80 year of Education sector: A special opening ceremony for nearly 26 million students nationwide
WVR - This morning (September 5), at the National Convention Center (Hanoi), the Ministry of Education and Training organized the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector and the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year. For the first time, all educational institutions nationwide salute the flag and sing the National Anthem simultaneously during the new academic year's opening ceremony.
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| General Secretary To Lam delivers a directive speech at the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector and the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year. (Source: Ministry of Education and Training) |
The 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector and the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year took place from 8:00 to 9:30, broadcast live on VTV1 (Vietnam Television), and connected online to all educational and training institutions nationwide, with the participation of approximately 1.6 million teachers and nearly 26 million students across the country.
All 52,000 schools are connected online, marking the beginning of a year full of determination and challenges. For the first time, all educational institutions nationwide will salute the flag and sing the National Anthem simultaneously during the new academic year's opening ceremony.
This is a rare event in Vietnam's educational history, where all higher education and vocational education institutions, both public and private, will simultaneously hold the opening ceremony on the same day as preschool and general education levels, combining direct participation in Hanoi and online connection to educational institutions.
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| Teachers and students rejoice on the first day of the new academic year. (Photo: Luu Nguyen) |
Attending the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year was General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam.
Politburo Member, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Luong Cuong.
Politburo Member, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh.
Politburo Member, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tran Thanh Man.
Politburo Member, Permanent Secretary of the Party Central Committee Tran Cam Tu.
Politburo Member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Do Van Chien.
Also attending the ceremony were Politburo Members, Secretaries of the Party Central Committee, members of the Party Central Committee, representatives of Central Committees, Ministries, Central agencies, organizations, local leaders at various locations, ambassadors representing countries, and international organizations in Vietnam.
Representatives from the Education Sector included Nguyen Kim Son, Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Education and Training; former leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training, units under the Ministry of Education and Training over the years, directors, and principals of educational institutions nationwide.
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| General Secretary To Lam and delegates attend the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year and the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector. (Source: Ministry of Education and Training) |
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| President Luong Cuong and delegates attend the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year and the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector. (Source: Ministry of Education and Training) |
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates attend the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year and the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector. (Source: Ministry of Education and Training) |
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| National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and delegates attend the opening ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year and the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector. (Source: Ministry of Education and Training) |
On this occasion, to recognize the outstanding achievements of the Ministry of Education and Training in state management of education and training, the President decided to award the First-Class Labour Medal to the Ministry of Education and Training.
The achievements of the education sector are immense and proud
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son emphasized: This year's opening ceremony is organized with special attention from the Party and the entire nation towards the education and training sector.
The Politburo has just issued Resolution 71 on breakthroughs in education and training development; the National Assembly has a resolution on implementing preschool education for children aged 3 to 5; preschool and general education students are exempted from and supported with tuition fees; 248 boarding schools in border communes are being constructed; many groups are supported with lunch; general schools organize two sessions per day; many new policies for developing the teaching workforce are codified by the Teachers Law along with many other new policies. Today's opening ceremony and anniversary are more than just an event or ritual; it is a special educational activity with significant meaning.
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| Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son speaks at the opening ceremony of the new academic year 2025-2026. (Photo: Xuan Phu) |
Over the past 80 years, through many heroic historical periods, under the leadership, ideological orientation, and educational policies of the Party, the entire sector has gradually built and completed educational policies; completed the national education system; established educational infrastructure and facilities, gradually developing the teaching workforce, scientific staff, and educational management personnel;
Developed educational science, teaching and learning methods, assessment and evaluation; built a system of textbooks, curricula, and educational materials; developed educational governance models, and promoted international cooperation. Education and training over the past 80 years have developed by inheriting tradition while integrating internationally, creating a unique identity and value for Vietnam.
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| Teacher Phuong Quyen and students of Kim Giang Primary School (Hanoi) during the new academic year's opening ceremony. (Photo: Nguyet Anh) |
Over the past 80 years, like a miracle, from a country with 95% illiteracy, a sparse intellectual class, and a limited number of higher education institutions, through decades of war and immense hardships... to today, the nation has completed universal education from 5-year-old kindergarten to the end of lower secondary education. The quality of general education has gradually improved.
Vietnam is internationally recognized as one of the countries with a good general education system. For many consecutive years, Vietnam has been among the top 10 countries with the best results in international Olympic competitions. Although not all schools are of high stature and quality, there are sectors and higher education institutions among the top 500 globally, training in almost all fields and professions available worldwide, contributing 75% of the nation's scientific research products, inventions, and innovations...
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| Students during the opening ceremony. (Photo: Nguyet Anh) |
Compared to the world's leading advanced education systems, the Education Sector still has much to strive for and improve... However, with such a starting point, circumstances, conditions, and costs, what the nation and the Education Sector have achieved over the past 80 years is truly a significant and proud achievement, if not a miracle.
Looking back over the past 80 years of development, there are no words to fully express the gratitude of the Education Sector for the leadership of the Party, State, Vietnam Fatherland Front, organizations, agencies, committees, ministries, and sectors. No number can fully account for the care, investment, and support from the entire society, the assistance of international friends and organizations for Vietnam's education and training.
"80 years, no monument can fully record the sacrifices, contributions, efforts, intelligence, and affection of millions of teachers for generations of students. This merit, this gratitude can only be etched into eternal time and in the memory of millions and millions of students...", Minister Nguyen Kim Son emphasized.
Education and training maintains its position as the top national policy
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| General Secretary To Lam speaks at the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector and the opening ceremony of the new academic year 2025-2026 on the morning of September 5. (Source: VGP) |
Speaking at the ceremony, General Secretary To Lam, on behalf of the Party and State leaders, extended warm greetings and best wishes to teachers, educational management staff, students, and students across the country. He wished the education sector continued breakthroughs in development, worthy of the tradition of valuing education and the aspiration to rise of the heroic Vietnamese nation.
Recalling the 80-year history of revolutionary education in Vietnam with proud achievements and existing limitations, General Secretary emphasized: Our country is entering a new development phase with the goal of becoming a modern industrialized nation by 2030 and a developed, high-income country by 2045. In the context of globalization, knowledge economy, science, technology, and digital transformation developing strongly, education and training must maintain its position as the top national policy and become a key driver for national development.
Recently, the Politburo issued Resolution 71 on breakthroughs in education and training development. This month, the Secretariat will organize a national conference to thoroughly understand and implement this resolution. This is one of the resolutions with extremely important significance, with a strategic vision, specific major goals, and strong breakthrough tasks and solutions, bringing Vietnamese education and training into the flow of global education to quickly implement the resolution into life.
The General Secretary proposed that the entire Party must strongly innovate its leadership mindset towards education, not imposing old standards on a modern education system but directing, reviewing substantively, organizing decisive, effective, consistent implementation, considering education as the top national policy.
The National Assembly needs to continue to improve the legal system, creating a transparent, stable, and advanced legal corridor for the cause of educational and training reform. The Government should increase investment, ensure financial resources, infrastructure, and workforce, while decisively removing bottlenecks in mechanisms and policies to clear and mobilize maximum social resources for education.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front, organizations, and social organizations need to promote the strength of great unity, encourage and spread the movement of the entire people caring for the cause of nurturing people. The Education Sector needs to pioneer innovation in thinking, governance methods, building a teaching workforce with both knowledge and ethics and a desire to contribute. Teachers must be shining examples, sources of inspiration for students. Students must nurture great ambitions, study and train to become global citizens, gradually integrating international standards while always maintaining Vietnamese identity and soul.
In his speech, the General Secretary also emphasized some major orientations to successfully implement the educational reform cause in the new phase. Among them, strongly innovating thinking and action, shifting from reforming, adjusting to creating, leading, and developing the nation through education, taking quality, fairness, integration, and efficiency as measures, tightening implementation discipline. Ensuring equal access to education, raising the general intellectual level, leaving no child behind. Innovating general education comprehensively. Creating breakthroughs in higher education and vocational education. Promoting international integration in education. Caring for the teaching workforce and educational management staff. Promoting digital transformation and artificial intelligence in education, turning technology into a catalyst for fundamental and comprehensive innovation. Prioritizing investment in education. Building a learning society, lifelong learning.
Addressing students, teachers, and educational management staff nationwide, the General Secretary affirmed: Our Party always considers education and training as the top national policy, the key driver determining the nation's future. More than ever, we must consider investing in education as investing in the future, for the sustainable and prosperous development of the country.
The General Secretary called on the entire Party, the entire people, the entire army, all levels, sectors, localities, every family, and every citizen to join hands in caring for the cause of nurturing people, the future of our children, for the prosperity of the Fatherland, for the happiness of the people.
With a tradition of valuing education, with a dedicated teaching workforce, with the efforts of students nationwide, along with the care of the entire society, the General Secretary believes that our country's Education Sector will continue to overcome difficulties, achieve great achievements, contributing to realizing the aspiration to build a strong and prosperous Vietnam.
The command from the heart of every young Vietnamese
Student Kieu Tuan Dinh, from the 67th cohort majoring in Semiconductors at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, representing all students nationwide, spoke:
"Today, in the atmosphere of the entire nation celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day on September 2, the 80th Anniversary of the Education Sector and the opening of the new academic year 2025 – 2026, As other tens of millions of young people across the country, I am excited, proud, and deeply moved to participate in this important event.
I deeply understand that to have today, for us to have favourable conditions and open opportunities, countless generations have worked diligently, fought, and sacrificed over the past years.
Over the past 80 years, our nation has moved from a colonial land to an independent country, from division to unity, from isolation to becoming a comprehensive strategic partner of major powers; those 80 years are an epic written with sweat, blood, and tears, so today we can welcome the new academic year in peace, independence, and freedom.
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| Student Kieu Tuan Dinh, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, representing all students nationwide, speaks. (Source: Ministry of Education and Training) |
We express our infinite gratitude to the generations of our forefathers, teachers, and seniors who have contributed to building a Vietnam like today. We clearly understand that the future of the country depends greatly on the level of science, technology, and innovation. Developing the country is linked to digital technology, where tiny semiconductor chips or AI lines are the foundation of the present and future world.
I see that studying and training well in knowledge, professional skills, creative thinking, and the ability to solve technological problems is not only a requirement for students studying technology and engineering to work after graduation but also a requirement and command from the heart of every young Vietnamese.
In the coming time, when our generation steps into the "big sea" of the world, we know that with the competition in technology, engineering, and global trade, there is no leniency. We will face new challenges that are no less fierce, and to win, we need not only willpower and determination but also intelligence and new capabilities required by the era.
Looking back at the long history and lessons from our forefathers, we will firmly rely on cultural traditions, identity, and the humanistic spirit of the Vietnamese people. We will be humble, honest, and courageous in learning from the world, to confront and overcome new challenges with the spirit of "I am Vietnamese".
I hope that high school students will soon choose a path for their future that aligns with the country's development orientation, and that we all grow up with the country, promoting the country's development, so that today's leaders and older generations can be at ease."
