It’s been 5 years since the controversy broke out, putting many people in a difficult position

Recommendations from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Committee for Culture and Education of the National Assembly… suggest that History should not be an elective subject in the new high school curriculum, making preparation for lectures. Teaching this subject to History teachers has a delay.

Teacher Duy Khanh from Phu Yen said that although he supports the view that History should be a compulsory subject, he also thinks that the lack of understanding of history by the younger generation does not depend much on whether this is a compulsory subject or not. Selection.

“It is important that the teaching method, examination method and objectivity of History are guaranteed or not” – this teacher shared.

According to Mr. Khanh, in the past, History was a compulsory subject, but every year the high school exam scores for History subject were lost, and the grader himself was “fired” because of the students’ lack of understanding of history.

With only a few months left until the new school year, Mr. Khanh said that if History becomes a compulsory subject, obviously the curriculum – textbooks need to change.

“Currently, the program is compiled according to thematic, career-oriented nature, if necessary, it must be changed to a mass and reduced program duration.

Of course, if you change the word optional to mandatory, you will have to change the whole system, replace the middle and high school and change the textbooks of other subjects. I can imagine being extremely complicated.

However, for the part of the subject teacher, I have prepared the mentality and tools for teaching according to the new textbook, if changed, of course, it will affect the preparation, but that is not important. As long as History is respected (becoming a compulsory subject), I’m happy.”

Sharing more, Mr. Khanh said “One thing I find quite strange is that when the program was newly built, no one said anything. At that time, I didn’t pay attention, but if I did notice and object, History could not be an optional subject at that time, it would be like a drop of water in the ocean.

However, all of a sudden, from professors, doctors, lecturers… loudly protested at the last minute. Those people should have protested as soon as the program was being prepared, the matter would not be in a predicament as it is now.”

A teacher in Nghe An commented that there are objective reasons why History teachers have given critical opinions but not the time to consult for the overall high school program.

“At the time the program was first released, there was too much new content at all three levels, and the actual teachers did not know all of it clearly.”

Although he disagrees with History becoming an elective subject, this teacher also admits that now – when the program education Overall high school has “closed” – making it a compulsory subject is not easy either.

“If it is adjusted to make History a compulsory subject, the curriculum of this subject at the high school level also needs to be redesigned and recalculated. But so, not only changes to this subject but also entails adjusting the duration and program design of other subjects.

Now, the Ministry of Education and Training itself is in a difficult position and I am also curious as to how the Ministry of Education and Training will decide to handle it”, – this teacher shared.

Principal impatiently waiting for ‘last option’

Meanwhile, administrators at educational institutions have other concerns.

The principal of a high school in Hai Phong said that the schools were also “plowing in the middle of the road”, not knowing how to handle it even though the time to the new school year was very close.

“In fact, if the Ministry of Education and Training said that in the new high school program, the total number of History lessons that students can study is more than the current program. It is only in the High School Program that the perspective changes, that is, at the high school level, the orientation of vocational education is clearer when allowing students to focus on studying subjects that will be used in the later grades. The overall high school program has already come out, but at this moment, when the new school year is near, it is still not finished. To be honest, we also feel very tired.”

According to this taste, there should not be a way of thinking “to make a dish, you have to insert it for all the dishes”.

“Now, what if other subjects are also struggling to be compulsory? And if imposing a subject is a “required option”, is it really respecting learners? – This person poses a problem.

Ms. NTN, the principal of another high school, also shared that she was impatiently waiting for the final solution.

“The school also had to wait for the final conclusion to calculate the plan to prepare to deploy one. With class 10 enrolling this year, we will do an initial orientation consultation, but it is expected to be very difficult.”

This teacher said that if the history subject was adjusted from optional to compulsory, the design of the new high school curriculum would almost be “broken”.

“It will be necessary to correct the number of periods, not only this subject but also the number of other subjects. Because according to the original design, the compulsory subject is 12 periods/week, the selected subject is 10 periods/week, plus learning topics, local educational activities, for a total of 29 hours/week.

If History is included in a compulsory subject, the number of periods must be increased, which will reduce the number of periods of which compulsory subject before? Not to mention creating inequality in the selection of groups of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences “- the teacher analyzed.

According to Ms. N., the fact that so far has not been able to finalize the teaching plan has caused schools to lose their initiative.

“In my opinion, it is necessary to make History subject to be confirmed by teaching, teaching methods, and the attractiveness of textbooks for students to choose for themselves instead of turning into optional but mandatory.”

Phuong Chi – Thanh Hung