Defence and security education is an important element of the local military-defence work. Perceiving that, over the past years, the District 3, Ho Chi Minh City has always attached great value to leading and directing this work and obtained positive results.

Located in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, the District 3 has a total area of over 4.9km2, 14 wards, 63 quarters, and a population of nearly 200,000 people. Many Central and Municipal agencies, 14 Consulates, 167 foreign representative offices, 21 offices of the non-governmental organizations, and the Saigon railway station are located in the District 3. Notably, the district is a centre of religions with 109 places of worship while a large number of the people who used to be members of the old regime are living in this area. Thus, it is at the forefront of the hostile forces’ sabotage plan. The political security and social order have many potential destabilizing factors while a number of crimes and social evils have complex developments in the area. Against that backdrop, the District Military Command (DMC) has cooperated with the district’s committees and sectors in giving advice to the district’s Party Committee and People’s Committee on measures to lead the performance of its military-defence work, with a focus on providing defence and security education for all objects, building a strong political-spiritual foundation, maintaining the political stability and social order, and facilitating the district’s comprehensive development.

Col. Tran Thanh Dung addressing a refresher course held in 2018

To make the work of defence and security education effective, the district has grasped higher echelons’ directives and resolutions on this work, particularly the 9^th Politburo’s Directive 12-CT/TW, the Defence and Security Education Law, and plans and guiding documents by the Municipal Defence and Security Education Council. Those documents have helped cadres, party members and the people, particularly key cadres at all levels fully understand the defence and security education work and heighten their responsibility during the process of implementation. Besides, the DMC has advised the district’s People’s Committee on consolidating the all-level Defence and Security Defence Education Councils both qualitatively and quantitatively, assigning the task to each member and maintaining the order for operations. As the Standing Agency of the district-level Council, the DMC has cooperated with committees and sectors in counselling the district’s People’s Committee to issue directives and plans on the work of defence and security education, while directly giving instructions on the implementation of this work. Due to the area’s particularities, the number of objects of defence and security education in the district is large and diverse. To fulfil the targets and improve the quality of education, the district has ordered the DMC to closely cooperate with offices, units, and wards in reviewing and grasping the number and groups of objects to formulate the plans as well as in soon informing offices and units of the quota of objects of defence and security education in order to facilitate cadres’ participation in the courses.

Grounded on the DMC’s counselling, the district has flexibly employed forms of education at each level while dispatching learners to attend training courses held by higher echelons and providing sufficient knowledge of defence and security for objects under the regulations. In addition to dispatching cadres of the group 3 to attend the training courses held by the City, the district has focused on providing defence and security knowledge for learners of the group 4. To that end, the DMC has cooperated with the district’s Public Security Office and Political Education Centre in selecting and training a contingent of teachers, assigning cadres with good teaching methodology to deliver specialized topics, renewing teaching method, and upgrading the facilities and equipment. Between 2011 and 2017, the district sent 158 cadres of the group 3 to attend the training courses held by the City, organized 75 training courses for 8,211 cadres of the group 4. Due to the large number of party members, the district has held training courses right at grass-roots units with its wards playing the core. A part from full-time training courses, the DMC has counselled the district’s People’s Committee to direct the inclusion of the content of defence and security education in the refresher and political education courses held by committees and sectors. Recently, the district’s Political Education Centre has included the content of defence and security education in its political education programs intended for 1,215 cadres and public servants.

A contest intended for the district’s armed forces in 2018

While providing defence and security education for its contingent of cadres and party members, the district has actively held defence and security education courses for monks, dignitaries, business owners, managerial cadres of enterprises. From 2011 to 2017, the district organized 8 training courses for 1,990 monks and dignitaries and 23 training courses for 3,660 managerial cadres of private enterprises, which was highly appreciated by the City. Those courses have helped raise the awareness and responsibility of monks, dignitaries, and business owners towards the Homeland protection cause. Those who experienced the courses have become enthusiastic communicators to persuade religious followers and workers to keep their faith in the Party’s leadership and the all-level authorities’ management, to promote the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and to create a sense of unity within the community, thereby contributing to maintaining political security and social order in the area.

Furthermore, due regard has been paid to providing defence and security education for students. In spite of its small area, there are 6 high schools, 2 vocational school and college, and 4 universities located in the district’s area with the total number of 72,150 students. To well carry out the work of defence and security education for students, the DMC has advised the district on prioritizing the recruitment and consolidation of the contingent of teachers of defence and security education at high schools as well as holding refresher courses to gradually standardize the quality of education and meet the task requirements. Adopting the measures synchronously, up to now, all schools in the district’s area have managed to build their contingent of teachers of defence and security education to provide knowledge of defence and security for all students under the regulations. At the same time, the district has actively cooperated with functional agencies in giving instructions on and inspecting the subject of defence and security education at the schools, thereby opportunely overcoming the weaknesses. To execute the guidelines on basically, comprehensively reforming education and training, the district has required schools to renew education format and method, closely combine defence and security education with revolutionary, Municipal, and local tradition education. To that end, the DMC has counselled the organization of extra-curriculum activities, such as visits to historical sites, defence and security contests, and “Military Semester”, etc. Between 2011 and 2017, the schools in the district’s area fulfiled the provision of defence and security education for 562,246 students, thus building up and consolidating the youth’s love for the hometown and the country, and their national pride, raising their revolutionary vigilance, making them actively take part in activities held by organizations and readily join the Military to protect the Homeland.

In addition to providing defence and security education for cadres at all levels, the district has focused on providing knowledge of defence and security for all people. To do so, great importance has been attached to encouraging the role of the group of teachers of defence and security education who wear two hats, the contingent of communicators, and the armed forces; to promoting the effectiveness of the District 3’s Newsletter to propagate the Party’s guidelines on defence and security and the local armed forces’ operations. Accordingly, it has contributed to providing information for all people, orientating their ideology, raising their awareness and vigilance against complex, sensitive issues as well as exposing the hostile forces’ plots, artifices, and wrongful viewpoints. Besides, the district has directed its offices and units to include the content of defence and security education in meetings of unions and socio-political organizations, religious ceremonies, and local and municipal political events. At the same time, it has stepped up the patriotic emulation movements to encourage the people to observe the Party’s guidelines, the State’s law and policy, and the City’s regulations as well as actively take part in performing the military-defence missions, maintaining security, and building safe, self-control quarters and residential clusters.

The obtained results in the work of defence and security education act as an important prerequisite for the District 3 to well fulfil the local defence and security work, build a firm posture of “people’s hearts and minds”, and maintain political security and social order in the area, thereby contributing to making the City increasingly prosperous, civilized, modern, and affectionate to deserve to be the city named after our beloved Uncle Ho.

Col. Tran Thanh Dung

Commander of the DMC

Deputy Head of the District’ Council for Defence and Security Education