President Trần Đại Quang (L) hands over gift to the Minister of Ministry of Education and Training Trần Xuân Nhạ on the ocassion of his visit to the ministry on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sáng

HÀ NỘI — President Trần Đại Quang on Saturday urged the country’s education authorities to focus on developing a high quality work force and to train “global citizens”, especially in information and nano technology, automation, telecommunications and the use of new materials and energy.

Speaking during a New Year visit to the Ministry of Education and Training, the President said the education system must reform its approach to optimise creativity and start-up skills.

Cooperation between training facilities and enterprises must be strengthened, and new training models must be applied in combination with the restructuring of training programmes to produce a contingent of “global engineers,” he suggested.

The State leader stressed the need to improve the capacity of teachers and management officials to serve the comprehensive reform of education and training, as well as the necessity to pay more attention to education and training in remote and poor areas, ensuring welfare beneficiaries and ethnic minority people access education.

He also asked the sector to assist labourers in switching jobs that have become redundant, and ensure sustainable eradication of illiteracy, while expanding international partnership and encouraging Overseas Vietnamese experts to work at education and research facilities in Việt Nam.

Closer links should also be forged between training facilities and science-technology organisations and research institutes.

The President acknowledged the efforts and achievements of the education system on 2016, especially in fixing shortcomings of the high school graduation and university entrance exams.

Students sent to international and regional Olympiads reaped high results, he noted, adding that Việt Nam successfully hosted the 27th Biology Olympiad with the participation of 250 students from 68 countries and territories. According to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment for 2015, Việt Nam also ranked eighth among 72 countries in terms of science studies.

In 2016, Minister of Education and Training Phùng Xuân Nhạ issued a decree specifying nine major tasks and five measures for the 2016-17 academic year, focusing on improving the quality of teachers and education management officials at all levels, strengthening the autonomy of tertiary education facilities, and developing high quality human resources. — VNS