Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son: Extra classes bring value to human development

TP - Today (September 8), more than 26 million students nationwide attended the first class of the 2025-2026 school year. This school year, Vietnam's education enters a period of comprehensive innovation in the context of operating a two-level local government.

Choosing textbooks before the new school year. Photo: Hong Vinh

There is a mechanism to mobilize funds for teaching session 2.

According to Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, to ensure that educational activities are not disrupted in the context of operating a two-level local government, the Ministry has implemented many synchronous solutions such as having 2 decrees and 6 circulars regulating decentralization, delegation of authority, and division of state management authority in the field of education. The Ministry has developed documents, organized training, and issued handbooks to support education managers at the commune level and the Departments of Education and Training to access complete, systematic, concise, and easy-to-understand information.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will continue to review legal documents, strengthen professional guidance; complete the industry data system, ensure connectivity and synchronization... However, to effectively implement educational tasks in the new context, Mr. Son said that localities should soon complete legal institutions, build an effective coordination mechanism between the provincial and communal levels; issue clear regulations on the functions, tasks, and organizational structure of the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Culture and Social Affairs at the communal level, and at the same time assign staffing quotas and the number of labor contracts to educational institutions; have solutions to mobilize and second specialized staff from the Department of Education and Training or educational institutions to support the communal level, especially in places where communal staff do not have expertise.

According to the 2018 general education program, students experience a variety of activities, demonstrate their strengths, choose subjects that are linked to career orientation, and access comprehensive knowledge through integrated subjects. However, the implementation process also revealed some shortcomings. Specifically, at the high school level, the choice of subjects is limited by teachers and classrooms; at the middle school level, teaching integrated subjects is difficult due to uneven teacher capacity and learning materials.

In the 2025-2026 school year, the Minister of Education and Training said that a comprehensive evaluation of the 2018 program will be conducted after an implementation cycle to clarify the level of achievement in developing students' qualities and abilities; point out advantages, limitations, causes and propose solutions for adjustment, ensuring the program is practical, effective and sustainable.

One of the “hot” issues of the past school year was the Ministry of Education and Training “tightening” negative extra teaching and learning. Minister Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that this school year, the Ministry of Education and Training will continue to adhere to the viewpoint that extra teaching and learning can bring about the consolidation of knowledge, but brings little value to human development. The profound consequences of the widespread situation of extra teaching and learning require continued drastic rectification.

However, when implementing 2-session teaching per day, schools face difficulties in funding for the 2nd session. According to current regulations, this session does not teach cultural subjects in the curriculum, except for English. School leaders believe that the biggest difficulty for secondary schools when implementing 2-session teaching per day is the lack of classrooms, the lack of teachers for some subjects to meet the ratio of 2-session teaching per day, and finally, financial difficulties.

Regarding this content, Minister Nguyen Kim Son shared that the funding for the second session is mainly guaranteed from the state budget under the direction of the Prime Minister. Socialized sources are implemented according to current regulations. In the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and localities to develop specific mechanisms and policies on mobilizing funds for the implementation of teaching two sessions per day.

“The Ministry of Education and Training will promptly complete the assessment of the implementation of the 2018 general education program; develop new plans for textbooks, e-textbooks, and e-learning materials; issue and implement a new preschool education program; and promptly implement the construction of boarding and semi-boarding schools in border communes and the solidification of classrooms.”

Minister Nguyen Kim Son

Pilot high school graduation exam on computer

Mr. Son said that in order to prepare for the pilot high school graduation exam on computers from 2027, the Ministry of Education and Training is focusing on implementing a number of key tasks, such as: Developing a project to organize high school graduation exams on computers; mobilizing experts to build a standardized exam question bank (expected to be applied from 2027). The Ministry is preparing software systems to organize computer-based exams and testing computer-based exams in localities. It is expected that this school year, the test will be implemented for more than 100,000 students.

The Minister of Education and Training affirmed that, in the current period, the high school graduation exam is the only national exam for all students to assess the general output of high schools nationwide. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the organization to assess the level of general education standards, providing national data for research, development, and adjustment of general education policies. At the same time, it is necessary to assess the quality of education in regions across the country. The exam results are the output of high schools, a source of reference information for universities and vocational training institutions to organize enrollment.

Still short of teachers

Mr. Son informed that in the period of 2022-2026, the education sector will add 65,980 positions. However, due to the continuous increase in the number of students and classes, the demand for teachers will also increase sharply (in the 2023-2024 school year, 13,676 more teachers will be needed; in the 2024-2025 school year, about 22,000 more teachers will be needed). Therefore, many localities still lack teachers.

Mr. Son said that the main reason is due to limited recruitment sources. In some subjects such as Information Technology, Foreign Languages, and Arts, the pedagogical sector is difficult to recruit because teachers' income is still low. In addition, the process of allocating and recruiting staff in many localities is still slow and prolonged. The Ministry of Education and Training has directed training institutions to open major codes and train teachers according to the actual needs of the locality, especially in specific subjects; required localities to recruit enough staff assigned; directed localities to review and arrange the network of schools; pilot the autonomy mechanism in some public preschools and general schools; promote socialization...

Minister Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that this school year, the Ministry of Education and Training continues to adhere to the view that extra classes can help consolidate knowledge, but bring little value to human development. The profound consequences of the widespread situation of extra teaching and learning require continued drastic rectification.

The Ministry recommends that localities proactively recruit enough assigned staff, have policies to attract and support teachers, and arrange funding to implement teacher contracts according to regulations.

Mr. Tran The Cuong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, said that in order to effectively recruit teachers, it is necessary to be more flexible in the requirements for pedagogical practice. For localities with large educational scales such as Hanoi, organizing a teaching practice exam for thousands of candidates is very difficult to do, because it requires mobilizing a large number of examiners, and the marking work is difficult to ensure fairness and uniformity among the councils. Mr. Cuong proposed to expand the form of pedagogical practice, which can include contents such as preparing lesson plans and handling pedagogical situations so that localities can proactively choose options suitable to the scale of recruitment and actual conditions.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/bo-truong-gddt-nguyen-kim-son-hoc-them-it-dem-lai-gia-tri-phat-trien-con-nguoi-post1776216.tpo