Tra Vinh, a coastal province in Mekong Delta, lies between Tien and Hau rivers. It covers an area of 2.341,2 km² with 65 km of coastline. It has a population of 1.051.229 in which Khmer people account for 32%. In the province, five main religions are found namely Buddhism, Caodaism, Christianity, Protestantism, and Islam with 465 places of worship, 4.373 dignitaries, monks, and 596.325 followers. Despite numerous difficulties due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, the province, in recent years, has witnessed positive changes in all respects thanks to the attention that the Party and the State have devoted to the province as well as the efforts made by the Party Committees, the authority, the people and the armed forces, which results in stabilising the political security and social order and safety, maintaining national defence and security, accelerating economic growth and improving people’s lives. National programmes, defence and military work have been paid much attention to so that practical results achieved have met the requirements of task accomplishment in the new period.

However, domestic and foreign hostile forces, reactionaries, and extremists have been publicly conducting increasingly fierce sabotage. Some delicate issues on ethnicity, religion, democracy and human rights have been fully utilised along with the use of social networks to propagandise and distort the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines, the State’s policies and law; incite and call for protests, demonstrations, and disturbance. Moreover, criminal activities tend to be on the rise, especially hi-tech crime, drug smuggling, black credit, etc. Additionally, the evolution of weather and the pandemic is increasingly complicated while the price of raw materials in agriculture and fishery sector keeps soaring. These are the factors that inflict considerable impact on the people’s mentality and lives and the activities of the provincial armed forces. In view of the situation, the province continues to synchronously carry out measures for leading, directing, attaching socio-economic development to consolidating national defence and security, and improving the people’s material and spiritual aspects of life; in particular, enhancing the quality of defence and security education which is a vital measure aims to build politico-spiritual potentialities in defence zones and the solid “people’s heart and mind posture” to facilitate the building of all-people national defence and all-people national defence posture in association with the people’s security posture.

First and foremost, the province should strengthen the leadership and direction of all levels of party committees and commands towards the education of defence and security. This crucial measure is the steering principle which is implemented throughout the education of national defence and security to create complete unity in the entire province. Fully grasping Directive No. 12-CT/TW issued on May 3^rd, 2007 by the Politburo, Directive No. 08-CT/TU issued on December 13^th, 2007 by the province’s Party Standing Committee on strengthening leadership over national defence and security education in the new situation; Law on defence and security education; and echelon’s decrees, circulars, and instructions on this issue, the Provincial Military Command functioning as the standing agency should continue to advise the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on converting the documents into contents and plans for leading and directing the implementation of defence and security education effectively. Based on Instruction No. 90/HD-HĐGDQPANTW issued on May 31^st, 2016  by the Central Council for defence and security education on the lists and subjects of providing defence and security education, the Command should continue to advise the Provincial People’s Committee on directing localities to effectively execute Decision No. 206/QĐ-UBND issued on January 25^th, 2022 on the assignment of targets, tasks, and responsibility towards defence and security education in 2022 in the province. Concurrently, the Command should advise the Provincial Council for defence and security education to seriously carry out its plans for the education in 2022 through a variety of creative contents and approaches. As a result, this brings about a shift in awareness, enhances the responsibility of all levels, branches, and people; effectively promotes the leadership of the party committees, management and administration of the authority and heads of agencies, organisations in defence and security education in the province.

Actively strengthening and improving the operational capacity and effectiveness of Councils for defence and security education at all levels is one of the most fundamental measures that is paid much attention to and promoted by the province. Accordingly, in line with actively advising, inspecting, and strengthening Councils for defence and security education at all levels which should ensure the structure and components as stipulated by Law, the Provincial Military Command should advise the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee to focus on leading and directing the renewal of operational modes and effectiveness of each council as well as properly complementing the statute of operation. In particular, maintaining the operational mechanism in accordance with the statutes and plans to closely follow political tasks in the localities should be stringently conducted; in the meantime, the role in advising party committees and authorities at levels should be promoted. At the same time, it is necessary to fully grasp and implement the documents of the Party, the State, echelons, and the province on the contents, curricula and trainees.  In order to enhance the quality of education and fostering, the Provincial Councils for defence and security education at all levels must clearly define the role and responsibility that firmly adhere to the political tasks of each branch and specialist field. During the operation, functional agencies should intensify the inspection, summation, and after-action review on defence and security education. As a result, efforts can be made to promptly address shortcomings during the implementation as well as praise and duplicate typical models to put the process of defence and security education on the right track and constantly improve the quality and effectiveness of this vital issue.

Renewing the contents and methods of educating and fostering knowledge on defence and security, which is the core matter in improving the quality and effectiveness of the task,  has been regularly paid attention to by the Province Party Committee and People’s Committee. Accordingly, the province should focus on investigating and updating the situation to lay a foundation for renewing the contents and methods of educating and fostering defence and security knowledge for cadres, functionaries, and the whole people. Regarding contents, the province should closely follow and update the new viewpoints and guidelines on national defence and security that the Party summarised and pointed out in the 13^th National Party Congress as well as the tasks of the Army, Military Region 9, and Provincial armed forces. The province should also attach importance to educating and raising awareness of partners and targets, combining socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation, and firmly grasping the requirements, tasks, and strategies of protecting the Fatherland in the new situation. As for the contingent of cadres and party members at all levels, the province should regularly complement the contents, curricula, and books that well suit trainees and localities, especially cadres. Besides, the province should direct offices, departments, and branches to closely coordinate with the Provincial Military Command to complement and perfect the curriculum of defence and security education for pupils and students in the direction of “standardisation” to integrate into the curricula and formal training in schools. On that foundation, schools in the province must organise the curricula as stipulated. As for students, the province should affiliate with the Centre for defence and security education of Tra Vinh University to be in charge of teaching defence and security for students at universities and colleges in Tra Vinh. Concerning the propagation and dissemination to the whole people, the Provincial Council for defence and security education should actively cooperate with news agencies of the province and Military Region 9  to design programmes, plans, and projects, establish specialised pages and categories, diversify the propagation contents; utilise reporter competition and social networks to propagate and disseminate defence and security knowledge. The dissemination of the knowledge should be combined with enhancing the building of comprehensively strong grassroots, new rural areas, activities, and mobilisation in the localities. As a result, each citizen’s awareness and sense of responsibility toward the task of building, protecting the Fatherland, and well carrying out defence-military work in the localities.

To gain high effectiveness in defence and security education, the province should also direct to enhance the quality of the contingent of lecturers, reporters, and propagandists who participate in defence and security education. This measure is of paramount significance as the mentioned contingent directly involves and plays a key role in determining the quality and effectiveness of defence and security education. Currently, the total number of schools in the province reaches 39 with 85 teachers in charge of teaching defence and security education. The well-trained teaching staff have raised their sense of responsibility and well handled the subject, which has improved the teaching quality. Nevertheless, the task requirements are increasingly demanding; meanwhile, the teaching staff are insufficient and have different levels. Thus, the province has implemented Project on “training teachers and lecturers in charge of defence and security education at upper secondary schools, professional secondary schools, intermediate vocational schools, vocational colleges, and other institutions until 2020” and the period from 2021 to 2025 when informed about the guideline by the Central Government; the province has also fostered, trained and arranged teachers as stipulated,  proactively trained, provided information and enhanced the quality of reporters and propagandists at grassroots levels. The province has also directed the Standing agency of the Council for defence and security education to cooperate with the Department of Education and Training, offices, and branches to regularly inspect and evaluate the teaching staff, reporters, and propagandists, design plans for training and fostering in direction of “standardisation” to meets the requirements of defence and security education in the new period.

Senior Colonel TRUONG THANH PHONG, Member of Standing Committee of Provincial Party Committee, Commander of the Provincial Military Command, Standing Deputy Chairman of the Provincial Council for Defence and Security Education