Over the years, the Military School of the Hanoi Capital Command has been assigned to equip cadres from the Capital City’s departments, committees, sectors, districts, and towns and from offices of central committees, sectors, and ministries within the area (categorised as 2^nd and 3^rd groups) with knowledge of defence and security as well as to provide defence and security education for students from universities and colleges under Joint Circular 123/2015/TT-BQP-BGDĐT-BLĐTBXH by the Ministry of National Defence (MND), the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), and the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids, and Social Affairs. This is a great honour and mission for the School as defence and security education has new developments and requirements, together with a sharp increase in the number of learners. Meanwhile, the organisational structure of the School’s Defence and Security Education Centre has yet to be completed; there is a lack of cadres and teachers; sometimes they have to perform education and training tasks and take charge of defence and security education simultaneously; the School’s facilities are still poor. Against such a backdrop, the School’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have taken various measures to surmount difficulties and well perform this work. Since 2019, the School has equipped 456 cadres from the 2^nd group and 8,686 cadres from the 3^rd group with knowledge of defence and security, while providing defence and security education for 60,000 students, greatly contributing to defence and security work of the Capital City, ministries, and sectors. In the process, the School has drawn several lessons and continued to apply them as solutions to unceasingly renew and improve its defence and security education work.

Shooting training course for students of University of Science and Technology of Hanoi

First of all, the School has enhanced all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction, encouraging the core role of its Defence and Security Education Centre in this important work. Grasping and executing resolutions and directives by the Party and the Government as well as circulars and guiding documents by the MND on defence and security education, particularly the Municipal Defence and Security Education Council’s plans and guiding documents, on a yearly basis, the School’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have issued resolutions and developed a system of plans and guiding documents with targets, goals, requirements, and measures of education relevant to realities. Based on those documents, the School has consolidated the organisational structure of its Defence and Security Education Centre, while assigning specific tasks to offices, departments, and units. At the same time, it has proactively coordinated with competent agencies of the Hanoi Capital Command, districts, and its partner schools to grasp the number of learners as the basis for designing and submitting plans of education to the Hanoi Capital Command for approval.

Notably, to deal with an increase in the number of learners, the School has proactively sought permission from the Municipal Defence and Security Education Council to flexibly organise defence and security education courses for cadres from the 2^nd and 3^rd groups, allowing those cadres to study within its campus and their own agencies, districts, and towns. Besides, it has designed training programs in accordance with each group of learners, assigned head teachers to classes, and established cadre teams to manage learners and elaborately prepare facilities and accommodation for learners. Doing so has laid an important foundation for the School to carry out its plans of defence and security education with good quality and great effectiveness. 

Furthermore, the School has attached importance to developing a contingent of cadres and teachers with sufficient quantity and standardised quality, while properly assigning teaching staff to each group of learners. Under Decision 593/QĐ-BQP, dated 2 March 2022, by Minister of National Defence on “reorganising and promulgating the structure of the Military School of the Hanoi Capital Command”, the School has reviewed and strengthened the structures of its offices, units, and departments in line with the Project on “building a pool of teachers and education managers within the Military for the period of 2023 - 2030”. Emphasis has been placed on making plans to recruit, train, and retrain cadres and teachers of defence and security education with proper age range, good educational background, and practical teaching experience. The School has focused on building a specialised force for teaching cadres from the 2^nd and 3^rd groups; this force is comprised of members of the School Board of Directors, heads of offices and departments, and cadres having great professional competence and teaching qualifications. Besides, it has invited cadres and lecturers from National Defence, Political, Border Guard, and Public Security Academies and offices of the Coast Guard Command and the Hanoi Municipal Public Security to deliver key, specialised topics. It has also actively coordinated with offices and units of the Hanoi Capital Command to give advice to the Hanoi Capital Command on selecting and recruiting cadres and teachers of defence and security education for students, thereby successfully settling an increase in the number of students.

Infantry tactical training for students

For the sake of a standardised pool of cadres and teachers, while selecting cadres and teachers for postgraduate education at academies and universities both inside and outside the Military, the School has actively dispatched its cadres and teachers to refresher courses organised by the MOET’s Defence Education Department and the Hanoi Capital Command. It has intensified the organisation of refresher courses for its staff, encouraged self-study among its cadres and teachers, and maintained good cadre and teacher contests at all levels. Besides, it has proactively recommended the Hanoi Capital Command to deploy its cadres and teachers to hold positions at localities and units and visit defensive zone exercises to acquire more knowledge and experience. As a result, all teachers of the School have held bachelor’s degree, with 20% of them having master’s degree and 5% experiencing commanding positions at regimental level and above. Cadres and teachers of the School have been able to deliver all specialised topics to learners from the 3^rd group, well perform the task of student management, and provide defence and security education for students.

In response to new requirements of defence and security education, the School has stepped up a reform in its curricula and teaching - learning methods relevant to each group of learners. Adhering to the curricula set by the MND and the MOET, the School has reviewed and adjusted its training projects in accordance with each group of learners and the Capital City’s defence - security tasks. At the same time, it has actively updated itself on new points of the Party’s military - defence guidelines as well as goals, tasks, and measures of defence - security work set by the Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal People’s Committee, districts, and towns, while integrating all those new points into specialised topics and lectures properly.

There is a fact that the School has a large number of learners of defence and security education from various groups; cadres from the 2^nd and 3^rd groups are working in different domains. Therefore, the School has directed its departments and Centre to actively renew teaching methods in accordance with each group of learners, closely combine traditional and modern teaching methods, and apply the learner-centred approach to encourage learners’ creativity and independence. It has required its teaching staff to apply information technology and flexibly adopt various methods, such as interpretation, discussion, and visual aid to enable learners to acquire knowledge overall and align theory with practice. As for cadres from the 2^nd and 3^rd groups, it has adopted group discussions, organising debates between teachers and learners according to specialised topics, learners’ working positions, and teachers’ orientations, thereby allowing learners to strengthen their theoretical knowledge and make a comparison between theory and practice, enabling teachers to improve their practical knowledge, and fostering a connection between the School and offices and units.

With the goal of maintaining and raising the quality of defence and security education for students, the School has paid due regard to investing in facilities, acquiring teaching - learning equipment, building a healthy military pedagogical cultural environment, and creating a favourable condition for students’ study and self-improvement. It has continued to tap resources to upgrade its facilities and training equipment and ensure barracks for teaching, learning, and learners’ daily activities. In the long term, the School will continue to review, complete, and submit the Project on “building and developing the Defence and Security Education Centre of the Hanoi Capital Command’s Military School in the period of 2024 - 2030, with a vision towards 2045” for approval, so as to modernise its facilities and satisfy its task requirements. In this regard, it will concentrate its investments on modern, synchronous, standardised teaching equipment and models. Moreover, it will continue to organise learners into companies, platoons, and squads, while maintaining the military environment in order to enable its learners to better understand the particularities of military activities. It will promote coordination with competent offices of the Hanoi Capital Command, its partner schools, units within the area, and local authorities to exchange information, share experience, and organise extra-curricular activities, with a view to raising the quality of defence and security education for cadres and students, meeting the requirements of Fatherland protection in the new situation.

Sr. Col. DO HONG THAI

Rector of the School