Directive No. 3399/CT-BGDĐT on key tasks for Early Childhood Education, General Education, Continuing Education, and Vocational Education for the 2010-2011 academic year.

DIRECTIVE
On the key tasks of Early Childhood Education, General Education,
Continuing Education, and Vocational Education for the 2010-2011 academic year

_____________________________

Pursuant to the resolutions of the Party and the National Assembly, relevant regulations and guidelines issued by the Government and the Prime Minister;

Considering the actual situation of the education sector, the Ministry of Education and Training has determined the theme for the 2010-2011 academic year as "Continuing to Reform Management and Improve Educational Quality."

The Minister of Education and Training hereby instructs the entire sector to focus on implementing the following key tasks:

1. Continue to reform educational management work

1.1. Participate in providing comments on the drafting of documents for the Party Congress and proactively develop action programs to implement the resolutions of the Party Congress at all levels regarding education and training.

1.2. Continue to implement decentralization in educational management; increase autonomy and responsibility of educational institutions. Continue to implement Circular Joint No. 35/2008/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV dated July 14, 2008 of the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Home Affairs, focusing on implementing provisions related to functions, tasks, authorities, and organizational structure of Departments of Education and Training.

1.3. Strictly implement regulations on transparency for educational institutions within the national education system.

1.4. Complete the transformation of preschool and general education institutions according to the provisions of the Law and guidance from the Ministry of Education and Training.

1.5. Reform information dissemination work to provide timely, comprehensive, and accurate information about the sector to the public; collect and synthesize information from various channels to promptly address issues within the sector.

1.6. Promote the application of information technology in education. Actively apply forms of organizing conferences, seminars, training sessions, meetings, and exchanges through the Internet. Increase the use of electronic documents in the sector.

1.7. Continue to implement administrative reform, with a focus on simplifying administrative procedures in the field of education; unify criteria for evaluating schools that meet requirements for quality assessment, friendly school construction, positive student development, national standard attainment, and comprehensive school inspections.

1.8. Strengthen inspection and supervision activities. Enhance administrative and specialized inspection activities at all levels of education and training. Organize inspections of non-state educational and training institutions and foreign-invested educational institutions.

1.9. Reform the evaluation of competition in various areas of work within the sector towards having functional Departments of the Ministry monitor and evaluate the areas they oversee, serving as important bases for regional competition evaluations. Amend and supplement Circular No. 21/2008/TT-BGDĐT dated April 22, 2008 of the Ministry of Education and Training on competition and commendation work within the sector. Organize the National Patriotic Competition Congress of the sector in October 2010. Widely disseminate the book "Faces of Vietnamese Education," promoting outstanding and exemplary models among teachers, educational managers, and students.

1.10. Improve the quality and effectiveness of legal affairs work, focusing on drafting and promulgating legal documents on education, gradually perfecting the system of regulatory legal documents on education.

2. Improve the quality and effectiveness of educational activities

2.1. Common tasks for all levels of education

2.1.1. Continue to effectively and creatively implement the movement "Learning and Practicing the Moral Example of President Ho Chi Minh" according to Directive No. 06-CT/TW dated November 7, 2006 of the Politburo, combined with the specific characteristics of the sector, which is implementing the movement "Each Teacher is a Model of Morality, Self-Study, and Creativity" and the campaign "Building Friendly Schools and Positive Students." Strictly implement regulations on teacher ethics (Decision No. 16/2008/QĐ-BGDĐT dated April 16, 2008).

2.1.2. Organize a review of four years of implementation of Directive No. 33/2006/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister through the movement "Two Nos" of the sector. Strengthen measures to address the issue of students being placed in incorrect grades, reduce the rate of weak and poor-performing students and dropout rates, and increase the rate of good and excellent students. Organize strictly and safely the final exams for secondary school graduation and the national student excellence competition in 2011.

2.1.3. Promote the campaign "Building Friendly Schools and Positive Students" in general and preschool education institutions.

- Educational units organize well major national commemorative days; strengthen moral, idealistic, and life skill education, and behavioral training for students to prepare them for subsequent stages of study and work. Summarize experiences and organize well the "assembly" part of the opening ceremony, organize "Gratitude and Graduation Ceremonies" for grade 12 students, and graduation and maturity ceremonies for grade 5 and grade 9 students. Coordinate to organize traditional cultural activities and celebrations marking the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi.

- Continue to improve physical infrastructure and campus environments, striving for 100% of schools to have sanitary facilities meeting requirements. Closely coordinate with local authorities and mass organizations to implement the "safe school" program. Continue to support the maintenance of historical and cultural relics, mothers of Vietnam's heroic soldiers, families of war invalids and martyrs, and families with meritorious contributions to the revolution.

- Develop question banks for testing and exercise materials for subjects for teachers and students to refer to and use in teaching and learning, self-assessment, and evaluation. Strengthen the application of information technology to innovate teaching and learning methods. Implement materials guiding life skills education in some subjects and educational activities. Popularize safe swimming and drowning prevention skills for students. Prevent negative impacts of the Internet, especially online games, on students. Implement cooperative solutions to prevent student fights. Strengthen efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and social evils in schools.

- Strengthening school health work to ensure care, protection of health, prevention and control of diseases in schools. Organizing sports activities for secondary students and students with disabilities. Preparing well for the organization of the National Phu Dong Health Festival in 2012.

2.1.4. Continuing to perfect the system of regulatory legal documents and guidelines on educational quality assessment and accreditation work. Implementing the work of assessing the quality of education in schools.

2.1.5. Implementing the Project on foreign language teaching and learning in the national education system for the period 2008-2020. Organizing an evaluation of ten years of work to build national standard schools. Accelerating the progress of building national standard schools.

2.1.6. Studying supplementary policies to support teachers and students in ethnic areas; consolidating and developing boarding schools for ethnic minorities and residential schools for ethnic minorities. Continuing measures to strengthen Vietnamese language instruction for ethnic minority students in kindergartens and primary schools; training ethnic languages for teachers in ethnic areas.

2.2. Early Childhood Education

- Implementing Decision No. 239/QD-TTg dated February 9, 2010 of the Prime Minister on the Project to universalize preschool education for five-year-old children.

- Concentrating on improving the network of kindergartens and preschools; continuing to implement the new preschool education program; continuing to reform teaching methods, improving the quality of childcare and education for children.

- Strengthening management of private kindergartens and preschools; intensifying publicity and socialization of education.

2.3. General Education

- Continuing to implement teaching according to knowledge and skill standards suitable for each group of students. Focusing on directing reforms in teaching methods, testing and evaluating subjects such as Literature, History, Geography, Morality, Civic Education. Training and practicing tests and evaluations that encourage self-study and creativity among students. Supplementing materials guiding reforms in teaching methods and testing and evaluation.

- Organizing a summary of ten years of consolidation and improvement of the quality of universal primary education and universal lower secondary education. Implementing universal secondary education where conditions permit.

- Continuing to adjust programs, forms of organizing teaching and educational activities in Civic Education, Handicrafts - Technology, Fine Arts, Music, Physical Education and Sports... Issuing regulations on compiling, revising, and reviewing general education curricula and textbooks. Drafting and submitting to the Prime Minister for approval the Project on Building General Education Curricula and Textbooks to be implemented after 2015.

- Implementing preparatory steps for Vietnam's participation in the international PISA program in 2012. Implementing the Project on Developing the System of Secondary Specialized Schools for the period 2010-2020.

2.4. Continuous Education

- Enhancing awareness about lifelong learning and building a learning society; continuing to consolidate and develop networks of regular education institutions and community learning centers; increasing investment in building infrastructure and teaching equipment.

- Continuing to diversify the content, programs, and guidance materials for learners and teachers; strengthening measures to improve the quality of regular education programs; actively reforming teaching methods, testing, and evaluating learner performance; participating in vocational training projects for rural workers.

- Organizing a summary of five years of implementing Decision No. 112/2005/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on Building a Learning Society for the period 2005-2010; drafting the Project on "Building a Learning Society for the period 2011-2020" and the Project on "Eradicating Illiteracy for the period 2011-2020".

2.5. Vocational Education

- Continuing to improve the quality of training, enhancing material facilities for intermediate vocational training. Promoting the work of educational quality accreditation, diversifying training fields, forms, systems, and types of intermediate vocational schools. Actively implementing career guidance and分流后的第二部分，请继续翻译剩余的内容，保持格式和准确性。

- Promote training according to social needs. Vocational high schools continue to implement the establishment and publication of graduation standards for each field of study and develop a roadmap to achieve these standards. Organize a ten-year evaluation of the development of vocational education.

3. Care for and invest in developing the teaching staff and educational management personnel.

3.1. Implement the Regulations on the Competition for Excellent Teachers in General Education and Continuous Education. Organize the awarding of the titles of People's Teacher and Outstanding Teacher for the eleventh time and hold a ceremony to honor them on the occasion of Teachers' Day on November 20, 2010.

3.2. Continue to build and perfect related documents concerning policies for teachers and educational management personnel.

3.3. Roll out the implementation of the occupational standards for kindergarten, primary, and secondary (lower secondary and upper secondary) teachers, and the principal standards for secondary schools.

3.4. Effectively organize professional development activities, focusing on training class advisor experience. Complete the professional development of secondary school principals under the joint Vietnam-Singapore project, conduct advisory and monitoring activities to enhance the outcomes of such development.

3.5. Summarize the five-year implementation of Directive No. 40-CT/TW dated June 15, 2004 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Decision No. 09/2005/QĐ-TTg dated January 1, 2005 of the Prime Minister regarding the approval of the Project "Building and Improving the Quality of the Teaching Staff and Educational Management Personnel for the 2005-2010 period." Deploy planning work throughout the sector. Develop staffing plans for kindergarten and general education teachers from 2010 to 2015 with a vision to 2020. Formulate policies and plans to develop faculty members in teacher training institutions, teachers in subjects that are still lacking, and specialized subjects.

4. Continue to reform financial work in education.

4.1. Pursuant to Decree No. 49/2010/NĐ-CP dated May 14, 2010 of the Government, localities shall develop and apply new tuition fees from the academic year 2010-2011. Rectify the work of managing revenue and expenditure to enhance the efficiency of state budget utilization and social resources invested in education, and put an end to all forms of excessive charges in educational institutions. Departments of Education and Training shall be the main agencies responsible for compiling plans and budgets for education and training at the local level to report to the Ministry of Education and Training and relevant national agencies.

4.2. Continue to fully and strictly implement the provisions of the Law on Prevention and Combating Corruption and the Law on Thrift and Combating Wastefulness. Timely address any violations discovered through inspection and audit activities.

4.3. Departments of Education and Training shall proactively coordinate with financial agencies to propose regular budget spending standards for each level of education and training degree in accordance with the Prime Minister's regulations and in line with the socio-economic conditions of the locality, prioritizing the budget for universal primary education at the right age, illiteracy eradication, and universal preschool education for five-year-old children, ensuring funding for education in mountainous, island, and particularly difficult socio-economic areas.

4.4. Vigorously promote socialization in education, intensifying efforts to mobilize resources for educational development.

5. Develop school networks and classrooms and strengthen educational infrastructure and equipment, toys for children.

5.1. Accelerate the implementation progress of the Project to Strengthen School Buildings and Classrooms and Housing for Teachers for the period 2008-2012. Continue to implement the Project to develop education in 62 poor districts.

5.2. Continue to supplement and perfect mechanisms, policies, and enforcement measures related to procurement, storage, and use of teaching equipment and toys for children; promote the movement of self-production and use of teaching equipment and toys for children.

5.3. Continue to invest in building kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools, and high schools meeting national standards. Invest in building and modernizing specialized high school systems. Pay attention to investing in infrastructure for vocational secondary schools, continuing education centers, and comprehensive technical training centers.

5.4. Direct the effective implementation, strengthen supervision over investment in infrastructure and teaching equipment at the local level.

To effectively implement the key tasks mentioned above, the Minister of Education and Training requires:

The Director of the Department of Education and Training shall base on the actual situation of the locality to develop plans and organize the implementation, direct, inspect, and urge the District Departments of Education and Training, schools, and educational institutions in the locality to fulfill the tasks of the 2010-2011 academic year; actively advise the Provincial/ Municipal Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee to issue Resolutions on educational work and Directives on key tasks for the 2010-2011 academic year in the locality; take the initiative to leverage cooperation and coordination assistance from various departments, mass organizations to create favorable conditions for the education sector to effectively perform its tasks for the academic year.

Heads of units under the Ministry of Education and Training shall guide, inspect, and urge local education management levels to fulfill their academic year tasks; promptly report and reflect the situation, propose solutions to direct the resolution of issues arising during the implementation process.

This Directive shall be disseminated to all cadres, civil servants, and employees at all levels of education management, teachers at preschool, general education, continuing education, and vocational education institutions to understand and implement it thoroughly./.