Together with socio-economic development, the District Party Committee and People’s Committee of Kien Xuong (Thai Binh province) have always focused their leadership and direction on performing the military-defence work and especially improving the quality of defence and security education via proper measures. As a result, the awareness and responsibility of the district’s citizens for the military-defence task and the Homeland protection have been raised, the district’s economic development has been stabilised, the people’s life has been considerably improved, political security and social order and safety have been maintained, and defence and security have been consolidated.

To gain those achievements, first of all, the district has enhanced its leadership and direction over defence and security education practically. Grasping and executing the 10th Politburo’s Directive 12-CT/TW, dated May 3rd, 2007 on “strengthening the Party’s leadership over defence and security education in the new situation,” the Law on Defence and Security Education, and higher echelons’ plans and guiding documents, the district has directed the District Military Command (DMC) as the Standing Agency of the District Defence and Security Education Council to issue the system of documents for the implementation process. Great value has been attached to raising the quality of defence and security education courses, renewing the method of equipping citizens with knowledge of defence and security, and resolutely fighting against the sign of formalism. Due attention has been paid to consolidating all-level defence and security education councils both qualitatively and quantitatively, reviewing, supplementing, and perfecting those councils’ operational regulations in accordance with their task requirements, promoting the responsibility of each council member, and raising the effectiveness of their operation.

A defence and security education course

Additionally, the district has focused on raising the quality of defence and security education for each group of learners. To that end, the district has directed the DMC to cooperate with committees, sectors, and localities in reviewing and grasping the number of learners and developing training plans in a proper, highly feasible fashion. While deploying cadres of the 2nd and 3rd groups to training courses held by higher echelons, the district has actively organised defence and security education courses on the spot, with importance attached to selecting learners with similar educational background or professions to set up classes. The district has also provided defence and security education for managers, team leaders, and assembly heads from all enterprises so that knowledge of defence and security would be spread amongst all citizens. Since 2015, the district has directly held defence and security education courses for over 1,500 key cadres, while its communes and townships have organised more than 180 courses for nearly 12,000 commune-level cadres, heads of village-level organisations, and party members. Those figures express the entire political system’s determination and a consensus amongst businesses and forces within the district to raise public awareness of defence and security, increase the people’s revolutionary vigilance, and build a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” right at grass-roots level.

Besides, the district has directed its Defence and Security Education Council to collaborate with competent offices in adjusting and supplementing the contents, forms, and methods of defence and security education for each group of learners. Consideration has been given to frequently updating new theoretical and practical issues, such as combination of economic development and defence-security consolidation in the new situation, ethnicity, religion, democracy, and human rights as well as socio-economic development and defence-security consolidation of the province and the district. Significance has been attached to inviting top experts in various fields to deliver specialised topics and provide information about the political, economic, defence, security situation in the province, the country, the region, and the world, and organising trips for learners to district-level defensive zone exercises and commune-level defensive combat drills. Doing so has enabled learners to improve their theoretical and practical knowledge and grasp the operation of the defensive zone mechanism in localities’ military-defence activities as a solid foundation for raising the quality of the military-defence work at grass-roots level.

To effectively provide defence and security education for students, the DMC has closely cooperated with the District Division of Education and Training in formulating training plans and directing schools to comply with defence and security education programmes. Coordination has been maintained to organise refresher courses for teachers of defence and security education in order to improve their knowledge and teaching method. At the same time, due attention has been paid to proactively selecting and dispatching relevant teachers to defence and security education courses held by the district. Also, the district has directed the DMC to adhere to higher echelons’ plans and assist high schools in participating in military-defence contests, thereby making contributions to encouraging students’ learning spirit and opportunely drawing lessons on this subject. Moreover, the district has required schools to organise visits to historical sites and talk shows about tradition, typical examples, and historical figures from the district and the province with outstanding achievements in the Homeland construction and protection, such as Nguyen Thi Chien - the first heroine of the Vietnam People’s Armed Force, and Lieutenant General Pham Tuan - the first Vietnamese and Asian astronaut in order to promote the pride and local tradition amongst students. As a result, in the past 5 years, nearly 26,000 students within the district have been equipped with necessary military knowledge and skills. Defence and security education has helped build up students’ love for the country and hometown as well as a sense of discipline and unity amongst them, while encouraging them to readily fulfil military service for the Homeland protection and actively take part in the district’s military-defence activities.

Great importance has been attached to disseminating the knowledge of defence and security to all people via practical measures. The district has directed the Standing Agency of the District Defence and Security Education Council to cooperate with the District Propaganda and Education Commission and the District Culture Division to widely and deeply disseminate the knowledge of defence and security to all citizens via various forms in accordance with each locality and residential area. Moreover, the district has included the dissemination of defence and security knowledge in national and local events and festivals as well as propagation sessions relating to seas and islands by the Navy, the Vietnam Coast Guard, and the Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance. Emphasis has been placed on propagating the Party’s guidelines, the State’s law and policy, and directives and plans by the province and the district, clarifying the rights and obligations of collectives, households, and individuals for the military-defence work, the movement of all people’s participation in protection national security, and military service, and opportunely commending typical examples. At the same time, due attention has been paid to unmasking the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and criticising negative practices within the society. On a yearly basis, thousands of articles, pieces of news, directives, and plans on defence and security have been released via the District Radio Station and the commune-level internal radio system. 

The work of defence and security education is aimed at raising all cadres and citizens’ awareness of the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy on defence and security. In the upcoming time, the district of Kien Xuong will bring into play the recorded results and seek for new, effective approaches to better perform the work of defence and security education and make significant contributions to developing all types of potential and building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds.”

VU NGOC TRI, Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Board

Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the District People’s Council