Friday, June 14, 2019, 22:01 (GMT+7)
Logistic Academy implements “substantive teaching, substantive learning and substantive assessment”

Logistic Academy is the Military’s powerhouse of training and researching logistical science and finance. Over the past nearly 70 years, the Logistic Academy (hereinafter the Academy) has trained dozens of thousands of all-level logistic cadres and employees for the entire Military and thousands of logistic cadres for the Militaries of Laotian and Cambodian neighbouring countries, contributing greatly to the Party’s revolutionary cause. In recent years, in response to mission requirements of building the Military and safeguarding the Homeland in the new stage and fundamental and comprehensive reforms of national education and training under Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW by the Party Central Committee (11th tenure), the Academy’s Party Committee and Directing Board have concentrated their leadership and directions on “comprehensively reforming and substantially enhancing the quality and effectiveness of their training and education work and scientific research. Accordingly, the Academy carries out reforms in the phases of training process under the motto entitled “3 substantives” (substantive teaching, substantive learning and substantive assessment) as a decisive solution to its growth and development in the immediate and long term.

The Academy’s contingent of cadets reporting their achievements before President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum

To this end, the Academy has focused its leadership and directions on promoting the work of political and ideological education and making every cadre and cadet fully aware of substantive teaching, learning and evaluation. The Academy thoroughly grasps the Party, the Central Military Commission, and Ministry of National Defence’s resolutions and directives on the work of education and training as a basis for promulgating special leadership resolutions on designing strategies for education and training development in the 201 -2020 period; on fostering the quality of education and training in the 2013-2020 period and beyond”, etc. The focus of those resolutions is on making a breakthrough in the quality of education and training under the motto “3 substantives”. Accordingly, party committees and commandants of the Academy’s affiliates firmly perceive and concretize those resolutions into their corresponding solutions in line with their assigned function and tasks, regarding it as every collective and individual’s key political task of implementing Directive No. 05-CT/TW by the Politburo (12th tenure) on studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, ethics and lifestyle whilst stepping up the work of education and propagation to render cadres, lecturers, cadets, employees and soldiers fully conscious of the significance of substantive teaching, learning and assessment, thereby proactively precluding and combating negative practices in education and training work. With its synchronized solutions, the Academy has created high consensus and consistency in awareness and actions amongst the Academy’s cadres, lecturers, cadets and employees, thereby internalizing the “3 substantive” movement within the Academy, giving added impetus to push its process of education and training in the right direction.

According to the Academy’s concept, the purpose of substantive teaching is to teach what learners and military units need so that cadets acquire standardized knowledge and practical capabilities in sync with their field of specialization and realistic requirements. Accordingly, the Academy has directed its affiliates, especially training department and faculties to adjust training programmes to every speciality. Over the past time, the Academy has instructed its competent agencies and faculties to examine the quality of and training needs for every field of specialization, thereby quantifying fundamental knowledge that cadets need to acquire after graduation. In addition, when a subject is finished, a required amount of knowledge and skills of cadets are determined on the basis of the Ministry of Education and Training and Ministry of National Defence’s standardized programmes and training regulations, thereby enabling the Academy to make additional adjustments to training programmes in line with every object. To date, 5 out of 6 specialized training programmes for logistic officers at university level have been completed and highly lauded by the Ministry of National Defence. This is a prerequisite for the Academy to finish the remaining specialized training programmes in 2019 and design training programmes for other objects in the 2019-2020 academic year.

Rector and Political Commissar of the Academy attaching Uncle Ho’s Badge to the uniform of the graduates with distinction in 2018

Fully aware of the role of a contingent of lecturers, - the centerpiece of teaching activities and determinant to “substantive teaching”, the Academy has enacted reforms in the enhancement of the quality and capability of a contingent of lecturers and cadres in charge of research work and educational leadership whilst proactively building the personnel planning for a quantitative and qualitative contingent of lecturers in accord with the State’s criteria and the Ministry of National Defence’s regulations. Over the past years, the Academy has diversified its training forms through short-medium-long-term military and non-military training programmes; adopted preferential polices for a pool of teachers, especially those with scientific titles and noble designations whilst encouraging cadres and lecturers to study and research independently; regularly offering refresher courses; and posting its personnel to grassroots-level units in the short and long run. Up to now, a contingent of cadres in charge of training work have been standardized in conformity with the Ministry of Education and Training’s regulations in which all lecturers hold university degrees, including 81.2% having postgraduate degrees and 18.3% possessing doctoral degrees.

As regards “substantive teaching, the Academy actively reforms “positive” teaching methods via learner-centred approach while directing its affiliates to promote the application of information technology and simulations to teaching activities. In particular, the Academy has take various measures to enhance the quality of practical training, as evidenced by the inclusion of river-crossing and long-distance march contents and building of logistical constructions into end-of-term drills. In addition to standardized training programmes, the Academy also conducts intense training activities such as field trips on days off school and training on weekly Technical Days, etc.

Substantive learning requires the promotion of learners’ sense of proactiveness to the maximum in a purposeful manner through accumulating knowledge and experiences and acquiring hands-on skills so that they are capable of fulfilling their duties after graduation. In this regard, the Academy attaches great importance to innovating cadets’ learning methods via the combination of in-class knowledge acquisition and independent research; promoting seminars and hands-on training, thereby fostering learners’ thinking capabilities and allowing them to put their knowledge to good use. For the sake of high efficiency, the Academy pays special attention to guaranteeing training facilities and equipment with an emphasis on upgrading and standardizing a system of textbooks and documents in line with every field of specialization in practice; and on upgrading teaching facilities in sync with the State and the Military’s standardized regulations and the peculiarities of military logistic and financial training whilst modernizing and effectively exploiting specialized classrooms, training grounds, and software. Regarding informatics and foreign language classrooms, the Academy upgrades and installs support software for self-study, and allows cadres, lecturers, and cadets to do extra research on days off school and work. Great weight is attached to furnishing cadet management units with specialized classrooms and digitalizing training documents and historical data to meet searching and researching purposes from learners, contributing to bolstering the quality of the Academy’s teaching and learning.

In order to assess learners’ capabilities in a substantive and objective manner, the Academy promotes the work of inspection and supervision over training stages whilst actively reforming testing procedures and methods with an emphasis on enhancing testing quality and diversifying testing forms in line with every subject and object. In the process, the Academy requires its relevant agencies and faculties to strictly set the tests and question banks in an effort to evaluate learners’ abilities to put their knowledge to good use in a substantive fashion. The Sub-Department for examining and guaranteeing education and training quality stringently selects, administers, and grades tests by means of computer software. At the same time, the Academy strengthens the application of information technology through setting up camera systems connecting classrooms and testing rooms with the Centre for commanding and controlling training work to supervise and manage testing and grading processes; and step-by-step applies computer-based multiple-choice examinations.

The Academy’s policy on “substantive teaching, substantive learning, and substantive assessment” closely sticks to the Party’s viewpoint on combining education and training development with socioeconomic development needs and Homeland construction and protection. These initial results will be a prerequisite for the Academy to continue to ceaselessly enhance its educational and training quality, meeting the requirements for building the Military in the new situation.

Maj. Gen., Prof. Pham Duc Dzung, PhD

Rector of the Academy  

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