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A lesson on digital technology application at a school in Ho Chi Minh City. |
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training yesterday held a conference on the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) in the digital transformation of the education and training sector in the city.
The conference was attended by leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Thu Duc City and 21 districts and principals of middle and high schools implementing international informatics programs and advanced and integrated models in Ho Chi Minh City.
Striving for the goal of digitization by 2030
At the beginning of the conference, Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that Ho Chi Minh City is mobilizing all resources on building a smart city with a focus on information technology and digital communication development.
In addition, the central government and the municipal People's Committee also assigned the education sector several projects aiming to develop the city into a major education center in the region and the country that provide training of high-quality human resources for international integration, in line with the orientation of global digital transformation. Accordingly, teachers ought to be fully aware of their mission to help students have skills of international standards.
To achieve those goals, digital transformation is one of the important tasks to improve the quality of education and training, focusing on the tasks of improving the digital skills and digital capacity of human resources.
“In Ho Chi Minh City, the education and training sector needs to achieve the goal of digital transformation in a consistent manner with a clear learning path during the implementation of the general education program in which the city’s education system will be digitalized by 2030, said the Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training.
In particular, it is necessary to teach and learn informatics from grade 1 to grade 12 according to international standards, including ICDL standards.
The use of international digital competency criteria helps standardize learners' information technology capabilities, benefiting students; thereby, helping the future workforce to have enough ability to compete with others in the context of globalization.
Chief of the Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training Ho Tan Minh shared that the concept of digital competence was heard more than 20 years ago and people have often talked about it at the same time as the concepts of digital skills, information competence, communication capacity or academic capacity.
However, at present, a huge amount of information exists in digital form and learners need to be able to analyze and think critically to evaluate and understand how to use it for future study and work needs.
Currently, countries around the world are using several digital competency frameworks such as the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) which provides a common understanding of what digital competence is and the UNESCO Digital Competency Framework (Global Digital Literacy Framework). Teaching students digital skills will help them expand learning opportunities, access learning resources, and enhance creativity and problem-solving skills, said Ho Tan Minh.
Over 100 schools implement international informatics standards
Ms. Nguyen Phuong Lan, Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Director of EMG Education - one of the implementing units of international informatics standards, said that after nearly 2 years of implementation, IT teaching as per the ICDL standard has been implemented in 75 elementary, senior and junior high schools. It is expected that in the school year 2023-2024, 34 more schools will deliver IT teaching under the ICDL standard. Many schools have registered students to take the ICDL certification exam with very positive results.
Mr. Nguyen Vi Tuong Thuy, Principal of Nguyen Van To Secondary School in District 10 revealed that 844/851 students of the school got the world's leading computer skills certification in the recent exam.
