(Photo credit: Hanoi’s Archimedes School Education System)

Because of the coronavirus epidemic, Hanoi’s Archimedes School Education System organized a virtual graduation ceremony for its 9^th graders.

This is the latest activity, teachers, students, and parents have had to modify to get through a difficult period.

With many schools around the world closed because of the pandemic, online schooling is boosting the IT skills of both teachers and students.

Nguyen Huy Du, CEO of DuCapital Holding, which specializes in developing new technology, says, “The COVID-19 epidemic has proved the urgent need for Vietnam’s digital transformation, especially in awareness of how to accelerate the process. The epidemic has prompted the education sector to develop new programs for students, teachers, and schools that ensure teaching and learning are uninterrupted while fulfilling training plans and goals.”

Nguyen Thi Thanh, a secondary school teacher in the Archimedes School Education System, says digital technology has brought many benefits.

“Teachers can use livelier, more intuitive teaching methods and sharing information is more convenient. Once students get used to online schooling in the long run, they will be more creative  in their studies. During the current epidemic, online learning is safe and saves students some time,” said Thanh.

A lot of difficulties remain in digitizing the education sector, said Nguyen Son Nam, Vice Rector of the Archimedes School Education System.

Nam told VOV, “When things change with many difficulties and obstacles and as I mentioned earlier that there were no other options, the only thing you can do is to try the best. All teachers, at first, had some difficulties when it came to online learning and online teaching to full time bases. In fact, we’ve been using technology in teaching for a long time, but when it came to teaching online on a full time basis, surely it brought about a few problems, difficulties, and stresses.”

“Then everybody should try the best, even older teachers. They’ve made a lot of efforts and have to be familiarized themselves with mind maps, quizzes, with all types of applications and, of course, with MicrosoftTeam. I do think that we have overcome all difficulties and obstacles,” according to Nam.

Many agree, for example, that the Ministry of Education and Training has not yet created consistent regulations for online schooling, online testing, or assessment and quality accreditation of online learning, which is far different from in-person learning.

More should be done to accelerate digital transformation in education, said Mr. Du, adding, “Some adjustments should be made for the current policies and regulations to match the practical situations and more importantly, to catch up with the global development trends and meet new standards in international education. I’m sure that in any countries, state policies and regulations play as the direction and must meet the society’s changes.”

He added that the sector’s network infrastructure, IT equipment and Internet services for schools, especially in remote areas, are uncoordinated and often fail to meet digitization requirements.

“Generally infrastructure development among regions is not the same. Some of 63 localities across Vietnam have gained the infrastructure synchronization of up to 90%. In some others the rate is only 50 to 60%,” said Du.

He concluded, “Therefore, in order to synchronize a technical infrastructure, the education sector should come up with a set of criteria based on which schools can install relevant equipment. In addition, it’s necessary to have an adaptive, open policy to suit different localities and regions. I strongly believe everyone will agree to promote investment in their local education sector.”

The pandemic is obviously prompting an urgent need of digital transformation in education, which is an inevitable, urgent task for the sector, especially with Vietnam aiming to become a leading digital country by 2030.