Nghia Lo is a mountainous town to the West of Yen Bai Province and home to 21 ethnic minorities, in which the Thai ethnic minority is the largest group, accounting for 51.95 percent of the population. Grasping and realising the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress of the town for the 2020 – 2025 period on basically meeting criteria for a category-3 town by 2025 and developing Nghia Lo into a town of culture and tourism, over the past few years, besides attaching importance to socio-economic development, the Town Party Committee and People’s Committee have adopted many measures to strengthen national defence and security in a drastic, synchronous, and effective manner. On the basis of specific situations in the area, the town always pays attention to increased quality of defence and security education and regards this as one of the most vital solutions to creation of high consensus in the entire Party Committee, authority, armed forces, and people, which contributes to firm maintenance of political security, social order and safety, establishment of a strong “posture of people’s hearts and minds” and creates favourable conditions for rapid, sustainable development of local economy, society, and tourism.
Every year, on the basis of grasping and implementing the Law on Defence and Security Education; the Degree No. 139/2020/ND-CP, dated 27 November 2020, of the Government amending and supplementing some articles of the Decree No. 13/2014/ND-CP, detailing and providing measures for implementing the Law on Defence and Security Education, plans and instructions of the 2nd Military Region Council of Defence and Security Education, and the Province of Yen Bai, the town takes initiative in formulating plans, promulgating a system of legal documents, and directing Councils of Defence and Security Education at all levels to materialise them into programmes of action conducive to practical conditions of localities. Accordingly, the town focuses on measures to enhance quality of defence and security education for different types of learners; reforms methods and ways of propagation and dissemination of defence and security knowledge; speeds up inspecting the implementation in departments and units. To enhance effectiveness, the town pays attention to strengthening of Councils of Defence and Security Education at all levels to ensure adequate staffing, right structure as provided in the Law, increased quality; reviews and perfects regulations and maintains regular supervision, especially if there is a change in personnel and rotation of cadres. Councils of Defence and Security Education at all levels of the town have been strengthened so far, ensuring right composition, and successfully brought into play their role in advising, coordinating, and managing effective defence and security education at the local level.
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| A defence and security course for tier-4 cadres held in 2021 |
Moreover, the town actively innovates and improves quality of defence and security education to suit each type of learners and local features. Nghia Lo is a mountainous town, characterised by an extensive area, difficult terrain, and a large number of learners with various background and levels of ability, thus exerting an enormous influence on the quality of defence and security education in the area. The town attaches importance to review to get information on the number of learners and classify them before working out feasible training plans in the face of this situation. Accordingly, the town requests its Military Command to collaborate with departments, agencies, and localities to carefully review each learner, estimate the number of participants and time of opening classes, make a list, and send notices to localities, departments, and individuals early to facilitate candidates’ preparation every year. Apart from sending tier-2 and tier-3 cadres to classes according to assigned targets, the town actively opens on-site classes; selects candidates with the same level of ability and professions to open classes; broadens the scope of education to include management cadres in enterprises and non-business unit, village chiefs, prestigious people in areas inhabited by the ethnic minorities, religious dignitaries and ministers, and so on. The town attaches importance to selection and development of a corps of teachers and speakers with s high level of competence, ability, and enthusiasm; directs innovation of training contents and forms. In recent years, besides core subjects as requested, the town has directed supplementation of extra subjects close to socio-economic, defence, security tasks and situations in the area; update teaching programmes with military, defence missions, ethnic and religious issues; align economic development with preservation of fine cultural traditions. Additionally, the town includes dissemination of defence and security knowledge in annual professional training of departments and branches; organises visits to defensive zone exercises. Through active and synchronous solutions, the town has equipped 89 tier-2 and tier-3 cadres, 769 tier-4 learners, and 46 village chiefs, religious dignitaries and ministers with defence and security knowledge since 2020, thereby raising awareness, level of ability, and leadership capability of local party committees and authorities as well as advisory capacity of departments, branches, and unions regarding defence and security aspect.
Apart from well carrying defence and security education for the above-mentioned learners, the town attaches special importance to defence and security education for pupils. On closely following instructions of higher echelons, the town requests its Military Command to collaborate with the Education and Training Department, high schools, and Nghia Lo Boarding College to strictly comply with regulations, improve quality of defence and security education, strengthen staffing, invest in teaching aids, and so forth. In addition to compulsory contents, the town requests schools to actively reform teaching methods in the direction of enriching pupils’ experience. Over the past few years, Nghia Lo High School, Nguyen Trai High School, and the Western Boarding School have conducted many extracurricular activities, talks, and exchanges in specific themes, including “Following historical footprints”, “Forever bright the image of Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”, “Being proud of Dien Bien Phu victory; competitions to test knowledge of traffic safety”, “Prevention and combat social evils at schools”, and so forth. A new development in recent years is the signing of the “military term” between the Provincial Youth Union and the Provincial Military Command to encourage members of the Youth Union to participate in military training programmes specifically designed for school boys and girls. One of the reforms conducted by the Town Educational Branch is the inclusion of local history in teaching history and citizenship education, visits to historical places, and other activities such as conduct of admission ceremonies for new members of the Youth Union and Children’s Union and candle lighting ceremonies at the national historical, cultural relics of Cang and Nghia Lo Fortress, Area in Memory of President Ho Chi Minh, thereby educating young generation about revolutionary tradition, national pride, sense of responsibility and self-discipline, goals and ideals of the youth.
Given high requirements of national construction and defence, especially building of “posture of people’s hearts and minds” and all-people national defence posture in association with the posture of people’s security, the town attaches importance to dissemination of defence and security knowledge for entire people with the aim of turning policies of the Party and State into every citizen’s consciousness and actions. Every year, the town directs the Council of Defence and Security Education to work with the Town Party Committee’s Commission for Propagation and Education, Centre of Culture and Sport, and relevant agencies to formulate plans, select contents, and conduct intensive, extensive propagation in the entire people by copious means conducive to local characteristics. On leveraging advantages of building the town into a town of culture and tourism, a point of convergence for 21 ethnic minorities, the Councils of Defence and Security Education at all levels flexibly adopt contents, forms, and methods of education to suit local people’s cultural traditions; bring into play the role of village chiefs and prestigious people in communities in propagandising and mobilising ethnic people. Direct propagation is to be promoted on the occasion of ceremonies, traditional days, enlistment days, and defensive-zone exercises. Propagation is also included in meetings of communities, activities of Committee of the Fatherland Front, unions, and cultural activities. Good defence and security education has brought about positive transformations in people’s awareness of national defence and security work, which serves to garner people’s support for carrying out military, defence, and security projects in the area. Every year, the town meets all of its enlistment target in terms of quantity and quality. One hundred percent of the members of the standing force, the militia and self-defence force, and the reserve are graded as competent in training, in which 75 percent are graded as fairly good and good. All search and rescue exercises, defensive-zone exercises, etc., are graded fairly good and good. Political security, social order and safety are firmly maintained and stable. The town of Nghia Lo was assessed as the prime example of defence and security work in general, defence and security education in particular in 2021 by the Military Region Council of Defence and Security.
To bring into play achievements in the coming time requests the town of Nghia Lo to further strengthen leadership of defence and security education; actively multiply effective models; further increase quality of defence and security education as well as the entire people’s responsibility to military, defence missions, firm maintenance of political security, social order and safety, creation of an environment conducive to economic, cultural, social development; and resolve to make the town of Nghia Lo increasingly wealthy, beautiful, and civilised.
DO THI THANH NGA, Deputy Secretary of the Town Party Committee, Chairman of the Town People’s Council