Off the wire
• Czech PM to visit China  • Urgent: Chinese president arrives in Philippines for APEC summit  • News Analysis: Constant evolution key to ASEAN's economic community  • Indian stocks open higher  • President of Poland to visit China  • Serbian PM to visit China  • News Analysis: "The Belt and Road" helps boost ASEAN infrastructure development  • News Analysis: Japan's economic soft spot to continue as fundamentals not being addressed: experts  • 1st LD-Writethru: RMB rebounds against USD following consecutive falls  • Argentina touts G20 initiative to curb vulture funds  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Proposal to integrate history with other subjects at Vietnamese school draws public attention

Xinhua, November 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

A recent proposal made by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training to integrate history studies with other subjects at school has drawn great attention from lawmakers and citizens.

At the ongoing parliamentary convene's Q&A session, which lasts during Monday to Wednesday in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan has been questioned over the issue.

National Assembly Deputy Le Van Lai asked Luan whether the minister could assure over the rightness of the proposal as well as the responsibility of the ministry when changing the study program of the history subject at school.

According to the proposal, the history subject will no longer be studied as an independent subject but to be integrated into other subjects, including geography, literature, and music, among others.

Minister Luan said following the proposal, students would spend more time studying history.

However, NA Deputy Lai said with specialized teachers, the result of history studies at school still remains "limited" under the current program, then it will be more difficult to achieve better result following the new program.

NA Deputy Duong Trung Quoc, who is also Secretary General of Vietnam History Science Association, said the ministry should consider this carefully as it will affect an entire young generation.

According to Quoc, when history being integrated into other subjects and there is no exam on history, students will pay less attention to the subject.

Minister Luan said the minister is willing to listen to feedback from the public and intellectuals before they decided whether to push ahead the proposal.

Commented on an article over the issue on VNExpress online newspaper, reader Minhchau wrote "History is the quintessence of a nation. It must be studied as an independent subject and cannot be integrated with other subjects."

Reader Thien Bao said "History plays a very important role. It should not be integrated with other subjects. The opinions of public citizens should be considered."

Another reader named Thongviet Le commented on Vietnamnet online newspaper that "It is necessary to teach history as an independent subject. Unspecialized teachers cannot teach history well." Enditem