Part 3: Catching digital Wave, improving education quality

Innovating teaching work

Currently, almost all lessons at Thanh Xương Primary School No.1 (Điện Biên district) apply information technology to support teaching. Teachers regularly design electronic lesson plans and present lively lessons with images, videos, and sounds to help students be more engaged in absorbing knowledge. To achieve effectiveness in IT application, teachers continuously learn, improve technology skills, and make good use of available facilities and telecommunications infrastructure.

Hoàng Ngọc Vĩnh, Principal of the school, said: “We strongly promote the application of technology in management and teaching, exploit the electronic lesson plan library, use email and daily teaching support software. The teaching staff has clearly recognized the role of technology and applied it very effectively.”

Not only at Thanh Xương Primary School No.1, but in many schools across Điện Biên district, digital transformation has also been synchronously implemented. To date, 100% of teachers use electronic lesson plans, and official documents are all digitized. According to Nguyễn Thanh Tùng, Deputy Head of the Sub-department of Education and Training of the district, every year the sector has more than 10,000 lessons applying IT. Thanks to close direction and efforts from educational institutions, awareness and digital skills of staff and teachers have increasingly shown positive changes.

Lessons using projectors and electronic devices to teach have become familiar to teachers and students in schools in Mường Chà district. Electronic lesson plans presented with videos, images, and lively sounds by teachers have created attraction and interest for students. Digital transformation is prioritized by all educational units in Mường Chà in both teaching and management. Currently, 100% of teachers use electronic lesson plans; plans, official documents, and directives from the Board of Principals are all in digital form.

“Digital transformation in education is extremely necessary now. It facilitates management as well as teaching for schools. Recognizing the role of digital transformation, we have advised the People’s Committee of the district to supplement facilities and equipment so that schools have the best conditions for digital transformation,” said Nguyễn Văn Long, Deputy Head of the Sub-department of Education and Training of Mường Chà.

Building a digital management environment

With just one click on the system, information about students, teaching staff, school fluctuations, and directives from higher levels are quickly updated and accessed by the Board of Principals at Pom Lót Secondary School (Điện Biên district) through management software. Education data has been uploaded into software systems to facilitate management instead of using paper files and records as before.

Trần Thị Bích Nga, Principal of Pom Lót Secondary School, said: Regarding digital transformation, 100% of the school’s staff and teachers agree, support, and implement this major policy. Especially in digital management, the school has software and databases that teachers regularly and continuously update to ensure accurate and complete data. In recent years, teachers have been trained to use electronic gradebooks, greatly facilitating the retention of records and evaluation of students instead of manual writing as before.

Previously, educational management mainly relied on paper files and records; now, document management by staff and teachers has been simplified by information technology. Education data has been uploaded into software systems, making management more convenient without the hassle of paperwork. The sector also implements level 3 and 4 administrative reforms in enrollment, high school graduation registration, and university/college registration. Schools also promote cashless payments.

Hoàng Tuyết Ban, Director of the provincial Department of Education and Training, said: Although there are still many difficulties, the Education sector has proactively promoted IT applications and implemented digital transformation in education management. To date, 90% of schools use management software; 100% of educational institutions accept tuition payments via cashless methods and can carry out payments for policies, fees, and other charges by cashless means. The rate of salary and allowance payments to officials, civil servants, employees, and workers in the sector made via cashless methods has reached 100%. By the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, the rate of parents/students having bank accounts reached 95.46%; the rate of tuition fee collection and payments of policies and allowances to students reached 100%.

Additionally, administrative procedures generating records at the Reception and Result Return Unit of the provincial Department of Education and Training have been digitized to reuse data and fully exploit information. From December 15, 2023 to December 14, 2024, the total administrative procedures within the Department’s jurisdiction recorded on the provincial administrative procedure handling information system were 126, of which 118 were resolved before deadlines (8 not yet due).