In recent years, despite numerous challenges, especially the nontraditional ones such as natural disasters and epidemics, given their great efforts, the Party committee, authorities, people, and armed forces of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province have gained comprehensive achievements both in economy, culture, society, national defence, and security. People’s material, spiritual life has been improved. More importantly, party committees’, authorities’, and people’s awareness of the rights and duties to the cause of military building, defence consolidation, and protection of the Fatherland has witnessed positive changes, which serves to generate unity and high consensus about implementation of military, defence missions. Defence and security education has received special attention from the province, which aims to mobilise all resources and encourage all people to step up socio-economic development, strengthen national defence and security, and create a favourable environment for sustainable development. To gain these outcomes, given its role as the standing member of the Centre for Defence and Security Education, the Military Command has advised the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee to lead and direct enhanced implementation of this vital task.

First of all, the Provincial Military Party Committee and Command concentrate on advising the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee to strengthen leadership and direction in order to create unity and overall power to carry out defence and security education. On the basis of thoroughly grasping the Party’s guidelines, policies and law of the State, the Central Council of Defence and Security Education, and the 7th Military Region Council of Defence and Security Education, the Military Command advises the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee to promulgate resolutions and directives to lead this work and entrust the implementation of this work to departments, commissions, branches, districts, town, and city in accordance with characteristics and conditions of localities. It also recommends the Provincial People’s Committee to issue the decision on establishing the Centre for Defence and Security Education at the Ba Ria – Vung Tau College of Technology; to promulgate plans to equip the third- and fourth-category cadres with defence and security knowledge as stipulated by law; to instruct bodies and organisations to propagandise documents of the Party, State, and Government as well as the Law on Defence and Security Education; to conduct propagation on the occasion of important events of the country and localities, activities of the armed forces via mass media in a timely, close, proper manner, thereby raising awareness and responsibility of levels, industries, units, and localities for defence and security education. Besides, the Military Command recommends the Province to speed up inspection and quality evaluation to timely address shortcomings and weaknesses, ensuring that defence and security education is carried out seriously, comprehensively, and unanimously from the provincial to grassroots levels with increasingly high quality.

To turn defence and security education into a regular task, the Province attaches importance to leveraging the role of the Council for Defence and Security Education at all levels. Accordingly, together with regularly reviewing and strengthening the Council for Defence and Security Education at all levels to ensure sufficient quantity and right structure, the Province instructs the Councils to improve operational regulations, programs, and plans in order to facilitate members’ effective participation in activities. During implementation, the Province requests its localities to bring into full play collective intelligence of the Councils and standing bodies to advise party committees and authorities at their levels to lead and direct defence and security education in accordance with characteristics of each locality. It also directs strict implementation of regulations, delegation of inspection and examination of this crucial task according to unified plans, ensuring scientificness and suitability for missions of localities, thereby selecting and praising collectives and individuals with excellent performance in defence and security education; timely identifying weaknesses to overcome. Thanks to these measures, the Province’s defence and security education has witnessed new developments in both depth and width.

Given high requirements of this work and reality of the locality, the Military Command recommends the Province to adopt synchronous measures to reform and promote quality and effectiveness of defence and security education. Regarding key cadres of commissions, departments, and industries, the Provincial Military Command works with the Department of Home Affairs and the Provincial Organisation Commission to review and identify cadres under defence and security education to formulate close, suitable training plans. Apart from sending first- and second-category cadres to training courses held by the Central Party Committee and the Military Region, the Province assigns targets of training the third-category cadres to localities, departments, and units and give early notice to enable cadres to arrange for participation. As for the fourth-category learners, the Province directs localities to hold training courses in a close, scientific manner; collaborate with relevant bodies to organise defence and security education courses for religious dignitaries and ministers, ship owners, steersmen, businessmen, and so on. To make the education effective, together with selecting, training, and gradually standardising the corps of teachers and speakers, the Province directs active renewal of training contents and methodologies and combination of physical and virtual formats. Beside leveraging the effectiveness of focused training, it also mixes defence and security education with skill training of departments and branches as well as visits to economic-defence zones. As far as critical defence, security areas are concerned, the Province sends members of the Council to directly instruct and conduct defence and security education and propagation. These are the Province’s new ways of defence and security education, which contributes to increase learners’ awareness and responsibility to implementation of military, defence missions in localities.

As for pupils and students, the Province requests schools and colleges in the area to strictly execute programs about defence and security education. Prior to each new school year, schools and colleges work closely with military commands, units of the Public Security, and the Provincial Centre for Defence and Security Education to achieve consensus on training contents, programs, teaching materials, and lessons and run courses to update teachers with new knowledge and teaching methodologies. The Province also requests reform of teaching methodologies to suit each type of learners. Attention is paid to application of information technology, including digital lesson plans, projectors, simulation technology, etc., to enhance quality of lessons. On the basis of general programs, the Province directs education about revolutionary traditions and provision of updated information on sea and islands of the locality. During the education process, defence and security is mixed with some humanities and social sciences subjects, field trips, visits to historical relics, etc., in order to provide pupils and students with additional knowledge. The Provincial School of Politics has run 23 courses in defence and security education for 1,488 learners so far. 447 students have taken courses at the Provincial Centre for Defence and Security Education and got good grades. 100 per cent of high school pupils in the province were allowed to participate in defence and security education programs.

Popularisation of defence and security knowledge for entire people is a general matter, which plays a vital role in building defence, security potential. On clearly understanding this importance, the Provincial Military Command has collaborated with the Commission for Propagation and Education and Department of Information and Communications to direct the local news agency, newspapers, districts, and towns to have special columns about all-people national defence and people’s security in order to disseminate defence and security knowledge to all people, most notably fishermen. The propaganda contents focus on the mission to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation, especially citizens’ duty to protection of waters and islands of the country; nature, plots, and tricks of hostile forces; activities of the local armed forces; and revolutionary traditions of the locality. To make the propagation effective, apart from developing a corps of professional speakers and propagandists, the Province brings into play the role of the standing militia detachments and works closely with the 2nd Naval Zone, Border Guard, Fisheries Surveillance Force, etc., to propagandise sea, islands, fishing regulations, and sense of compliance with law in adjacent waters. In the first 9 months of 2022, the Provincial Military Command collaborated closely with the Provincial Radio and Television, Ba Ria – Vung Tau Newspaper, and radio stations of districts and towns to produce and broadcast the all-people defence program and the people’s security program, which aims to spread news of the provincial armed forces’ activities and propagandise documents of the Party and State. Thereby, people’s awareness of the mission to defend the Fatherland has been greatly enhanced. All people actively participate in preserving political security and social order right from the grassroots level; eagerly take part in protecting sovereignty over waters and islands.

Results and experience in defence and security education in recent years contribute to building of a robust all-people national defence and posture in association with the people’s security posture; firm maintenance of political security and social order in the locality, which facilitates rapid, sustainable socio-economic development in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province.

Colonel NGUYEN THANH TRUNG, Commisar of the Provincial Military Command