Over its past 70 years of construction and development (October 25^th, 1951 - October 25^th, 2021), under the leadership of the Party, directly the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence, the Political Academy (PA) has always creatively, successfully completed all the assigned tasks. Implementing the 13th National Party Congress Resolution, the PA’s Party Committee and Board have focused their leadership and direction on raising the quality of education and training on par with the task requirements.

Over the past 70 years, the PA has trained not only tens of thousands of political cadres, political commissars, lecturers, and researchers in military social sciences and humanities at tertiary and higher levels, but also thousands of political cadres and officers of the Lao People’s Army and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Generations of political cadres and political commissars graduating from the PA have always demonstrated their bravery, wisdom, and capacity to carry out the party and political work. Many of them have become high-ranking cadres of the Party and State, commanders, Heroes of the People’s Armed Forces, lecturers, and scientists with great prestige both inside and outside the Military.

The trend of education and training of the country, the task of building the Military, the impacts of the 4^th Industrial Revolution, and the building of smart military schools have imposed more demanding requirements on the Military’s education and training. Moreover, the education and training task continues to have new developments regarding scale, subjects, and methods; thereby, comprehensive solutions to enhance the quality of education and training should be adopted.

State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc presenting the PA with the First-Class Military Exploit Order

To “create a breakthrough in fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training, develop high-quality human resources, attract and properly use talents”, “lead and direct comprehensive innovation centred on education and training”, “build a contingent of lecturers, continue renovating training programmes and methods for the improvement in the teaching quality”, the PA’s Party Committee and Board have synchronously executed solutions as follows.

First, raise the awareness of pedagogical staff about the position, role, importance, and necessity of continuing promoting renovation and improving the quality of education and training. This solution plays a crucial role in creating a unity of will and action in the whole PA and increasing motivation and responsibility of staff members in their task performance. Focuses of this solution have been placed on making them thoroughly grasp the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints on education and training in the spirit of the 13^th National Party Congress Resolution, the 11^th Military Party Congress Resolution, and the 16^th PA’s Party Congress Resolution (2020 - 2025 term). Attention has been paid to continuing strictly implementing the Resolution No. 35/NQ-ĐU by the PA’s Party Committee on “Building a contingent of cadres at the PA in the period of 2019 - 2030 and solutions to accomplish the education and training task in the period of 2021 - 2030”. At the same time, the synergy of organisations and forces has been promoted to successfully achieve the breakthrough in “standardising a contingent of lecturers at the Academy" as required.

Second, bring into play the role and responsibility of all-level party committees and commanders for carrying out renovations and raising the quality of education and training. Grasping the viewpoints of the 13^th National Party Congress on “synchronously introducing institutions and policies to effectively realise the guidelines on education and training”, grounded on the resolutions of the Central Military Commission and the directives of the Ministry of National Defence, the PA’s Party Committee has always set out feasible solutions in its leadership resolutions to promote renovations and raise the quality of education and training. Due regard has been paid to intensifying the work of inspection and supervision to settle difficulties and opportunely supplementing leadership measures to ceaselessly increase the quality and effectiveness of steps, stages and assurance work. Based on the tasks, all-level party committees and commanders have introduced proper measures with the suitability for each group of troops and completely redressed shortcomings.

Third, continue comprehensively and synchronously renovating training programmes and methods to improve the teaching quality. In order to well implement the viewpoints of the 13^th National Party Congress on “synchronously renewing the objectives, programmes, contents, and methods of education and training towards modernity, international integration, and comprehensive human development”, the PA has regularly updated, supplemented, perfected, standardised, and modernised its training programmes, while eliminating the overlapping contents amongst training levels. The PA has also developed, completed, and updated the digital database on the Intranet. Based on defining the outcome standards of each group of cadets, every faculty and department has clearly identified the main and relevant contents of the fundamental and specialised knowledge with appropriate duration. The PA has continued extensively adopting the learner-centred approach in order to bring into full play cadets’ qualities and capacities. Significance has been attached to making learners develop both general and specialised competencies with the best and fastest adaptability, creating a democratic atmosphere, and requiring cadets to apply their knowledge and experience to handling situations in their study and work.

Fourth, build a contingent of cadres, especially lecturers and researchers to meet the requirements of tasks. Thoroughly grasping the viewpoints of the 13^th National Party Congress on “building a contingent of lecturers and educational administrators as the key point”, the PA has attached great importance to raising the quality of lecturers and educational administrators. In parallel with that, the PA has stringently abided by the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 89/QĐ-TTg dated January 18^th, 2019 on the approval of  the Project to “improve the capacity of lecturers and education administrators at higher education institutions to meet the requirements set by a fundamental and comprehensive reform in education and training in the period of 2019 - 2030” and the Central Military Commission’s Resolution No. 109-NQ/QUTW dated February 11^th, 2019 on building a contingent of military cadres, especially at strategic and operational levels in the new situation in order to develop comprehensive, long-term solutions. Great weight has been added to developing a contingent of educational administrators and lecturers with sufficient quantity, reasonable structure, and high quality. Priority has been given to building a pool of leading experts and lecturers with academic degrees and scientific titles. Moreover, the PA has continued effectively implementing the Project on “consolidating and developing a contingent of lecturers and educational administrators in the 2018 - 2025 period  and beyond”, the Project on “the teaching of foreign languages ​​in the Military in the 2015 - 2020 period and beyond”, the Directive No. 89/CT-BQP dated November 9^th, 2016 by the Minister of National Defence on a number of urgent tasks to improve the quality of foreign language teaching and learning across military schools in a practical and effective manner. By 2025, over 70% of lecturers and educational administrators shall hold postgraduate qualifications. In particular, 80% - 85% of lecturers and researchers shall finish postgraduate courses. The above-mentioned solutions have facilitated the successful building of a contingent of cadres and lecturers with great prestige, high quality, and innovative thinking, meeting the PA’s development requirements in the medium and long term.

Fifth, ensure modern facilities to serve the task of education and training in the new conditions. This solution positively affects the results of promoting renovations for the improvement in the quality of education and training in the coming years, especially in the context of the 4^th Industrial Revolution and strong development of military science and technology. Grasping the viewpoints of the 13^th National Party Congress on “building a healthy educational environment, resolutely eliminating credit mania, and stringently dealing with negative practices in education and training”, the PA has always actively and proactively invested in upgrading information technology infrastructure and teaching and learning equipment towards the model of a smart school to satisfy requirements set by a digital transformation in education and training. Furthermore, the PA has created favourable conditions for cadres and lecturers to use modern information technology equipment in accordance with regulations. Besides, the PA has strictly managed the use of Internet and transceiver and transmission equipment according to regulations. Consideration has been given to heightening the quality of the fight against the hostile forces’ plots and artifices in cyberspace to protect the ideological foundation of the Party within the Military and create a pure and healthy pedagogical environment.

Synchronously implementing the afore-mentioned solutions will provide a solid foundation for the PA to constantly raise the quality of education and training, deserve to be one of the leading training and research centres of our Military and country, and make great contributions to well fulfilling the tasks and promoting the tradition of “steadfastness and development, unity and discipline, proactively, creatively overcoming difficulties, accomplishing all tasks”.

Lt. Gen, Associate Prof., Dr NGUYEN VAN BAO, Commandant of the Political Academy