HCM City strives for “smart” schools

Students at Le Quy Don Secondary School use a 3D printer and scanner and other devices in a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) classroom (Photo: doimoisangtao.vn)

Speaking at a recent conference on smart education, Liem said the city’s Department of Education and Training had set up IT application architecture and a shared database for the entire educational sector.

Liem said the city wanted to develop a smart city with human resources who can take advantage of scientific and technological advances.

A smart city will require people with the necessary skills and knowledge to adapt to a new working environment in the 4.0 industry era, he said, adding that teaching methodologies must also be reformed.

Liem said that schools and universities in the city were carrying out many pilot smart education models which have had positive achievements.

In the 2019-20 academic year, the city is piloting a project called a Smart School at five high schools - Nguyen Du; Le Quy Don; Thuong Hien; and Tran Dai Nghia and Le Hong Phong Schools for the Gifted.

Truong Thi Le Ha, Vice Rector of Le Hong Phong School for the Gifted in District 5, said the school has classrooms equipped with advanced technologies which aid teaching and learning. Artificial intelligence also has been taught widely in the school, Ha said.

Although Le Quy Don Secondary School in District 3 was not chosen to pilot a Smart School project, it has invested in building advanced STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) practice classrooms with 3D printers and scanners and other modern devices.

The classroom helped the school win 2019 I-Star Awards from the HCM City Department of Science and Technology. Students use the room to make robots or other items.

Many school managers said they were seriously considering STEM application, an approach to learning and development that integrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics. However, the STEM approach has not yet been used widely in the city because of the high cost of implementation, they said.

Director of the Department of Education and Training Le Hong Son said the city had seen a high growth of students year-by-year, which has affected educational quality and created barriers to implementing advanced teaching models.

Funds for developing infrastructure for schools to develop smart education are limited, according to Son.

According to the department, the city has 2,283 kindergartens, primary, secondary and high schools, and continuing education centres.

There are 54 universities, 52 colleges, 64 vocational training centres and 82 professional education centres in the city.

The total number of students is more than 2 million. There are 100,000 teachers, lecturers and scientists in the city's education sector.