Walmer secondary school

The Hanoitimes – The Hanoi mayor asked health and education authorities to closely supervise the health of candidates who returned from Danang, the country’s Covid-19 epicenter.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung has demanded absolute safety for the national high school exams in the city amid a fresh Covid-19 outbreak in the country, Kinh Te & Do Thi reported.

Mr. Chung on August 9 morning inspected the examination organization and encouraged the candidates at Phan Dinh Phung high school where 680 students were taking the exams. Nearly 80,000 Hanoi students sit for the exams this year.

The Hanoi mayor asked authorities to closely supervise the health of candidates who returned from Danang, the country’s Covid-19 epicenter. “We need to take combined measures to prevent the pandemic,” Mr. Chung said.

At Phan Dinh Phung school venue, there were three test-takers returning from Danang. Although the three tested negative for coronavirus, a separate room was arranged only for them to ensure the safety for other candidates.

Regarding pandemic prevention measures, Mr. Chung requested that after each exam, the school must be disinfected at once. Besides, the school needs to make hand sanitizer and medical masks available for students as well as check their body temperature.

He also suggested that parents should not gather outside the school gates. Instead, they should leave after taking their children to the exam venue to ensure social distancing and avoid traffic congestion.

This year, for the first time, around 900,000 high school seniors in Vietnam take the two-day exam amid the Covid-19 resurgence.

The candidates have been divided into four groups, depending on their links with Covid-19: those under medical treatment for Covid-19, those under mass quarantine, those in close contact with suspected cases, and other students. The classification of candidates aims to ensure students’ rights as well as anti-Covid-19 measures in the current period.

The exam results would not only award a high-school certificate, but also decide admission to universities and colleges.

The followings are some photos taken at Phan Dinh Phung high school on August 9 morning:

Candidates arrive at the exam venue early in the morning to prepare for the first exam.

Candidates are quite comfortable before taking the exam at Phan Dinh Phung high school.

Candidates prepare for the Literature exam.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung speaks at the meeting Phan Dinh Phung high school.

The Hanoi mayor supervises and encourages candidates before the exam.

Mr. Chung encourages candidates before the Literature exam.

The Hanoitimes – Testing and evaluating students of online classes is one of the difficulties facing Vietnamese teachers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) acknowledge online schooling, with validity equaling to face-to-face instruction, following months of remote teaching due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to MoET, online teaching is not only an alternative for face-to-face instruction during the pandemic but also an important method to improve the quality of education from preschool to university level.

Being the first option given its advantages in the context of a complicated and long-lasting Covid-19 pandemic, but teachers say distance learning has many issues which must be solved in order for it to be reliable and validated.

Talking to Hanoitimes , Dao Van Diep, a teacher of Hanoi-based Lomonosov My Dinh Primary School said internet bandwidth and getting pupil’s motivation are the biggest challenge for distance learning.

Dao Van Diep, a teacher of Lomonosov My Dinh Primary School in Hanoi, is teaching onlinewhile students are off from school due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Nguyen Ngan

In the online environment, pupils might lose motivation for learning, Diep said, despite the biggest advantage of online classes which is online storage of all materials, discussion questions and tests which is easily accessible for students anytime and anywhere.

“Other challenge of online classes is testing and evaluating students. I am struggling to find out what kind of test should be taken to best assess my students. When we let students take the test from a distance, it is very difficult to ensure they do the test honestly. We need the instructions from the Ministry of Education and Training on this matter,” Diep said.

With the slogan “Closing school without stopping learning”, in 2021, the MoET has encouraged educational institutions to move their activities online during the months-long school closure period triggered by the novel coronavirus crisis.

After reviewing and evaluating online schooling, the ministry is drafting a regulation on online education which will serve as legal basis for validating remote teaching and learning.

A legal framework for online schooling is needed

A legal framework is necessary for online schooling. It’s also a condition to acknowledge online results.

Currently, the MoET is compiling a draft circular to allow universities to apply online education and the results will be validated.

In a phone interview with Hanoitimes , Nguyen Son Hai, director of the Department of Information and Technology under the MoET said that online schooling has been proven as the right choice for Vietnam in the current context the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both teachers and students have quickly adapted to the online teaching and learning methodology, Hai said, adding that it is also a good opportunity for the Vietnamese educational sector to speed up the application of the digital technology in both teaching and learning.

The pandemic has provided an opportunity for virtual learning, Hai said, adding that the ministry has issued related regulations and guidelines to create legal framework for localities and schools to carry out online learning practically and effectively, Hai stressed.

Major General Nguyen Anh Tuan, Political Chief of the Border Guard Command; Major General Trinh Hoang Hiep, Director of the Border Guard Academy; Senior Colonel Nguyen Thai Sinh, Political Commissar of the academy; and other high-ranking officers attended the event.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Senior Colonel Sinh said that the academy has set a goal to plant 10,000 green trees in 2021.

The program is a meaningful activity in response  to the tree-planting festival across the country and the government’s program of planting one billion trees, as well as to build a green, clean, and attractive school.

In addition, General Sinh also asked the academy to promote information dissemination among its teachers and cadets about the importance of tree-planting and encourage them to plant more trees to beautify their barracks.

Addressing the ceremony, General Tuan said that over the past years, under the direction of the Border Guard Command, the Politics Department of the command instructed its agencies and units to work with the VietinBank branches across the countries to launch the tree-planting festival on the first days of  the lunar new year.

So far, the agencies and units have planted more than 90,000 trees.

Also, General Tuan acknowledged and hailed the efforts of the academy’s leadership and troops in fulfilling their assigned tasks in response to the tree-planting festival and the government’s program of planting one billion trees.

He added that the Political Department of the Border Guard Command and other departments will support VND 100 million for the academy in buying seedlings and tools to plant trees and care for newly-planted trees.

After the launching ceremony, over 300 officers, instructors , and cadets of the academy planted more than 300 new trees in the school.

Source: bienphong.com.vn

Translated by Quynh Oanh

The Hanoitimes – The program is designed exclusively for Vietnam amid a rise in Facebook users in the country.

The “Facebook for Vietnam” program that puts existing and newly created programs in Vietnam under one hashtag is a way that the world’s largest social media platform has launched to assist the digital transformation in the Southeast Asian country.

Daniel Kritenbrink, US Ambassador to Vietnam. Photo: Facebook Vietnam

In partnership with the US Mission to Vietnam partners, this program is part of activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam-US relations.

To be launched from May to December 2020, the campaign with the hashtag #fb4vn is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive program designed exclusively for Vietnam.

The program includes five pillars namely Innovation, Safety and Digital Literacy, Community, Cities, and Digital Economy.

#fb4Innovation covers start-up supporting initiatives, programmers, and innovation-driven campaigns.

#fb4Safety and Digital Literacy focuses on safety on social networks, including protective measures for women and children, prevention of child abuse, and digital skills equipped for youth.

#fb4Community includes initiatives to bring people together and use technology for good.

#fb4Cities supports localities in their efforts to build e-government and smart cities through coordinated programs in various fields.

#fb4Economy contributes to the business community, mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises, and promote tourism and education in Vietnam after Covid-19.

Number of Facebook users in Vietnam from 2017 to 2023. Source: Statista

“As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, the “Facebook for Vietnam” campaign, which further expands Facebook’s socio-economic development projects throughout the country, demonstrates both Facebook’s and the United States’ long-term commitment to the prosperity of Vietnam,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, US ambassador to Vietnam.

Nguyen Anh Nguyet, Facebook’s Vietnam Public Policy Director, said Vietnam, with a digital economy that is growing at a remarkable pace, is an important market for Facebook.

With this campaign, Facebook wants to work more closely with the government, partners, non-profit organizations, and others to help Vietnam quickly recover from the global health crisis while creating opportunities for people to build digital literacy skills, helping businesses grow and creating jobs in the digital economy, she said.

In recent years, Facebook has collaborated with different partners in Vietnam to implement projects that help boost the nation’s socio-economic growth. Such projects include #SheMeansBusiness & “Facebook Community Boost” that provided training and consultation for more than 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, including 6,500 businesswomen. In 2019, the “We Think Digital” program offered digital skills training to 244,813 secondary schoolchildren and 1,277 teachers in 13 provinces and cities across Vietnam.

Vietnam is among top 10 countries having the largest Facebook using community, with 47.1 million users.