RESOLUTION No. 37/2004/QH11 OF DECEMBER 3, 2004 ON EDUCATION

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

Pursuant to Article 84 of the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which was amended and supplemented under Resolution No. 51/2001/QH10 of December 25, 2001 of the X^th National Assembly, the 10^th session;

Pursuant to the Education Law;

Pursuant to the Law on the National Assembly’s Supervisory Activities;

After considering the Government’s Report No. 1534/CP-KG of October 14, 2004 on educational situation; Verification Report No. 662 BC/VH-GD-TTN of October 20, 2004 of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, on the Government’s Report; and comments of the National Assembly’s deputies,

RESOLVES:

The National Assembly basically agrees with the Government’s Report and the Verification Report of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, on education.

In the years of renewal (doi moi), education has continued to develop in scale, meeting the people’s increasing demands for learning; primary education universalization was completed nationwide in 2000, and by the 2004-2005 school year, 20 provinces and centrally-run cities have been recognized as having completed junior-secondary education universalization; education quality has been further improved, the trained labor force has been contributing efficiently to socio-economic development. However, the educational system has developed disproportionately between vocational training and senior secondary education as well as tertiary education. Vocational training remains in small scale, failing to meet the society’s demands for job-learning. Education quality remains poor, being hamstrung with numerous weaknesses; education efficiency remains low, failing to meet the requirements of human resource training in service of national development; educational administration has been crippled. Such negative phenomena in education as dishonesty in learning, widespread extracurricular learning and exams being burdens for children and costly, etc., have caused concerns in the society.

The National Assembly acknowledges the obtained educational achievements and assigns the Government to continue directing the educational renewal, standardize and modernize education, expand international cooperation, raise the quality of human resource training in order to meet national industrialization and modernization requirements and approach advanced education level of the region and the world. To study the adjustment of the educational strategy till 2010 and build a long-term educational strategy for the subsequent years.

The National Assembly emphasizes the following issues:

1. To prepare all necessary conditions for renewing tertiary education, vocational training and pre-school education contents, programs and methodologies. To better implement the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 40/2000/QH10 and Resolution No. 41/2000/QH10. To study the adjustment of plans on specialization of study subjects for senior-secondary schools, actively contributing to vocational guidance for pupils and suitable to Vietnam’s practical conditions.

2. To rationally expand tertiary education and substantially improve the tertiary education quality. To strongly develop vocational education; to conduct post-junior secondary education ramification and accreditation in the educational system, to create favorable conditions for youngsters to select various study forms so that after their graduation from junior- and senior-secondary schools, they shall have opportunity to learn jobs. To develop regular education to meet the people’s life-long learning demands and build a learning society.

3. To invest budget in education and training, ensuring a percentage of 20% of the State budget’s total expenditures for this sector 2-3 years prior to 2010. To ensure rational ratios between salary expenditures and expenditures on educational activities of educational establishments in order to raise the education quality. And at the same time, to continue promulgating synchronous policies in order to step up the education socialization and mobilize social resources for educational development. The State shall protect the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals, that invest in the establishment of non-public schools, and create favorable conditions for the development of non-public schools.

4. To concentrate efforts on building a contingent of teachers and educational administrators with adequate number and synchronous structure, who are up to the training standards; to attach special importance to raising their political stance, ethical qualities, professional conscience and responsibilities. To perfect mechanisms and policies on training, fostering and employment of teachers and educational administrators and create conditions for them to do regular self-study in order to update knowledge, improve their professional qualifications and skills to meet the educational renewal requirements.

5. To comprehensively renew the State management over education along the direction of clearly assigning and decentralizing responsibilities and powers of the Ministry of Education and Training, ministries, branches, provincial-level People’s Committees and educational establishments, considering the quality control as a core task; to strengthen the inspection organization, step up educational inspection, and conduct annual expertise of education quality. To renew emulation work in education, to overcome the achievement-overdrawing “disease”.

To eliminate the primary-school graduation exams in the 2004-2005 school year, to continue improving the organization of examinations along the direction of simplification, efficiency and practicality.

6. To step up the building of order and disciplines in teaching and learning. To synchronously apply measures to overcome and put an end to dishonesty in examinations, graduation dissertations or theses, diploma/certificate issuance, widespread extracurricular teaching and learning, which cause tension and tiredness to pupils, especially in primary and junior-secondary schools.

7. To better realize social justice in education, to prioritize the development of education in ethnic minority regions, areas meeting with socio-economic difficulties and areas meeting with exceptional socio-economic difficulties, and education for handicapped children.

The Government shall organize the implementation of this Resolution.

The National Assembly Standing Committee; the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children; the Nationality Council and other Committees of the National Assembly; the National Assembly deputies’ delegations; the National Assembly deputies and the People’s Councils of all levels shall supervise the implementation of this Resolution according to their respective functions, tasks and powers.

This Resolution was passed on December 3, 2004 by the XI^th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its sixth session.

Chairman of the National Assembly
NGUYEN VAN AN