Democratic regulations in education system needs stricter supervision

At a conference in Hanoi on March 24, Deputy PM Dam said enforcing democratic regulations at schools and educational institutions plays a particularly important role in the comprehensive and fundamental reform of the educational sector.

The supervision needs to be specific, Dam said, adding that teachers have the right to evaluate the management in a democratic manner through secret ballot while students are allowed to evaluate their teachers’ competence at classes.

The Deputy PM also requested that State management agencies and educational leaders at all levels strengthen their role in implementing democratic regulations at schools.

MoET and the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs are urged to issue joint documents, requesting schools and educational institutions to report their regulations to relevant bodies. The regulations must be developed based on opinions of all teaching and managing staff at the school, approved by the School Board and made public.

Participants shared the view that it’s necessary to establish School Boards at educational institutions to effectively implement the democratic regulations.

However, only 16 out of 38 universities under the MoET have established their School Boards. The structure of those boards is not really appropriate, with the functions and tasks of the Board’s Chairman, the Dean and the Secretary of the school’s Party Committee overlapping.  

According to the MoET, there are nearly 1.4 million teachers and educational managers, 22 million students and 44,968 educational institutions from pre-school to tertiary levels.