Currently, performing assigned functions and tasks, the School is responsible for training over 20 types of students in the context of many difficulties, such as: diverse types and subjects of training; increasingly demanding requirements; innovation in training practices and combat readiness at the unit;  limited facilities; soldiers’ “unenthusiasm” towards noncommissioned-officer training; insufficient teaching staff; some cadres and teachers’ desire to return to the grassroots units for promotion; complicated developments of weather and epidemics, etc. The School Party Committee and Board have comprehensively implemented all aspects of work, particularly breakthrough solutions, to create a fundamental and solid change in the quality of education, training, and scientific research and the association between the School and units to meet the requirements and tasks in the new situation. Accordingly, the School's education and training work has been comprehensively innovated in terms of leadership, direction, management, and administration of training and teaching and learning programs, contents, and methods and associated building a comprehensively strong, “exemplary and typical” unit with building a healthy, formal, and disciplined pedagogical cultural environment, and green, clean, and scenic landscape to creating conditions for the good performance of tasks. Meanwhile, the quality of training has been significantly improved. The summary of the implementation of the Strategy for Education and Training Development in the Army in the 2011 - 2020 period shows that the School has successfully and excellently completed the contents and targets. In recent training courses, the graduation good and excellent rates have always been over 80%. The graduates have strong political bravery and good professional capacity to quickly take their jobs and and complete their duties. Regarding the results in the first 6 months of 2022, among nearly 6 thousand graduates, there were 100% of the students meeting the requirements or more, of which 96.30% were good and excellent (up 1.2% over the same period in 2021). Scientific research and improvement of learning instruments and models have been promoted with multiple initiatives put into effective use in the School's training.  However, facing the increasing requirements of the task of building the Army, strengthening national defence, and protecting the Fatherland in the new situation, the School must continue to research and apply synchronous solutions to further improve the quality of education and training.

Firstly, to promote the innovation of education and training programs and contents.  This is the most important solution to train the cadres who fully meet the requirements of practice. However, the application and implementation of this aspect requires research to ensure the conditions and objectives and training requirements of each object. By deeply grasping the Party's viewpoint on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training and closely following the requirements and tasks of building a contingent of cadres for the Military Region’s armed forces towards standardisation and regularisation, the School should actively research and propose measures with appropriate steps in innovating training programs and contents and complete “output-standard-based” training models and objectives to be close to the practice and needs of the Military Region. Accordingly, based on the training contents and framework programs as prescribed by the Ministry of National Defence, the results of graduate quality survey, and new issues on training and combat readiness at the units, within the allowed scope, annually, the School should focus on adjusting the training contents and programs to ensure the practicality, fundamentality, science, and balance of  knowledge among politics, military, logistics, and techniques and suitable to the objects, combat areas, tasks, functions, staffing organisation, and weapons and equipment of the Military Region. In the process of implementation, the School needs to resolutely cut out duplicate content, overcome the spread and imbalance among knowledge blocks, and promptly update new issues; combine basic knowledge provision with transmission of experience of combat, management, commanding, and training of soldiers; and attach importance to training practical skills for students.

Along with that, the School should continue to review, supplement, and develop the contents of subjects towards shifting sharply from provision of knowledge to comprehensive development of qualities and competencies for learners; closely combine theory with practice and focused on improving thinking ability and scientific working methods to be close to training models and objectives; pay attention to organising cadres and teachers’ research and survey visits to grassroot units; and objectively and correctly assess the quality of staff based on their positions held at the units after training. Thereby, the School is required to grasp the need for supplementing knowledge, experience, capacity, and working style for each training object and new theoretical and practical developments in association with tasks in specific positions and units; detect advantages and disadvantages in training, combat readiness, combat, and work of soldiers; and receive the comments and suggestions of the unit leaders and commanders on the training of the School. In addition, it is necessary to actively organise seminars and exchanges with the functional agencies and leading staff and experts in each training major and effectively promote the role and responsibilities of the School-level scientific and training council, administrators, and teachers in determining the appropriate amount of knowledge and methods of training for each object and training program design. This is one of the important bases for the functional agencies and faculties to develop detailed programs of subjects to meet the practical requirements.

Secondly, to pay regular attention to building, fostering, and improving the quality of the contingent of teachers and administrators.  This is one of the factors that play a decisive role in the quality of education and training, especially in the context that the School's teachers and administrators are supplemented from different sources with uneven qualifications and capacity. Therefore, focusing on training, fostering, and standardising the contingent in terms of qualifications, management and commanding capacity, pedagogical skills, and practical experience is inevitably objective. However, for different majors and objects, the determination of contents, forms and methods of fostering is also different. By analysing the current situation of the teaching staff and requirements on structure, educational qualifications, and training expertise, the Party committees and commanders of faculties and political agencies should actively review and classify the quality of teachers (in combination with factors of teaching capacity, qualifications, prestige, practical capacity...) to develop appropriate recruitment, training, and retraining plans. Particularly, importance should be attached to selecting teachers with ethical qualities and capacity for training, visits, research, exchange, and learning teaching experiences at schools inside and outside the Army; building teachers in leadership positions and commanders of faculties, heads of departments, and young teachers for development; promoting the fostering and improvement of comprehensive knowledge for teachers and administrators in different forms, such as: pedagogical fostering and training, updating new economic, political, social, and defence and security knowledge, fostering the management and commanding level, skills in conducting the Party and political work, etc; and regularly organising class observation to draw teaching experience lessons and teaching contests at all levels. In addition, it is necessary to closely combine the transmission of knowledge with fostering of personalities, commanding manners, and management methods for students; promote the role of the student management divisions in organising the revision and drills and regularly and effectively maintaining complementary and extracurricular activities; and improve the quality of internships, training operations, night training, extracurricular training, and physical training for learners to meet the requirements and tasks.

Thirdly, to attach importance to leadership and direction to improve the quality of the assurance work to best serve the education and training.  This is an essential issue to create a basis and driving force for the innovation and improvement of the School’ education and training quality towards the goal of building a “Smart School to approach the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.  First of all, the School should focus on researching and proposing plans to strengthen the training fields, lecture halls, classrooms, facilities, and materials... based on practical conditions and capabilities to fully, synchronously, and uniformly assure the teaching, learning, and research activities. In the face of high demand, limited funding, degraded and unsynchronous weapons and training equipment, lack of investment in building training fields... the agencies and units need to focus on strict managing and properly and  effectively using the superior-allocated funding for training; actively promote internal resources and mobilise external resources to ensure the best for training; prioritise the construction of infantry combat tactical and technical training fields; strength the promotion of initiatives and improvement of learning tools and models; advise and propose to superiors to provide new weapons and equipment under the Military Region’s staffing for training; supplement equipment, learning tools and models, and specialised classrooms for training of objects to ensure the facilities, especially equipment for night training under the guidance of the Military Training Department; and promote scientific research, especially applied research, to serve the teaching and learning process.

Finally, to well organise the review and summary to accurately evaluate the results of education and training to promptly supplement and update new contents and learn good and creative methods to apply in education and training.  To be effective, the leaders and commanders at all levels need to do well in preparation in all aspects to ensure comprehensive, substantive, and focused assessment. In the process of organising, it is necessary to maximise democracy, strengthen discussions, and uphold the spirit of self-criticism and criticism to find good experiences, valuable lessons, and effective methods to replicate in the School. At the same time, it is advisable to avoid formal, meager, and perfunctory ways of working; resolutely correct violations and wrongdoings; cherish and encourage new initiatives and ideas; and promptly encourage good people and good deeds, thereby, to constantly improve the quality of education and training and meet the requirements and military and defence and tasks in the Military Region.

Senior Colonel, NGUYEN VAN CHUONG, Ph.D., School Commissar