Implementing 'contract 10' in education

TP - Resolution 71 of the Central Committee on breakthrough in education and training development sets out many policies to improve training quality from primary to university.

School after school, class after class

Improving the quality of human resources is one of the important tasks of the education sector to bring the country into an era of development. To achieve this, university education must be "standard" from input to output.

Accordingly, in Resolution 71, the Politburo requires the development of a project to innovate university admissions in the direction of correctly assessing learners' capacity, ensuring unified control of input standards of training majors and training institutions, and strict control of output quality.

At the same time, the Resolution requires strengthening quality management in conjunction with appropriate support policies for doctoral training, training in pedagogy, health, law and key sectors. Resolution 71 also emphasizes the urgent need to develop a strategic framework for university education development, including the need to reorganize and restructure university institutions; merge and dissolve substandard university institutions.

A very strong commitment in the Resolution is to spend at least 20% of the total state budget on education, along with great incentives for the teaching staff. According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, University of Technology ( Hanoi National University), "only with reality can we uphold morality", increasing investment, increasing total state budget expenditure for education, for the teaching staff is a specific solution contributing to the implementation of the set goals for the education sector. This adequate investment will play an important role in implementing and modernizing schools, graduating schools, and graduating classes. With investment, there will be modern equipment to improve training quality, link training with research, and link innovation activities of schools with businesses better and faster.

Professor Duc assessed that improving the remuneration regime is a great encouragement from the Party and the State for teachers. With improved living conditions and income, teachers will feel secure in their work, wholeheartedly devote themselves to the cause of educating people, increasing the attractiveness of the teaching profession to society. The above financial solutions are very important levers, directly contributing to improving the quality of university education, accelerating the speed of international integration of the Vietnamese education system.

According to Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc, university autonomy is a mechanism, but it is also an advantage, an important resource and brings quick results. Contract 100, Contract 10 in agriculture in the past is an example of the strength of autonomy and policy mechanism. Resolution 71 is Contract 10, Contract 100 in university education. "I think that if we simultaneously and drastically and effectively implement the above fundamental and basic solutions, we will achieve the goal of having Vietnamese university education institutions in the top 100 on the world rankings as proposed in the Resolution," said Mr. Duc.

The time of "rats running in the same cage" is over.

University admissions in recent years have witnessed a surprising “reversal” of teacher training majors. The period 2010 - 2017 was a “disaster” period for this major. At its peak in 2017, a series of teacher training colleges had admission scores of only 9 - 11 points/combination, equivalent to 3 points/exam subject. Many local teacher training universities also had disastrously low entrance scores.

That year, the Ministry of Education and Training set the common minimum score for this group of majors at 15.5/30 points. Except for the top pedagogical schools with good scores, some universities with many conversion methods still "dodged" the score of 4-5 points/subject to be admitted. With the pathetically low entrance scores of pedagogical schools, not only did society worry about the quality of future teachers, but many teachers also felt sad because the profession was becoming more and more... cheap, like the old saying "rats running in the same hole only enter pedagogy...".

Students of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) at the graduation ceremony. Photo: UED

In order to ensure the quality of teacher training input and prevent the situation of "grabbing all the little things" into pedagogy, in 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training set the minimum score without multiplying the coefficient of the admission combinations to pedagogical universities at 17 points, colleges at 15 points and intermediate pedagogical colleges at 13 points. Along with the "tightening" of the Ministry of Education and Training's input standards, Decree 116 of the Government on tuition and living expenses support for pedagogical students, with job addresses after graduation has "revived" the teaching profession.

In 2025, the common minimum score for university-level teacher training majors is 18-19 points and the benchmark score at most teacher training colleges is much higher than the minimum score. The teaching major in all universities has a very large difference in scores compared to the remaining majors. This year, the teaching major has a ceiling-high benchmark score of 30/30, keeping a large gap between the majors that have always topped the rankings, "first medicine, second pharmacy".

According to Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc, university autonomy is a mechanism, but it is also an advantage, an important resource and brings quick results. Contract 100, Contract 10 in agriculture in the past are examples of the power of autonomy and policy mechanisms.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh, Principal of the University of Education (Hanoi National University), assessed that Decree 116 has helped pedagogical students feel secure when studying. The discussions and approval of the Party's policy and the State's policy on "teachers' salaries being ranked highest in the administrative career salary scale system" have created a positive effect on the teaching profession and created great interest from families with children taking the exam this year.

“Obviously, studying pedagogical/education majors that are subsidized by the State and graduating with a job with the highest salary on the administrative career salary scale are two factors that strongly influence candidates' decisions on choosing a major or career,” said Professor Nguyen Quy Thanh.

The benchmark scores for the pedagogical sector have been among the top in recent years, demonstrating the sector’s appeal due to innovations in remuneration policies and mechanisms. This has a significant impact on the quality of the teaching staff, which in turn determines the quality of general education and creates input for university education; at the same time, they are the “main machine” to achieve the goals set out in Resolution 71.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/thuc-hien-khoan-10-trong-giao-duc-post1774954.tpo