Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc speaks at the meeting of the National Committee for Education Reforms and the National Council of Education and Human Resources Development from 2016 – 2020 on Tuesday.— VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI — Enhancing teachers’ skills is crucial to educational reforms, said Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc at the meeting of the National Committee for Education Reforms and the National Council of Education and Human Resources Development from 2016 – 2020 on Tuesday.

It was the first time Phúc, also chairman of the committee and the council from 2016 – 2020, chaired a meeting of this kind.

The meeting aimed to seek measures to implement Resolution No.29-NQ/TW, dated November 4, 2013, on fundamental and comprehensive renewal in education, serving industrialisation and modernisation in the Socialist-oriented market economy during the country’s international integration and the era of Industry 4.0.

The meeting focused on reforms of teacher training and allocation, renewal of textbooks and improvement of higher education institutional autonomy in Việt Nam. The meeting also saw many proposals to reform the accreditation procedures of professor and associate professor titles and to improve the quality of Vietnamese professors and associate professors.

PM Phúc spoke highly of all proposals at the meeting, saying the ultimate goal of socio-economic development is to better serve people, particularly in education and training.

He agreed with the proposals to promote the application of technology in education and noted that the elimination of technological illiteracy is fundamental to developing e-government, smart cities and global citizens.

He also appreciated the ideas of lifelong learning, especially for old adults, to prevent stagnancy and close-minded thinking at work.

He stressed the importance of capacity building for teachers, which is the key to the country’s educational reforms, asking for the restructuring of pedagogical institutions with the focus on the quality of teachers. He wanted the teachers to receive better training to absorb new ways of thinking.

The PM also requested the universities further foster students’ start-up businesses, saying it is important to increase Vietnamese productivity.

He required stricter accreditation of professors and associate professors and improvement of the quality of the candidates and judges to ensure transparency in line with international standards.

Regarding university autonomy, the top leader said when institutional autonomy is applied, the universities are only governed by the Ministry of Education and Training in terms of planning, examination, education quality and inspection. He asked for an increase in the number of universities piloting autonomy beyond the three or four universities at present to get feedback and scale up the model in the future.

He endorsed ideas of university autonomy in academic curricula, organization and finance and emphasised that financial autonomy does not mean that the government will not invest in higher education institutions. — VNS