Sao Do University, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is responsible for training masters, engineers, bachelors, skilled workers, vocational teachers, and technicians in various fields, such as mechanical engineering, automotive engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, construction engineering, and information technology. Under the guidelines on combining training with science - technology research, application, and transfer, aligning theory with practice, and maintaining a close connection between the University and businesses, Sao Do has always modernised its facilities and equipment, standardised its contingent of cadres and lecturers, and renewed its training programs. In the process, defence and security education has been placed on a par with specialised subjects, with a view to training and comprehensively developing technical - technological human resources for Fatherland construction and protection.

Students practise clearing the rifle

First of all, the University has focused its leadership and direction on raising awareness and a sense of responsibility among its staff members and students towards defence and security education. Based on its functions and assigned tasks, the University has grasped resolutions and directives by the Party and State, circulars and guidance by the Ministry of National Defence (MND) and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on defence and security education, particularly the Law on Defence and Security Education, the Government’s Decree 139/2020/NĐ-CP, dated 27 November 2020, amending and supplementing several articles of the Government’s Decree 13/2014/NĐ-CP, dated 25 February 2014, detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Defence and Security Education, the MND’s Circular 172/2020/TT-BQP, dated 30 December 2020, on defence and security education content and framework programs, and the MOET’s Circular 05/2020/TT-BGDĐT, dated 18 March 2020, on defence and security education programs within intermediate pedagogical schools, pedagogical colleges, and universities. Grounded on those documents, the University’s Party Committee, Council, and Board of Directors have issued documents for leading, directing, and performing the work of defence and security education closely, effectively. At the same time, they have stepped up propagation work to raise awareness and a sense of responsibility among cadres, lecturers, and students towards defence and security education. In the process, faculties and competent offices of the University have been required to enhance ideological education and orientation, diversify forms of propagation, such as internal radio broadcasts, banners, class meetings, and youth union meetings, and integrate content and images of defence and security activities into class periods on soft skills to enable students to acquire knowledge of defence and security in a visual way. Notably, the University has designed and promoted its website and Facebook Fanpage to opportunely spread effective, creative approaches, good people and good deeds, as well as typical examples in the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, in defence and security education, in local military and defence work, and in the movement of national security protection. Simultaneously, great value has been attached to detecting, criticising, and fighting signs of misunderstanding and dismissing defence and security education as a minor subject, a lack of efforts, and laziness in study and training.

Giving instructions to students on tactical manoeuvres

Under the Party’s viewpoints on “renewing and improving defence and security education for cadres, public servants, and all people, ensuring relevance to target individuals”, the University has regularly provided updated knowledge and actively renewed teaching methodology in accordance with each group of students and realities. Adhering to regulations on teaching, learning, and evaluating defence and security education subject as well as its particularities, facilities, and human resources, the University has established a link with Defence and Security Education Centre of Military Region 3’s Military School (hereinafter referred to as the Centre) to offer defence and security education subject. This subject has been organised into two phases. In the 1^st phase, students have been equipped with theoretical knowledge within the University; in the 2^nd phase, students have been provided with training courses on military skills within the Centre. To improve the effectiveness of each phase, the University has maintained close coordination with the Centre to develop plans, identify the number of learners, and delegate duties to each affiliate. Moreover, it has directed its lecturers to actively, proactively update themselves on new viewpoints, lines, and policies of the Party and State on military, defence, security, and Fatherland protection tasks, especially new issues on technical and technological fields. Bringing into play the strength of a technical - technological training institution, the University has attached special importance to raising the quality of designing lectures, actively applying information technology to developing electronic lectures, employing pieces of software for simulating military - defence activities, combat situations, and tactical and technical manoeuvres, thereby creating attractiveness to learners. It has renewed teaching methodology, employing various teaching methods, raising more issues, increasing debates and interactions to promote students’ proactivity and creativity, completely remove one-way presentation, improve students’ thinking ability, and enable students to apply theoretical knowledge to practice and foster theoretical knowledge via practice.

To equip students with basic knowledge of defence and security and improve students’ willpower and sense of discipline, the University has collaborated with the Centre to enhance student training and management and build a healthy military pedagogical cultural environment. When studying defence and security education subject, students have been organised into squads, platoons, and companies under regulations; the University has assigned its cadres to be in charge of platoons and companies, sufficiently maintaining daily, weekly regulations, bringing students closer to a military environment to improve their sense of discipline, collective lifestyle, and military courtesy. In the process, the University has assigned its Military Command to closely collaborate with the Centre to intensify student management, strictly maintain regulations, and foster a strong sense of discipline, collective consciousness, unity, and comradeship, while requiring managerial cadres and lecturers of defence and security education to heighten a sense of responsibility and set good examples in terms of morality, working style, and courtesy for students to follow. Besides, the University has renewed forms and methods of student management appropriate to their age psychology and proactively stimulated youthful energy and enthusiasm via a combination of curricular and extracurricular activities and via contests. As a result, there has been a link between cadres and students as well as between students themselves and their collectives; mutual understanding, unity, and a healthy educational environment have been formed to encourage students to stringently implement internal regulations and enable them to be more mature after a defence and security education course.

In addition to those above-mentioned things, the University has mobilised resources to construct its facilities and acquire training equipment and models, thereby well serving lectures’ teaching work, facilitating students’ learning process and living conditions, meeting the task requirements of the subject. Thanks to the implementation of its synchronised measures, the University has unceasingly improved the quality of defence and security education. Since 2021, it has cooperated with the Defence and Security Education Centre of Military Region 3’s Military School to provide defence and security education for nearly 3,200 students; all those students have got pass in this subject; 70% of them have achieved merit or distinction.

In the process of leading, directing, and providing defence and security education for students, Sao Do University has drawn several lessons. Those lessons will also be seen as solutions for the University to raise the quality of defence and security education in the upcoming time.

First, enhancing the leadership and direction of the University’s all-level party committees, Council, and Board of Directors over defence and security education for students, actively concretising those organisations’ leadership and direction in accordance with the University’s particularities and each group of students.

Second, promoting the role and responsibility of the University’s affiliates, clearly delegating duties to each position to improve the quality of defence and security education for students.

Third, maintaining close, smooth coordination with the Defence and Security Education Centre of Military Region 3’s Military School in offering defence and security education subject, building a pool of lecturers with standardised professional expertise, pedagogical skills, and work style, flexibly applying various forms and methods of teaching this subject.

Fourth, actively mobilising resources for upgrading facilities and training grounds, equipment, and documents to meet the requirements of teaching and learning defence and security education subject.

Fifth, enhancing inspection and supervision of the work of defence and security education, opportunely settling weaknesses, stepping up emulation movements, and multiplying typical examples in this work.

PHAM VAN DU, PhD - VU VAN CHUONG, MA

Sao Do University