In the process of leading the Vietnamese revolution, President Ho Chi Minh always paid attention to the issue of training and fostering the young generation. He once said, A year starts from spring, a life starts from youth, youth is the spring of society, Ho Chi Minh thought on training and fostering young generation, including youth workers, is a scientific and comprehensive system of views on building a generation of Vietnamese youths with full necessary qualities and abilities to build and defend the Socialist Vietnam Fatherland and, at the same time, build a constantly growing Vietnamese working class. So far, Ho Chi Minh thought on youth training and fostering is not only an invaluable spiritual asset but also a guiding and directive view that is very important for the education and training of young intellectual generations in Vietnam.
In the process of leading the Vietnamese revolution, President Ho Chi Minh always paid great attention to the youth union members and the youth and attached great importance to training and fostering the young generation. He considered the young generation to be an extremely important human resource in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland at present and determining the future destiny of the country. In his Sacred Testament, he instructed the whole Party, the whole army and the whole people: "Our youth union members and youth, in general, are good. They enthusiastically engage in all tasks, fear no hardships and have the desire for progress. The Party should take care of educating them in revolutionary morality, train them into successors of building socialism that have both "virtue" and "expertise". Fostering the revolutionary generation for the next generation is very important and very necessary” 1. In the current revolutionary period, our Party has clearly affirmed "Pay attention to education, training, fostering and development of the working class in both quantity and quality; improve political mettle, education, expertise, professional skills, industrial manners and labor discipline of workers" 2.
It can be said that, with his genius thinking, sharp reasoning ability and by his profound experiences, Ho Chi Minh recognized the significance of the youth union members and the youth in general and the youth workers as a crucial force for any country. Youth represents a vast social force, they are healthy, ambitious, dynamic, creative, and enterprising, hence young people can make significant changes. However, due to their young age and lack of experience, they do not have full awareness of social issues and their political mettle is not stable. Therefore, they tend to make hasty conclusions about economic, political, cultural, and social issues, easily fluctuating in stances, ideologies. This susceptibility makes them become prime targets for hostile forces to manipulate and exploit to serve the purposes of undermining the political system and the cause of renewal, industrialization, and modernization of Vietnam, detrimental to the cause of Fatherland construction and defense.
Therefore, President Ho Chi Minh emphasized that for the youth to become worthy future owners of the country, the Party needed to take care of and educate the youth, especially about revolutionary morality and consider this as a job to foster the revolutionary generation for the next generation. After more than half a century, the practice of building and defending the country has affirmed that Ho Chi Minh thought on training and fostering the young generation is still valuable, topical, and extremely important for our country.
During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh was not only interested in education as a leader but also as a teacher, an educator. He was originally a teacher named Nguyen Tat Thanh at Duc Thanh School, Phan Thiet (1910), a teacher under the alias “Teacher Vuong” at a cadre training class in Guangzhou (1925 – 1927) organized by the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League. He was a literacy teacher for cadres in Pac Bo (1941) with the idea of learning literacy to be a revolutionary. After becoming President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, he regularly visited popular classes, teacher training classes, educational institutions and advocated for "Teach well – Learn well" movement of the education sector. President Ho Chi Minh is a great cultural figure, deeply experiencing the quintessence of Eastern education and achievements of Western civilization, so his educational ideology is both traditional and epochal and century-visionary. This is clearly shown through his perspective on caring for and fostering Vietnamese young generations.
Understanding the situation of the country after gaining independence, right in the first opening day of school in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in the "Letter to students", President Ho Chi Minh emphasized "Whether the mountains and rivers of Vietnam become beautiful, whether Vietnam nation steps onto the podium of glory to stand shoulder to shoulder with the powers of five continents, it largely depends on your studies" 3. In the letter, Ho Chi Minh did not forget to mention the contributions of past generations so that the young generation can live and study in the homeland that is witnessing many positive changes, from the status of slavery, they become the masters of the country, decide their own destiny and development path, in which education was considered as one of the most effective tools.
In 1949, in the context that the whole country was stepping up the resistance and building the nation towards gaining the initiative on the battlefields, this was the time when the Communist Party of Vietnam devoted a lot of resources to train young cadres for the revolutionary cause of the country. During the visit to the central Nguyen Ai Quoc School, President Ho Chi Minh wrote in the first page of the school's golden book as follows:
"Study to work,
To become a true person,
To become a cadre.
Study to serve the collective,
To serve the class and the people,
To serve the Fatherland and humanity" 4.
From the above works, the depth of Ho Chi Minh thought on cadre education and young generation education was revealed, according to which in order to achieve the purpose of serving the working class, the people in the country, serving the sacred Fatherland and more importantly, contributing to the progress of mankind, it is necessary to study hard, besides it is crucial to possess revolutionary qualities of socialist people, putting collective interests and national interests above personal interests.
Ho Chi Minh thought on educating and fostering the revolutionary generation for the next generation has always been expressed dialectically and systematically. In order to educate the young generation, he always considered morality and talent, virtue and expertise as the two essential contents of one's character, with an inherent organic relationship between them. During a political education class for teachers in August 1959, he emphasized: "In short, politics is virtue, expertise is talent. Having talent without virtue is inadequate. Having virtue but being ignorant, how can one teach? Virtue must precede talent. First of all, we must teach students to love their country, to love labor, to love fellow citizens and to love socialism" 5. For him, moral education for the young generation is to make them determined to serve the country and the people for a lifetime. This is also the directive view for the selection and training of cadres as well as a guideline for the youth to develop their personalities and build a good future of the nation.
On October 16, 1968, in a letter to cadres, teachers, employees and students on the occasion of the start of the new school year published in Nhan Dan Newspaper, he graciously instructed "Education aims to train the successors of the great revolutionary cause of our Party and people, therefore branches, Party committees at all levels and local authorities must pay more attention to this cause, take care of schools in all aspects, and push our cause of education to new developments" 1. Thus, he affirmed that education was a great and extremely important cause, the successful realization of this cause was the responsibility of the whole political system, in which the Party played a leading role and was the decisive factor for the development and victory of the cause of education. Inheriting Ho Chi Minh thought on education, on November 4, 2013, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong signed the Resolution of the 8th Conference of the 11th Central Committee (Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW) on fundamental and comprehensive reform of Education and Training, meeting the needs of industrialization, modernization in the conditions of socialist-oriented market economy and international integration. Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW emphasizes the objective of striving to have 80% of the youth of high school education and equivalent by 2020, and "attaches importance to education of character, morality, lifestyle, legal knowledge and civic awareness. Focus on the fundamental values of national culture, tradition and ethics, the quintessence of human culture, core values and humanity of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought" 6. This continues to affirm the value of Ho Chi Minh thought on education in general and education and fostering of the younger generation in particular.
He said that every cadre must possess revolutionary morality as their foundation. Without the revolutionary morality, no matter how talented they were, they would not be able to efficiently lead the people. Therefore, if the young generation wanted to worthily inherit the legacy of the previous generations, they must be imbued with the spirit of mastery of the country and must cultivate revolutionary morality and maintain the nature of the working class. Revolutionary morality was intricately and organically linked to revolutionary ideals. In particular, revolutionary morality is the expression content of revolutionary ideals and a condition for the realization of the noble revolutionary objective - revolutionary ideals.
Educating revolutionary ideals for young generations is a matter that President Ho Chi Minh attached great importance to. Ideals serve not only as objectives but also as the driving force behind revolutionary actions. He once taught: "Enlightening the youth about revolutionary ideals helps them understand how noble these ideals are. It makes them clearly see their responsibilities in realizing these ideals, guiding them to adopt correct views and actions to transform revolutionary ideals into the education of an idealistic youth, instilling faith in the socialist construction cause" 7. Within the realm of revolutionary ideal education, educating revolutionary sentiments stands as a pivotal component. Revolutionary sentiments entail trust and love for the Party, the working class, the laboring people, and the socialist regime. Once instilled with revolutionary sentiments, the youth will make serving the people and the homeland the noble purpose of their lives.
He once said: "To build socialism, first of all, socialist people are needed", "To gain victory, the revolution must be led by the working class. It's the most progressive, enlightened, resolute, disciplined and tightly organized class" and "For the sake of ten years, we must plant trees, for the sake of a hundred years, we must cultivate people" 5. President Ho Chi Minh's strategy of building, improving and using individuals has been tested and proven to be completely correct by historical practice. The working class successfully carried out the mission of leading our country during the 30-year revolutionary war (1945-1975), Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought, which served as the ideological banner for the Vietnamese working class with the vanguard of the Communist Party of Vietnam to lead the whole army and the whole people to write glorious chapters and achieve remarkable success in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.
The current reality of life shows that a part of young people, including youth workers, lacks a sense of moral cultivation, has no aspirations for career establishment and life-building. Even according to the Center for Criminology Research and Criminal Investigation under the People's Police Academy, criminals in Vietnam are showing a trend towards youthfulness and an increasing number in recent years. Statistics from 2018 by the Ministry of Public Security indicate that "the crime rate among adolescents nationwide is 5.2% for those under 14 years old, 24.5% for those between 14 and under 16 years old, and 70.3% for those between 16 and under 18 years old." This illustrates that the situation of crime and legal violations caused by adolescent offenders continues to be complex, with a tendency towards more dangerous criminal behavior and serious consequences. Particularly in major cities, the rate of legal violations and crimes committed by adolescents is higher and tends to increase faster."
In order to solve this social problem, Party committees, authorities, families, schools, especially socio-political organizations like the Trade Union and Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, need to continue strengthening revolutionary tradition education, political-ideological education, and legal education. This effort aims to create a conducive environment for the youth to cultivate pristine morals, lead healthy lifestyles, respect the law, love their homeland and become worthy future leaders of the country.
2.2. Significance of Ho Chi Minh Thought on Youth Education in Vietnam TodayThe In the light of Ho Chi Minh thought on youth education and the correct lines of the Communist Party of Vietnam in training and fostering young generations, our country has witnessed great contributions of the youth during various periods to the cause of national construction and defense. Indeed, the struggle for national liberation and reunification in the twentieth century showed that only pure revolutionary ideals and unwavering belief in a better society in the future motivated generations of the youth to "cross the Truong Son Mountain Range to save the country, with hearts aspiring for the future". It was not a vague, emotional belief but a science-based belief, based on enlightenment about noble objectives that transcended mediocre desires when the country was at war. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, the generation of Vietnamese youth during the 30 years of the revolutionary war (1945 – 1975) with the aspiration to live and the noble ideals of the people during Ho Chi Minh's era have made brilliant feats in the cause of struggling against foreign aggression and the defense of the Fatherland.
When peace was restored but the risk of conflict at both ends of the border was on the horizon, it was also the time when the Fatherland needed young pioneers on the front of production labor, healing the wounds of war and ready to join the armed forces to protect the country, the youth set out again. It was the commitment of the youth of that period that contributed extremely important to the success in defending the Socialist Vietnam Fatherland against the plots of hostile domestic and international forces. This is also a great achievement of the country to recognize the important contribution of young generations.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, in 2020 Vietnam's population is 97.58 million people with nearly 30 million young people (those aged from full 16 to 30 years old) 8. In particular, the number of students studying at universities and colleges was 1,672,881 people 9, this is a high-quality, relatively well-trained human resource and will be an important force in the cause of national construction and defense. Vietnamese students in particular and Vietnamese youth in general are a great social force, with many advantages such as: good health, dynamism, creativity, ability to quickly acquire new knowledge, master science and technology, enthusiasm in learning, productive labor and active engagement in the mission to defend the Fatherland. However, in order to maximize the potential, strengths and contribution abilities of the young generation, the young generation itself must be trained, fostered, organized under a system of scientific and complete views, which is Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought.
Currently, in the face of the requirements of the period of accelerating industrialization and modernization of the country, the process of deepening international integration and the rapid transformation of the youth situation, it is necessary to strengthen the Party's leadership in youth work to take care of, foster and bring into full play the role and strength of the youth in the construction and defense of the Socialist Vietnam Fatherland. In this context, on July 25, 2008, the 10th Party Central Committee issued Resolution 25-NQ/TW on "Strengthening the Party's leadership in youth work in the period of accelerating industrialization and modernization". This is an important document, expressing the Party's concern for the young generation and for youth work. At the same time, it is also the inheritance of Ho Chi Minh thought on educating young generations in the new situation.
Directive No. 42-CT/TW dated March 24, 2015 of the Party Central Secretariat on "Strengthening the Party's leadership in the education of revolutionary ideals, morality and cultural lifestyle for young generations for 2015-2030 period" also contributed to raising people's knowledge and cultural development, building the revolutionary ideology, worldview and human perspective for the young generation of Vietnam; building ethics, lifestyles and comprehensive development of Vietnamese human personality; contribute to training human resources, fostering talents, forming a learning society and creating favorable conditions for young people to develop comprehensively, have a clear mind, bright mind, great ambition, nurture the aspiration to build a strong and prosperous Vietnam. This is the solution to build the young generation with "virtue" as Uncle Ho's wish during his lifetime.
In the documents of the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, it was also emphasized: "renovate contents, methods of political and ideological education, traditions, foster revolutionary ideals, patriotism, build morality, healthy lifestyle, sense of respect and strict observance of the Constitution and laws for young generations", and at the same time "have appropriate mechanisms and policies to create a favorable environment and conditions for young generations to study, research, work, entertain, develop intellect, skills and physical strength" 10. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the 12th National Trade Union Congress for 2018-2023 term affirmed: Focus on raising awareness and political mettle for officials, employees and workers. Focus on propaganda and education, helping officials, employees and workers become more deeply aware of the class, the Party, trade union and historical mission of the working class. Educate, promote patriotism, national pride, self-esteem and political consciousness of workers.
Continuing and developing the Communist Party of Vietnam's views on training and fostering young generations in previous periods, in the Political Report of the 12th Party Central Committee at the 13th National Congress of the Party continued to emphasize "strengthen patriotic education, national pride, national traditions and history, sense of social responsibility for all classes of people, especially the youth" 11. Thus, the training and fostering of the young generation in Vietnam was systematized and directed throughout by President Ho Chi Minh, absorbed, developed and creatively applied in historical periods by the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Vietnam is in the period of "golden population" with high proportion of young people and citizens of working age and abundant human resources, if well performing the task of training and fostering the youth in general and youth workers in particular, it will yield significant results, specifically as follows:
Firstly, serious and effective training and fostering will contribute to creating high-quality human resources to meet the requirements of industrialization, modernization and extensive international economic integration, taking advantage of the "golden population" opportunity for rapid and sustainable development of the country and accomplishing the objective of building a prosperous, democratic, fair and civilized country.
Secondly, it is determined that the renewal of political and ideological education for youth workers is the responsibility of the whole political system, directly the Party, Trade Union and Youth Union organizations in businesses. Educational contents must be selected and compiled so that they are short, concise, easy to understand, and suitable for workers. Promote initiatives and technical improvements, especially promoting learning and following Ho Chi Minh thought, ethics and style among youth workers. Continue to implement the Politburo's Directive No. 07-CT/TW dated November 23, 1996 on strengthening the work of building the Party and mass organizations in private businesses, limited liability companies, private joint stock companies and foreign-invested businesses.
Thirdly, training and fostering young generations, especially the youth and students to master the knowledge of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 will make an important contribution to the intellectualization of workers, building a knowledge economy and a digital economy,... In addition, it is necessary to educate the attitude of workers to the cause of national renewal. It is the belief in the victory of the cause of renewal, the interest to know the major contents of the renewal path, especially policies directly related to workers and industry as well as their contribution to this cause.
Fourthly, in the field of politics, the building of a young generation that has both “virtue” and “expertise”, makes an important contribution to maintaining socio-political stability, business development, contributing to the defeat of the plot of "peaceful evolution", riots and subversion of hostile forces to Vietnam revolution. In addition, there is a need for solutions to raise political awareness for the young workforce who are workers in businesses. It is the understanding (position, importance, function) and attitude towards Party organizations, the State, socio-political organizations, especially towards the Party, Trade Union and Youth Union organizations.
Fifthly, in the field of ideology and culture, the training and fostering of the youth in general and youth workers in particular with morality, personality, creative capacity and core values, patriotism, national pride, sense of preserving national cultural identity according to Ho Chi Minh thought will be an indispensable premise to build a Vietnam with a culture that is advanced and imbued with identity, building the country's "soft power" in the twenty-first century.
Sixthly, in the field of defense and security, training young generations to be good at their profession, fostering patriotism and national pride is a solution to keep the country early, remotely, since the country is not in danger, maintain peace, repel the risk of conflicts and wars, ready to defend the independence and freedom of the Fatherland.
The Deeply aware of President Ho Chi Minh's teaching "Fostering the revolutionary generation for the future is a very important and necessary", for more than half a century, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always paid attention to the cause of educating and fostering the young generation. This work is carried out regularly and continuously in order to create generations of talented Vietnamese people, promote the potential of Vietnamese people, build high-quality human resources to build a strong country, protect the country sustainably according to Ho Chi Minh thought.
The training and fostering of the youth in general and youth workers in particular is the task of the whole political system. In that great cause, Ho Chi Minh thought on training and fostering young generation is a valuable guidebook, a very important spiritual asset, as a torch to guide generations of Vietnamese young people to move forward steadily. Vietnam is entering a "generational transition period", from a generation of leaders forged in war to one matured in times of peace and if: "Ensuring a continuous and stable transition between generations" will be enough to lead the country to maintain its socialist orientation, making an important contribution to building a strong working class, worthy of being the revolutionary leadership class through the vanguard of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
| [1] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 15. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [2] | Communist Party of Vietnam, Documents of the 12th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House. Hanoi. 2016. | ||
| In article | |||
| [3] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 4. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [4] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 6. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [5] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 12. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [6] | Communist Party of Vietnam, 2013. Resolution of the 8th Conference of the 11th Central Committee (Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW) on fundamental and comprehensive reform of Education and Training. | ||
| In article | |||
| [7] | Phan Ngoc Lien, Nguyen An, Ho Chi Minh City with Education – Training. Encyclopedia Publishing House. Hanoi. 2003. | ||
| In article | |||
| [8] | General Statistics Office of Vietnam. (2020). Population, labor and employment in 2020. Accessed on July 19, 2021, from https://www.gso.gov.vn/du-lieu-va-so-lieu-thong-ke/2021/01/ infographic-dan-so-lao-dong-va-viec-lam-nam-2020/ | ||
| In article | |||
| [9] | Ministry of Education and Training. (2021). Higher education statistics for the academic year 2019 – 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-19, from https://moet.gov.vn/ thong-ke/Pages/thong-ko-giao-duc-dai-hoc.aspx?ItemID=7389 | ||
| In article | |||
| [10] | Communist Party of Vietnam. Documents of the 12th National Congress. National Political Publishing House. Hanoi. 2016. | ||
| In article | |||
| [11] | Communist Party of Vietnam. Documents of the 13th National Congress, vol. 1. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. Hanoi. 2021. | ||
| In article | |||
Published with license by Science and Education Publishing, Copyright © 2024 Dang Van Khoa, Nguyen Huu Tho and Le Thu Nguyet
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
| [1] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 15. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [2] | Communist Party of Vietnam, Documents of the 12th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House. Hanoi. 2016. | ||
| In article | |||
| [3] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 4. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [4] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 6. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [5] | Ho Chi Minh, Complete Works, vol. 12. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. 2011. | ||
| In article | |||
| [6] | Communist Party of Vietnam, 2013. Resolution of the 8th Conference of the 11th Central Committee (Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW) on fundamental and comprehensive reform of Education and Training. | ||
| In article | |||
| [7] | Phan Ngoc Lien, Nguyen An, Ho Chi Minh City with Education – Training. Encyclopedia Publishing House. Hanoi. 2003. | ||
| In article | |||
| [8] | General Statistics Office of Vietnam. (2020). Population, labor and employment in 2020. Accessed on July 19, 2021, from https://www.gso.gov.vn/du-lieu-va-so-lieu-thong-ke/2021/01/ infographic-dan-so-lao-dong-va-viec-lam-nam-2020/ | ||
| In article | |||
| [9] | Ministry of Education and Training. (2021). Higher education statistics for the academic year 2019 – 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-19, from https://moet.gov.vn/ thong-ke/Pages/thong-ko-giao-duc-dai-hoc.aspx?ItemID=7389 | ||
| In article | |||
| [10] | Communist Party of Vietnam. Documents of the 12th National Congress. National Political Publishing House. Hanoi. 2016. | ||
| In article | |||
| [11] | Communist Party of Vietnam. Documents of the 13th National Congress, vol. 1. Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House. Hanoi. 2021. | ||
| In article | |||
