This is a policy of particular significance, aimed at continuing to innovate and improve the quality of political theory education, while integrating political and ideological instruction with the cultivation of ethics, lifestyle, civic awareness, digital literacy, international integration skills, and the aspiration among the younger generation to contribute to society.
Directive No. 10-CT/TW was issued against the backdrop of rapid advancements in science, technology, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and social media — developments that are exerting an increasingly profound influence on the perceptions, ideologies, and lifestyles of learners.
In response to these new demands, the directive mandates a robust and comprehensive overhaul of educational content, curricula, methodologies, and organisational structures. It seeks to move away from an over-reliance on the mere transmission of knowledge — an approach often disconnected from real-world practice and the specific needs of learners.
The overarching goal of the directive is to foster the holistic development of Vietnamese individuals, cultivating revolutionary ideals, political fortitude, strong ethics, knowledge, skills, a cultured lifestyle, respect for the law, digital literacy, and a desire to contribute to society. Simultaneously, it aims to establish a modern, wholesome, and safe educational environment, both in the physical world and within the digital sphere.
The directive underscores the necessity of reforming political theory education, ensuring it remains practical and modern by bridging theory with real-world application and aligning learning with action. It also emphasises the creation of a safe educational environment, both offline and online.
Through these efforts, it contributes to shaping a generation of citizens who possess ideals, fortitude, ethics, knowledge, skills, a commitment to the rule of law, digital proficiency, and an aspiration to contribute, thereby meeting the requirements for national development in this new era.
In the context of accelerating digital transformation, the issuance of Directive No. 10-CT/TW is an objective necessity, ensuring a secure future for the nation and its people.
However, despite these positive objectives and significance, the directive was immediately met with a barrage of erroneous and hostile rhetoric aimed at distorting and misrepresenting its contents.
Hostile forces, reactionary elements, and political opportunists have loudly claimed that this initiative constitutes the imposition of ideology, “brainwashing”, and the suppression of critical thinking, alleging that it serves only to render learners “more ignorant”.
In reality, such claims employ a tactic of conflating concepts: equating value-oriented education with ideological imposition, and deliberately decoupling the imparting of knowledge from the holistic development of the individual. The intent is to undermine the validity and necessity of the policy, sow doubt, erode public trust, and obstruct its practical implementation.
On a deeper level, these efforts by hostile forces, reactionaries, and political opportunists to distort, misrepresent, and manipulate concepts are aimed at denying the leadership role of the Communist Party of Viet Nam. They argue that the Party has exhausted its historical purpose and lacks the capacity to lead the nation in the new context, particularly in the digital era, characterised by rapid technological and societal change.
In practice, the educational systems of most countries worldwide, Viet Nam included, incorporate content focused on political values, legal principles, ethics, lifestyle, and civic responsibility. Ultimately, the purpose of education in any nation is to cultivate individuals who possess the ideals, awareness, sense of responsibility, competencies, and character traits necessary to meet the requirements of social development, aligned with the specific developmental paths and political objectives of a given era.
Therefore, requiring an educational system to strengthen the promotion and dissemination of the ideals, values, and standards upheld by a nation cannot be equated with the imposition of ideology. The core issue lies in whether the educational content is appropriate for the learners, and whether the pedagogical methods are scientific, respecting and fostering the learners' independent thinking and sense of self-motivation.
In light of Directive No. 10-CT/TW, it is evident that, alongside the policy to strengthen education in political theory, revolutionary ideals, ethics, lifestyle, and civic consciousness within the national education system, the directive explicitly sets forth several requirements: the development of programs and implementation plans tailored to specific educational levels, types of institutions, localities, and learner groups; the review and refinement of content, curricula, and textbooks for political theory education to ensure they are concise, modern, interconnected, and practical; the organisation of educational content around key qualities and competencies; and fundamental innovation of teaching methods and formats to foster learner-centred development.
These orientations demonstrate that Directive No. 10-CT/TW is not only aligned with the broader requirements for the reform and development of education and training but also reflects a clear vision and strategy for cultivating well-rounded Vietnamese individuals, people equipped with the qualities, competencies, and adaptability necessary to meet the nation’s development needs in a new context.
Some critics further allege that the requirements set out in Directive No. 10-CT/TW, such as fostering a healthy and civilised school environment and establishing codes of conduct for both physical school settings and the digital space, serving to restrict the freedom to access information and the freedom of expression, while also imposing control over the activities of learners in the digital environment.
In fact, it can be affirmed that the integration of digital literacy, critical thinking, cultured conduct, and the ability to self-protect against harmful or toxic information into the national education curriculum, alongside the mandate to refine codes of conduct for the digital space, represents a significant new development. These measures are designed to equip learners with the essential competencies needed to exercise their freedom of thought and expression responsibly, while enabling them to safeguard themselves within an increasingly diverse, complex, and multifaceted information environment.
The requirement to refine codes of conduct, both within educational institutions and across the digital landscape, establishes behavioural standards that create a secure framework. This protects learners from abuse, bullying, and violations of their honour or dignity, whether in physical educational settings or online. Such efforts contribute to the creation of a healthy, disciplined, and humane educational environment, fostering the development of “digital citizens” who possess strength of character and autonomy, individuals capable of exercising their freedoms in a cultured, lawful, and socially responsible manner.
Certain hostile or ill-intentioned actors have deliberately taken excerpts from Directive No. 10-CT/TW out of their broader, unified context. They falsely claim that the directive focuses exclusively on political, moral, and lifestyle education, while downplaying or dismissing the importance of providing learners with the essential knowledge and skills required to adapt to the demands of the new era.
It is evident that, in its requirements for structuring educational content, alongside the identification of key qualities such as political fortitude, revolutionary ideals, a desire to contribute, respect for the rule of law, ethics, social responsibility, civic consciousness, and a healthy lifestyle, the directive also emphasises equipping learners with a range of competencies and skills. In particular, this includes new competencies such as digital literacy and the capacity for international integration, as well as social skills and the ability for lifelong learning, all essential for meeting the nation’s development needs in this new era.
It is clear that Directive No. 10-CT/TW does not prioritise political, ideological, or moral education to the exclusion or detriment of the knowledge, competencies, and skills that learners require. It does not, as some erroneous narratives have deliberately claimed, set “qualities” in opposition to “competencies.”
On the contrary, the directive integrates and unifies both aspects, grounded in a robust reform of teaching methods and organisational structures. By shifting toward a competency-based, learner-centred approach, it aims to cultivate individuals who possess both a solid foundation of values and ethics, and the capacity to adapt and act effectively within a new environment.
This is a highly sound policy; experience has shown that competencies, if divorced from a foundation of ethics, responsibility, and value-based orientation, can be misused for improper ends. Conversely, qualities that are not translated into actionable competencies struggle to meet the demands of real-world practice.
In the current context, this integrated approach, combining qualities with competencies, further underscores the relevance and validity of Directive No. 10-CT/TW. Therefore, alongside proactively identifying and exposing the reactionary nature and distortions inherent in erroneous arguments, thereby enabling timely and effective counter-arguments, it is essential to promote and disseminate the core tenets and new aspects of Directive No. 10-CT/TW.
This includes developing and spreading official, positive, and constructive information. Such efforts will help unify understanding and enhance the sense of responsibility among all levels, sectors, educational institutions, families, and learners. Ultimately, this will facilitate the swift integration of these directives into educational practice, contributing to the development of the Vietnamese individual in the new era, in line with current requirements.
