathematics, History and Geography... At the secondary and high school levels, the content of Local Education has the same position as other subjects.

From July 1, 2025, Thai Binh province (old) and Hung Yen province (old) merged into Hung Yen province with a natural area of over 2,500 km2; population of over 3.5 million people; 104 communes and wards. The merger of administrative boundaries is not only a change on the map, but also affects the educational content in schools, especially local subjects. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for teachers to innovate and create to enrich their lessons, helping students access and experience more widely the culture, history and geography of the two lands.

Teacher Nguyen Van Chanh, Principal of Thuy Phong Primary School (Nam Thuy Anh Commune) said that to ensure that the teaching and learning of the 2018 General Education Program, especially the Local Education content, is not interrupted after the administrative unit arrangement, the Department of Education and Training has established a Committee to review the entire program of the 2 sets of Local Education documents of the 2 provinces of Thai Binh (old) and Hung Yen (old); at the same time, there are timely instructions on teaching content and topics to help schools and teachers be more proactive in preparing teaching materials. This both ensures close knowledge and expands so that students have a more comprehensive view of the new locality after the merger.

Taking the local education content for 4th grade as an example, Mr. Nguyen Van Chanh said that the Department's guidelines suggest selecting 6 topics with materials combining those from the local education materials of the former Thai Binh and Hung Yen provinces, and updating them with additional reference materials. For instance, the content "Nature and People of My Homeland" is guided to update the administrative boundary map according to the new province; the content "History and Traditional Culture of the Locality" is guided to use materials from Tran Temple in Hung Ha (former Thai Binh) combined with the history and traditional culture of the former Hung Yen province…

According to teacher Nguyen Van Chanh, in the 2025-2026 school year, the school has 688 students. After nearly 2 months of teaching and learning Local Education with new adjustments, the school's teaching staff quickly caught up with the changes, flexibly, proactively updated, and realized through each lecture, helping students understand more about their homeland in a new space.

For lower secondary school level, teaching local education has higher requirements. Ms. Pham Hong Le, a teacher at Ky Dong Primary and Lower Secondary School (Dien Ha commune), said that in the 2025-2026 school year, she was assigned to teach History to 8th and 9th graders. Following guidance from the Department of Education and Training, she proactively sought teaching materials to ensure the content and requirements of the curriculum were met, as well as to promptly supplement knowledge of the new administrative unit with materials combining two interwoven local education documents from the former Thai Binh province and the former Hung Yen province.

Early completion of unified content framework

In the 2025 - 2026 school year, Hung Yen will have over 753,000 students; 496 preschools, 719 general education facilities, 33 vocational education facilities, 2 continuing education centers, 18 vocational education - continuing education centers... Although schools and teachers have been flexible, proactive, and closely followed the instructions of the Department of Education and Training, according to many teachers, teaching and learning Local Education with new administrative boundary changes also poses some challenges.

According to teacher Pham Hong Le from Ky Dong Primary and Secondary School (Dien Ha commune), the current curriculum does not fully cover the scope of Hung Yen province, especially regarding history, geography, and achievements in innovation… while there are no readily available materials for teachers to use. Therefore, each teacher must actively update the materials as accurately as possible to serve teaching and learning.

According to Ms. Ha Thi Thu Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Hung Yen province, based on the practical situation of implementing local education materials and the need for revision and supplementation to suit the socio-economic, cultural, and educational development of the province in the new period, on October 17, 2025, the People's Committee of Hung Yen province issued a plan to build a framework for the curriculum and revise local education materials.

Specifically, the revision, updating, and unified development of a set of local education materials for Hung Yen province from grade 1 to grade 12 is carried out based on inheriting, selecting, and adjusting appropriate content from the old local education materials of Hung Yen province and Thai Binh province that were compiled, reviewed, and promulgated before the merger. The revised materials are scientific, accurate, and systematic; they truthfully and comprehensively reflect the natural, socio-economic, cultural, historical, and traditional characteristics of Hung Yen province; and they incorporate the latest data, aligning with the requirements of general education reform and the practical situation after the administrative boundary adjustment. Furthermore, the unified content must ensure integration with experiential activities, career guidance, and other educational activities to create interconnectedness, uniformity, and improved effectiveness in educational institutions throughout the province.

The tasks of developing the content framework, revising the materials, and the approval process steps will be carried out in the 2025-2026 school year; from the 2026-2027 school year onwards, the teaching of the Hung Yen province's local education materials will be uniformly implemented after approval by the competent authority. This is also the expectation of the teaching staff, with unified, accurate, and scientific materials about Hung Yen province after the merger, ensuring consistency and interconnectedness in teaching, and meeting the objectives of the 2018 General Education Program.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/giao-duc/linh-hoat-trong-day-va-hoc-mon-giao-duc-dia-phuong-sau-hop-nhat-20251024104642408.htm