Human is both the impulse and the end-product of social development
In recent years, the Party Committee of Binh Duong Province have maintained that human is both the impulse and the end-product of social development, and agendas concerning human resources development as the stimulant for developments and breakthroughs has been consistently covered in all Party Congresses.
Taking this into account, Binh Duong Province has always paid considerable attention to training, nurturing and attracting talents. Considering education to be of utmost importance, at the 6th Provincial Party Congress (December 1997), the Provincial Party Committee have passed a resolution on drafting and implementing projects on enhancing infrastructures and training of personnel, in which developing education and improving literacy is emphasized as the foundation for rapid and sustainable economic development utilizing industrialization and modernization. The Provincial People's Committee also issued Dicison No. 133/2001/QĐ-UB dated 21 August 2001 on Approval of Development Plan for Education and Training in Binh Duong Province until 2020, in view of that economic development is necessarily coupled with development in education.
Meanwhile, Binh Duong Province has also been implementing the "Project on training, nurturing, enhancement and comprehensive development of human resources in Binh Duong Province until 2020" on a province-wide scale with extensive coverage of various training subjects, namely: attracting high quality graduates with employment opportunities at Thu Dau Mot University, providing aid for students from majors in demand for the province's development, providing aid for vocational training and professional training in supported professions, scholarships for high-scoring graduating high school students, etc. The province's budget expenditure for education and training from 2015 to 2020 has amounted to trillions of VND.
The 11th Provincial Party Congress has named 4 breakthrough agendas and 9 key plans for the period 2020-2025, of which one is to focus on developing high quality human resources in conjunction with high quality service industries, thus contributing to the development of Binh Duong as a smart, civilized, and modern city. Training and nurturing of human resources in the province shall also go hand in hand with comprehensive digital transformation in all disciplines, and developing "digital human resources" is therefore a crucial objective.
In order to fulfill these objectives, the Provincial Party Committee has formulated general plans on technological knowledge and skills training for government officials and fonctioners and attracting high quality personnel in information technology to facilitate the process of digital transformation. It is still of great priority that educational institutions, from grade schools to universities, especially vocational schools, be modernized and improve the quality of teaching, in addition to enhancing collaborations with businesses and industrial parks in Binh Duong to further foster the development of human capital and adapt to the current era of digital transformations.
Standardization and enhancement of the quality of public employees
In implementing agendas on improving the quality of human resources, Binh Duong Education and Training has successfully carried out initiatives to build and maintain a sufficient workforce. The pool of teachers saw considerable annually improvements in both quantity and quality. The number of teachers with above-standard qualifications in all school levels also increased constantly: compared to targeted numbers for the 2016-2020 period, among pre-school teachers, the figure was 26.41% above target, whereas among high school administrators, the figure was 13.82% above target. The percentage of trained employees in educational management and political reasoning were also all above target.
Graph 1: Qualifications of administrators and teachers in all school levels from school year 1994-1995 to school year 2021-2022
To incentivize creativity and self-learning among administrators and teachers, Binh Duong Education and Training has also actively advised relevant authorities to appropriately revise compensation policies so as to better aid workers in education, in addition to emphasizing the role of administrators in providing teachers with support and peace of mind in case of difficulties, therefore building a generation of well-trained education workers, both professionally and ethically.
Improvements in quality of education in pre-schools and grade schools
Aside from finding solutions to increase the quality of education workers, efficient investment in and organization of students' learning have also been of concern. This shall be a strategic mission in the larger process of building high quality human resources in response to demand from a developing society in general and Binh Duong Province in particular as industrialization and modernization continuously occur.
With regard to this, Binh Duong Education and Training has effectively implemented Resolution 29 dated on 4 November 2013 at the 8th Plenary Meeting of the 11th Central Committee on fundamental and comprehensive reforms in education and training, and also the 2018 Primary and Secondary Education Curriculum with "actual teaching, actual examination, actual quality" as the leading principle in all education activities and learning outcomes of students as the ultimate objective. As a result, the quality of students at all levels has been constantly maintained and improved. Results of Binh Duong delegations at national- and regional-level Olympiads and scientific research competitions have also been consistently increasing every school year. There has been gradually more emphasis on self-education and lifelong education, and consequentially, in-class learning has been combined with a variety of other forms of learning such as experiential learning, online learning, learning from courseware, from research projects, etc. to help students acquire knowledge and skills in a more comprehensive way.
To encourage and incentivize students, educational institutions have also been more concerned about annual recognitions and reward policies. There shall be systems to adequately reward the deserved awardees and promote as role models students overcoming hardships and leading initiatives in self-education and creativity in learning.
Furthermore, to better facilitate collaboration among educational institutions, vocational schools and businesses, the province has carried out the framework of Triple Helix model "government – institutions/ universities – business" – to foster an environment for startups and innovation in vocational education institutions and a startup ecosystem in all education institutions, therefore gradually improving the quality of teaching with direct regard to social needs.
Positive outcomes from initiatives to train and attract high quality human resources so far have resulted in clear increases in the talent pool and high rates of professionally trained workers, thus making considerable contributions to catapult Binh Duong into one of the few provinces capable of maintaining consistent annual growth rates.
Remarkable investments in education and training and policies to attract as well as facilitate the development high quality human resources have together created a strong foundation for Binh Duong to look forward to breakthroughs in socioeconomic development in the upcoming period and solidify the province's position as a dynamic development center of the Southeast Region and Viet Nam.
Dr. Nguyen Nhat Hang-Director of Binh Duong Department of Education and Training
Translated by Linh Nguyen