When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh ever said that “no matter how difficult it is, we must strive for good teaching and good learning.” Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings, Artillery Officer College’s Party Committee and Board have focused their leadership and direction on improving the quality of education and training to meet their task requirements.

Artillery Officer College, whose forerunner was Artillery Department under Tran Quoc Tuan Infantry School, was founded on February 18th, 1957. In the past 65 years of construction and development, the College’s generations of cadres, instructors, cadets, employees, and soldiers have always successfully fulfilled their assigned tasks. The College has always been the standard-bearer of the heroic Artillery Corps. With its tradition of “self-reliance, proactiveness, creativity, good teaching, good learning, good task performance,” over the past 65 years, the College has trained tens of thousands of commanding officers and political officers at tactical level and staff officers at artillery regiment and brigade levels. Graduates from the College have always shown their political zeal, pure morality, and great capability in managing and commanding troops; many of them have become generals and senior officers of the Military. With those remarkable achievements, the College has been given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces (2009), two Military Exploit Orders, eight Feat-of-Arms Orders, and many other noble rewards by the State and the Military. In order to satisfy the requirements set by military build-up, defence consolidation, the Homeland protection, education and training, and the building of an “exemplary, typical” School, the College’s Party Committee and Board have determined to continue raising the quality of education and training. Being fully aware that the College’s quality of training represents units’ combat readiness, they have synchronously implemented several basic measures as follows.

First, enhance the work of propagation to raise cadres, instructors, and cadets’ awareness and responsibility for the improved quality of education and training. This is a measure of paramount importance which has been seriously implemented by the College and its offices, faculties, and units so as to make a dramatic change in the quality of education and training. Emphasis has been placed on grasping Resolutions of the 13th National Party Congress and the 11th Military Party Congress on education and training, the Strategy for education and training development within the Military in the period of 2021-2030, with a vision towards 2045, Resolution of the Artillery Corps Party Organisation’s 14th Congress, and Resolution of the College Party Organisation’s 21st Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure. Grounded on those documents, all-level party committees and commands have identified contents, forms, and methods of propagation and education relevant to each group of troops. In the process, the College has required its offices, faculties, and units to render their cadres, instructors, and cadets fully aware of the importance of the raised quality of education and training. Doing so has enabled each person and organisation to affirm their determination and responsibility for this important work. All cadres, instructors, and cadets of the College have determined to overcome difficulties to successfully fulfil targets of education and training set by the Resolution of the College Party Organisation’s 21st Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure.

Improving the quality of English teaching and learning

Second, well conduct the work of recruiting and training instructors and improve their professional competence and teaching method. Instructors play a direct role in orientating and manipulating cadets’ process of acquiring knowledge and improving professional skills. Thus, grounded on Prime Minister’s Decision 89/QĐ-TTg, dated January, 18th, 2019 on approving the Project to “enhance lecturers and educational managers’ competence at universities to meet the requirements of fundamentally, comprehensively reforming education and training in the period of 2019 - 2030” and the Project to “build a contingent of teachers and educational managers within the Military to meet the requirements set by a fundamental, comprehensive reform in education and training in the period of 2020 - 2030,” the College has focused on standardising its pool of instructors and bettering the building of a contingent of high-calibre instructors and top experts. Importance has been attached to selecting and deploying cadres and instructors to academies and schools both inside and outside the Military for further education. Due regard has been paid to improving instructors’ political qualities, morality, professional competence, dedication to work, and especially teaching capacity under modern teaching methods. The College has proactively organised refresher courses on pedagogy and good instructor contests, stringently maintained regulations on rehearsal and approval for lesson plans in order to detect and overcome shortcomings in the teaching process. At the same time, it has effectively implemented the Campaign titled “each teacher sets a typical example in terms of morality, self-study, and creativity” to make contributions to excellently fulfilling the task of education and training in the new period and deserve the position of an important education and training centre of the Artillery Corps and the Military.

Third, further renew contents, programmes, and methods of teaching and learning to encourage learners’ proactiveness and creativity. Being imbued with President Ho Chi Minh’s viewpoints on the role of learners and grasping the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress on “continuing to synchronously renew goals, contents, programmes, forms, and methods of education and training in a modern way and according to the trend of international integration,” the College’s Party Committee and Board have advocated standardising and modernising contents and programmes of training to develop learners’ abilities. Emphasis has been placed on training cadets according to their initial positions, maintaining a link between levels of education, and ensuring the basics, uniformity, systematisation, and inclusiveness of basic and specialised subjects. In the process, the College has associated learning with practice, theory with practice, and study halls with training grounds. Based on programme outcome standards for each group of cadets, faculties of the College have clearly identified core contents and relevant contents of basic and specialised subjects in training programmes in a focalised manner. The College’s training division has cooperated with faculties in correctly assessing the quality of training as the basis for adjusting contents and programmes of training, reducing duration of theoretical subjects, increasing practice, and enabling learners to bring into play their abilities and improve their professional skills. The College has attached great value to passing on experience in training and combat to cadets, updating knowledge of new technical equipment, increasing practice on models and artillery, allowing cadets to practise holding command positions, and enhancing night-time and intense training. During exercises, many different pieces of artillery have been used to make training relevant to combat reality. At the same time, the College has increased internship from 6 weeks to 8 weeks for cadets.

Renewing teaching methods to promote cadets’ proactiveness and creativity is of importance to raising the quality of self-study and training. Therefore, the College has concentrated on teaching its cadets methods of self-study in order to develop their abilities. It has combined various methods of teaching and imposed demanding requirements on contents of teaching and learning to encourage cadets’ self-study and turn the training process into a self-training one.

Fourth, ensure modern facilities for education and training. This measure greatly affects the results of the College’s improved quality of education and training, especially amidst the 4th industrial revolution and the rapid development of military science and technology. Being fully aware of that, the College’s Party Committee and Board have focused their leadership and direction on sufficiently providing and modernising technical means for teaching and learning, creating a favourable condition for learners to acquire knowledge and improve their professional skills, and fostering cadets’ passion for self-study. The College has concentrated on upgrading its training grounds, information technology equipment, and facilities and ensuring synchronous, modern teaching and learning equipment to build a smart school and satisfy the requirements of a digital transformation in education and training. While facilitating its cadres and instructors’ employment of modern information technology equipment, the College has closely managed the use of the Internet and communication devices under regulations. Besides, it has stepped up the fight against hostile forces’ plots, artifices, and sabotage activities in cyberspace to defend the Party’s ideological foundation within the Military and create a pure, healthy pedagogical environment for enhancing the effectiveness of instructors’ teaching and cadets’ self-study.

The synchronous implementation of those above-mentioned measures has provided a solid foundation for the Artillery Officer College to continue raising the quality of education and training, building an “exemplary, typical,” regular school capable of deserving the tradition of “self-reliance, proactiveness, creativity, good teaching, good learning, good task performance,” and bolstering the heroic Artillery Corps’ tradition of “bronze feet, iron shoulders, good combat, accurate shooting.”

Sr. Col. BUI BAC BINH, Commissar of Artillery Officer College