Binh Phuoc is a border province that connects the Southeast region with the Central Highlands and holds a position of importance in social, economic, defence, and security terms. Over the years, thanks to regard from the Party and State, together with tireless efforts by the province’s Party Organisation, Authority, armed forces, and people, Binh Phuoc has achieved all-round developments; defence and security have been maintained.
Despite those significant results, the people’s life, particularly in isolated, remote areas, has been still in difficulty; illegal religious activities in some localities (Phuoc Long, Bu Dang, Bu Gia Map, Phu Rieng, and Hon Quan) and Vietnamese Cambodians’ return migration to several border communes of the province have been complex; hostile forces have stepped up their sabotage strategy to undermine national great unity, especially in the areas mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities. Against that backdrop, the province has adopted synchronised measures, with special importance attached to combining socio-economic development with defence and security consolidation and well performing defence and security education work in order to build a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds”, maintain political stability and social order and safety, and create a favourable environment for its sustainable development.
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| Comrade Tran Tuyet Minh, Deputy Chairwoman of the Provincial People’s Committee, Head of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council addressing the opening of a defence and security education course in 2024 |
There is a fact that awareness and a sense of responsibility among party committees, authorities, sectors, and organisations play a decisive role in the quality and effectiveness of defence and security education. Thus, under decrees and decisions by the Government and guiding documents by ministries, sectors, and Military Region 7’s Defence and Security Education Council, the province has directed the Provincial Military Command (PMC) as the Standing Agency of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council to collaborate with provincial departments and sectors in giving advice to the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People’s Committee on grasping and concretising higher echelons’ resolutions and directives into legal normative documents as the basis for the process of leadership, direction, and implementation in a close, serious way. The province has directed all-level party committees to take the outcome of defence and security education as a criterion for assessing all-level key cadres’ leadership and management capacity and yearly commendation work within sectors, departments, and localities. As a result, defence and security education work has been synchronously carried out at all levels, with the participation of the entire political system and people; due attention has been paid to reviewing groups of learners, making education plans, and ensuring smooth coordination, thus achieving a positive change in this important work.
The outcome of defence and security education greatly depends on staff work and operation capacity of all-level Defence and Security Education Councils. Therefore, the Provincial Military Party Committee and the PMC have proactively advised the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People’s Committee to regularly consolidate those Councils at all levels both qualitatively and quantitatively under Prime Minister’s Decision 517/QĐ-TTg, dated 1 April 2021. Defence and Security Education Councils at provincial, district, and commune levels have been founded and operated under their functions and tasks; they have assisted party committees and authorities in leading, directing, and inspecting the performance of defence and security education work among localities, offices, and organisations. As the Standing Agencies of those Councils, all-level military offices, particularly the PMC have closely coordinated with sectors and localities to perform the work of defence and security education comprehensively under regulations. On a yearly basis, they have conducted reviews and grasped the number of learners as the basis for making plans of education and giving advice to the Provincial People’s Committee on assigning targets to each locality, office, and organisation. At the same time, consideration has been given to intensifying inspection and supervision work and completely rectifying the act of skipping steps in the review of groups of learners, the practice of imitating plans, which leads to impracticality and poor feasibility, and the reduction of education content and duration. Moreover, the province has required all-level military agencies to give advice to local party committees and authorities at the same level on strictly maintaining preliminary and final reviews to opportunely handle weaknesses and raise the performance of defence and security education work in an in-depth, solid manner.
To ensure the quality and practical effectiveness of defence and security education, the province has well conducted the work of monitoring, reviewing, and categorising learners as the basis for properly developing education plans and programs. At the same time, great value has been attached to making preparations, particularly selecting teachers and rapporteurs. A part from compulsory topics, the province has selected and supplemented additional topics relevant to local socio-economic, defence, and security tasks, providing updates on the border, sea, and island situation, the fight against “peaceful evolution” in cyber space, and issues on ethnicity, religion, democracy, and human rights. To align theory with practice, localities have organised field trips for learners to visit defensive zone exercises, forest fire prevention and control drills, and search and rescue rehearsals. Between 2020 and 2025, while deploying 287 cadres from the 1st and 2nd groups to attend defence and security education courses under announcements made by the Central Defence and Security Education Council and the Military Region’s Defence and Security Education Council, the PMC has carried out reviews, designing and executing education plans for 13,000 cadres and party members from the 3rd and 4th groups and 313 religious dignitaries, providing updates on knowledge of defence and security for nearly 6,000 cadres from the 3rd and 4th groups. Doing so has contributed to raising all-level cadres’ awareness, sense of responsibility, and capabilities in management and operation of local military - defence work across the province.
The province now has 37 education and training institutions, with a yearly enrolment of about 350,000 - 400,000 students. This is a large force being faced with negative impacts made by social evils, the dark side of the market economy, social networks, and hostile forces’ inducement and incitement. Thus, the province has required the PMC to closely collaborate with the Department of Education and Training to effectively realise Joint Circular 123/2015/TTLT-BQP-BGD&ĐT-BLĐTB&XH, dated 5 November 2015, by the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs. Binh Phuoc College and Eastern College have been asked to work with Defence and Security Education Centre under Army Corps 34’s Military School to offer defence and security education subject for students. Other schools, especially high schools, have been required to distribute defence and security education program throughout the academic year, provide updates and sufficient topics, include local revolutionary tradition in the education program, actively take part in defence and security education contests, and organise visits to historical sites (Phu Rieng Do and Ta Thiet) for students. Doing so has helped raise awareness of the Party’s lines and the State’s laws and policies on defence and security among students, enable students to clearly recognise hostile forces’ plots and artifices, equip students with necessary military knowledge and skills, and foster students’ qualities, collective lifestyle, sense of discipline, patriotism, and readiness for military service and Fatherland protection.
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| Giving certificates of graduation to learners from the 3rd group |
Furthermore, the province has exercised its close leadership and direction over propagation and dissemination of knowledge of defence and security. To that end, it has directed all-level military agencies to cooperate with the Public Security Force, the Border Guard Force, the Provincial Party Committee’s Information, Education, and Mass Mobilisation Commission, and press agencies of Binh Phuoc and Military Region 7 to open specialised pages and columns on defence and security. Defence and security propagation and education have been included in operations of the armed forces, cultural and sport activities, traditional festivals, and the process of selecting and conscripting citizens into the Military. Propagation and education have also been integrated into operations of communities, Fatherland Fronts, and other unions in accordance with local culture. As for border districts and areas mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities and religious people, the province has placed emphasis on oral propagation via rapporteurs, persons with great prestige within communities, village heads, and religious dignitaries. Under the motto of “eating with, living with, working with, speaking the same language with ethnic minorities”, the provincial armed forces have actively taken part in building strong political bases, stepping up hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and new-style rural area construction, organising “Paying debt of gratitude” activities, helping the people with natural disaster response and search and rescue, encouraging the people to adhere to the Party’s lines and the State’s laws and policies. Those efforts have helped cement the people’s faith in local party committees and authorities, foster military - civilian unity, and build a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” right at grass-roots level.
Thanks to those above-mentioned synchronised measures and the participation of the whole political system, defence and security education work performed by Binh Phuoc province has been increasingly effective to contribute to building solid political - spiritual potentialities within defensive zones and protecting the Fatherland early and from afar.
Sr. Col. VO THANH DANH
Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Board
Commander of the PMC
Standing Deputy Chairman of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council