The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has just announced a draft Circular regulating the assurance of education quality and recognition of national standards for preschool education institutions, general education institutions and continuing education institutions; posted on the Ministry's Electronic Information Portal for agencies, organizations, and individuals to study and contribute opinions. The draft Circular aims to concretize the provisions of Article 110 of the Education Law.
The Ministry of Education and Training said that the draft builds a framework of requirements to ensure uniform quality of education applied to many types of educational institutions, including preschool education institutions, general education institutions, continuing education centers and vocational education - continuing education centers; this framework is designed on the basis of standardizing current regulations, contributing to ensuring uniformity in management, while creating conditions for educational institutions to proactively self-assess and improve quality in accordance with actual conditions; and at the same time stipulating specific guidelines on meeting the requirements of each criterion according to the specific characteristics of each type of educational institution, ensuring both principle unity and flexibility in application.
The system of standards and criteria is reviewed and redesigned in an integrated direction, including 6 standards and 25 criteria, fully reflecting factors from assurance conditions, organizational implementation process to educational results; this adjustment is not aimed at reducing quality requirements but at increasing connectivity, clarity and measurability, thereby directly supporting the internal quality management activities of the school.
Activities to ensure the quality of education in educational institutions are carried out according to a continuous improvement cycle, including self-assessment, development and implementation of improvement plans, monitoring, review and adjustment; this is a regular management activity of the school, associated with a continuous operation process, not a time-based activity to serve external evaluation.
The criteria are described according to the levels of response to support educational institutions to self-determine the level of development and appropriate improvement orientations; these levels are not the basis for ranking or classifying educational institutions, but only to reflect the level of completion in the quality assurance process of each school over time.
According to the draft, the recognition of meeting national standards is carried out on the basis of synthesizing many bases, in which the self-assessment results of educational institutions are the most important basis but not the only basis; the recognition must also be compared with the standards and conditions prescribed by the State for schools meeting national standards, including requirements for facilities, staff, scale and educational environment; achieving a high level of quality assurance is a favorable condition but does not replace meeting all conditions to be recognized as meeting national standards.
The draft also innovates the approach to evidence in the direction of using existing data, management records and electronic data, limiting the construction of formalistic separate records, thereby contributing to reducing administrative pressure on educational institutions and improving the transparency and substance of quality information.
At the same time, clarifying the responsibilities of subjects in the education quality assurance system; accordingly, educational institutions are responsible for organizing self-assessment and implementing quality improvements; Departments of Education and Training implement guidance, inspection, and appraisal; state management agencies issue policies and organize supervision; clearly defining responsibilities contributes to ensuring synchronization and effectiveness in implementation.
