(VOVWORLD) - The way the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced Vietnam’s education sector was the focus of the National Assembly’s Q&A session on Thursday with Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son.
 Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son (Photo: VNA) |
The Minister said that in two years, the pandemic has taken a heavy toll in many ways. It has upset academic and examination plans, disrupted the in-person learning of nearly 2 million students, and delayed the graduation of 7,000 students. Vietnam has fallen short of facilities needed for online and televised learning, which has been unprecedentedly scaled up and prolonged. Minister Son told the National Assembly that, at the moment, online learning may seem like just a temporary response to the pandemic, but in the long run, online learning will be an inevitable manifestation of digital transformation and edutech, which are expanding globally.
He said digitalization of education is urgent.
“Online learning in 2021 took place on an unprecedentedly large scale. Vietnam’s education sector has strained to adapt to the pandemic, given its limited resources. The national digital transformation is going strong but the pace varies. Approximately 2 million pupils lack online learning devices. The biggest headache now is giving devises to as many pupils as possible," said Son. He added, "In the future, we want an online learning platform’s that available all across Vietnam. That will require us to invest in infrastructure and involve major telecommunications companies. The education sector is already preparing legal documents, technology, personnel, and pilot models.”
Minister Son also fielded questions about narrowing the access-to-education gap between urban, rural, remote, and ethnic regions and the quality of textbooks and teachers.