Integrating human rights content into the primary school curriculum.

Enhancing Human Rights Awareness: The Ministry of Education and Training has identified the Government's Decision No. 1309/QD-TTg on incorporating human rights content into the national education system's curriculum as a key educational task for the 2020-2025 period . The Ministry has organized and coordinated numerous activities to disseminate and educate high school students on human rights. This aims to help students improve their awareness and understanding of human rights, the rights and obligations of citizens; and to protect their own rights and the rights of others when violations occur. [caption id="attachment_604310" align="alignnone" width="768"] Human rights education content is directly integrated into lessons in many subjects such as Ethics, Civics, and Law.... Currently, at the primary school level, human rights content has been included in the Ethics curriculum. Although some important results have been achieved, human rights education still needs to be further integrated into the curriculum in subjects and educational activities such as: Natural and Social Sciences, History and Geography, Vietnamese Language, Music, Fine Arts, Experiential Activities… Emphasizing the necessity of integrating human rights education, the Deputy Minister analyzed that although human rights content has been included in the general education curriculum of some subjects, this content lacks systematic and comprehensive coverage of human rights values, principles, and standards. Furthermore, teaching and learning materials on human rights in educational institutions within the national education system, especially integrated guidance materials, are lacking, affecting the quality and effectiveness of education and the training and professional development of teachers. For this reason, the Ministry of Education and Training has also compiled a framework of human rights content and proposed guidelines for implementing this framework in subject curricula and educational activities to enhance students' awareness and understanding of human rights and civil rights. This contributes to helping students protect their own rights and the rights of others when violations occur. This is an effective method that contributes to strengthening the practice of rights in schools, preventing school violence and discrimination, and protecting human dignity. Effective integration into educational activities - According to Thai Van Tai, Director of the Primary Education Department (Ministry of Education and Training), the general education program aims to cultivate and develop in students qualities such as patriotism, compassion, diligence, honesty, and responsibility. [caption id="attachment_604332" align="alignnone" width="768"] Through human rights education, students will better understand their responsibilities and obligations, while also understanding right and wrong, and ethics in their interactions with each other and with their teachers. General competencies are formed and developed through all subjects and educational activities, such as self-reliance and self-learning, communication and cooperation, problem-solving, and creativity. It can be seen that the content of human rights and children's rights is of particular importance when effectively integrated into subjects and educational activities. This aims to achieve the goal of forming and developing competencies and qualities in the general education program, and specifically in the primary school program. Mr. Thai Van Tai suggested that a plan for organizing human rights education content can be developed within the school's educational plan using proactive and flexible methods. Accordingly, teachers can organize these activities in separate class sessions, focusing on specific topics, or integrate them into arts and culture activities, club activities, competitions, etc. The planning and implementation depend on the objectives, content, and learning outcomes of the lesson and the knowledge framework. Education on human rights and children's rights is implemented at one of three levels: full, partial, or related.