Law propagation, dissemination, and education act as part of the work of political and ideological education aimed at raising troops’ awareness of the State’s law, the Military’s discipline, and units’ regulations; it is the first step of the law enforcement process and plays an important role in strengthening socialist legality and building a rule-of-law State of the people, by the people, and for the people. Being fully aware of that, over the years, Military Region 5’s Military School has unceasingly renewed law propagation, dissemination, and education for troops via synchronous, effective measures.

Enhancing all-level party committees’ leadership and all-level key cadres’ management serves as a determinant to the quality and effectiveness of law propagation, dissemination, and education. Therefore, the school has frequently focused on rendering all-level party committees and key cadres fully aware of the importance of law propagation, dissemination, and education to the building of “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units. Each party committee and key cadre have been required to develop action plans/programmes for law propagation, dissemination, and education in accordance with their units’ characteristics. On a monthly basis, all offices, faculties, and units have carried out assessments of law propagation, dissemination, and education and anticipated situations to opportunely supplement measures of leadership and direction over this work. Besides, they have regularly paid due attention to updating newly promulgated documents on law propagation, dissemination, and education and providing information about violations of law and discipline by troops within the Military Region and across the Military as well as weaknesses, experience, and creative, effective approaches in discipline management so as to opportunely draw lessons and work towards preventive and remedial measures. The school has always concentrated on consolidating its Coordinating Council for Law Dissemination and Education, maintaining the smooth, effective operation of the Council, and promoting the Council’s role in advising the School’s Party Committee and Board on selecting contents, forms, and methods of law dissemination and education for each group of troops. It has further developed, supplemented, and perfected regulations in order to increase the Council’s effectiveness and efficiency in this important work.

Moreover, the school has actively renewed contents, forms, and methods of law propagation, dissemination, and education to be relevant to each group of troops. Regarding a reform in contents of law propagation, dissemination, and education, in addition to compulsory law education programmes for cadets, the school has adhered to higher echelons’ orientations and proactively selected topics of law propagation and dissemination in a comprehensive, focalised manner, with a focus on equipping cadets with basic knowledge of the existing legal normative documents. Significance has been attached to clarifying weaknesses and shortcomings in troops’ observance of the State’s law, the Military’s discipline, and safety regulations during training as well as practical issues on troop management and command work performed by the Military Region and the school as the basis for raising troops’ law-abiding awareness.

A knowledge contest on law, discipline, and safety assurance

With reference to methods of law propagation, dissemination, and education, the school has closely combined law propagation and education under its plans with routine and topics-based law propagation, dissemination, and education. Great value has been attached to introducing specialised topics of law propagation and dissemination, updating new information, suggesting problems for discussion, and making lectures relevant to troops’ task requirements in order to arouse cadres, soldiers, and cadets’ sentiment, responsibility, and faith in the State’s law and the Military’s discipline. The school has also formulated weekly or monthly plans to deliver topics of law propagation and dissemination to each group of troops.

Concerning forms of law propagation, dissemination, and education, in addition to topics-based lectures, the school has flexibly employed forms of visual law propagation, dissemination, and education, such as forum, dialogue, and knowledge contest to convey law-related contents. It has included the contents of law education in political news briefings and Political and Cultural Day. At the same time, it has actively applied information technology to improving the quality and effectiveness of law propagation, dissemination, and education. Significance has been attached to promoting the role of cultural institutions, traditional education houses, law bookcases, electronic reading rooms, Ho Chi Minh halls, posters, and internal radio systems as an important information channel for disseminating the Party’s guidelines, the State’s laws, the Military’s discipline, and units’ regulations to cadres and soldiers, thereby making practical contributions to enhancing the effectiveness of law propagation, dissemination, and education within the school. Meanwhile, offices, faculties, and units of the school have adopted various measures aimed at encouraging and facilitating cadres and cadets’ improved knowledge of law. The school has closely combined law propagation, dissemination, and education with the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle and the Campaign entitled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’ soldiers” in the new period, while strictly, effectively maintaining Legal Study Day and models, such as “learning one article of law on a weekly basis” and “legal and psychological consultancy teams for soldiers” at all levels.

Bringing into play its pedagogical environment, the school has concentrated on raising the quality of its law instructors and rapporteurs as the core force in law propagation, dissemination, and education. As the school has no instructor specialising in law education, it has assigned a number of qualified, experienced instructors to be in charge of law education for its cadets. To guarantee the quality of law education, the school has strictly adhered to pedagogical procedures for each law lecture and regulations on approving lesson plans. It has required law rapporteurs selected from its offices, faculties, and units to improve their theoretical knowledge, teaching skills, and hands-on experience in grasping learners’ psychological and biological characteristics and take part in refresher courses to better their knowledge of law and their experience and skills in law propagation. In addition to training courses held by the Military Region and localities, the school has created a favourable condition for its law rapporteurs to sufficiently participate in law-related training courses, conferences on studying and introducing new legal normative documents, and Law Rapporteur Contests organised by the Military Region and localities. As a result, the school’s law rapporteurs have made comprehensive progress, mastered contents of law propagation, and adopted creative methods of communication to satisfy their task requirements.

To achieve the practical, solid outcome of the work of law propagation, dissemination, and education, the school has attached importance to combining this work with discipline management and military standard order building. Offices and units across the school have closely maintained daily, weekly regulations, particularly on command, office, combat, and combat readiness duty. Emphasis has been placed on closely managing troops and grasping and dealing with troops’ ideological developments, especially on days off and in rest hours. While developing and well implementing their work plans in a close, scientific manner, each office, faculty, and unit have effectively organised extracurricular activities so that troops could both comply with regulations on work and study and have time for rest and entertainment. The school has also well executed regulations on democracy at grass-roots level, stepped up emulation movements for good learning, good teaching, and good management, enhanced the military administrative reform as the basis for cadres, soldiers, and cadets’ self-improvement.

The school has promoted the role of organisations and forces to create synergy for law propagation, dissemination, and education. It can’t be denied that party committees, party organisations, commands, mass organisations, and Soldiers’ Councils play an important role in conveying contents of law propagation, dissemination, and education to troops. Thus, the school has required forces and organisations to proactively, opportunely give advice and propose measures to renew contents and methods of law propagation, dissemination, and education.

With its resolve and synchronous, effective measures, the school has achieved a positive change in law propagation, dissemination, and education over the years. More specifically, all offices, faculties, and units of the school have stringently maintained and complied with regulations on military standard order building; they have improved their troops’ military etiquette and fostered their staff members’ unity and determination to surmount difficulties and undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks under any circumstance. Meanwhile, each soldier’ knowledge of law has been considerably improved, and troops have become more proactive in supervising management and command work and made contributions to preventing and combating violations of law and discipline within their units. Consequently, the number of violations of the State’s law and the Military’s discipline within the school has been decreased, and the school has always been a typical example in safety assurance.

Those above-mentioned encouraging results have laid an important foundation for Military Region 5’s Military School to continue bettering the quality and effectiveness of law propagation, dissemination, and education and building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong school capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned missions.

Sr. Col. HUYNH VAN TRONG, Commissar of the school