Dissemination of Love for Heritage

The cultural heritage education program in schools launched by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has contributed to arouse love for heritage of the students in their own homeland.

"Softening" the history

Relic models from recycled materials and paintings composed by students of Thanh Ha township Primary School

In the summation session of the heritage education program in schools in 2020 recently organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism at Thanh Ha township Primary School, all the people present were impressed with the water puppet show "Teu Giao Dau" performed by Tran Thi Ngoc Anh, a student of Class 5C. When the distinctive voice of the water puppetry performance resounded, all the eyes were attracted. If not watching it live, it’s hard to believe that it is the performance of a girl aged 11. This is one of the results that the heritage education program brings. Ngoc Anh shared that after visiting the historical site and watching the water puppetry, being instructed to practice the repertory by an artist, I really enjoyed it so I practiced it to perform to everyone. "I wish to have chances to visit more and more interesting places like that," Anh said.

In October 2020, over 800 students of Thanh Ha Primary School participated in the heritage education program. With the support of professional staff from Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the school has deployed the program to all classes through many diversified and attractive activities. Students in grade 1 and grade 2 could participate in developmental folk games. Students in grade 3, grade 4 and grade 5 could visit and experience at the relics of Minh Khanh Pagoda and Thanh Hai Water Puppet Troupe. After the tour, the students were instructed how to sculpt statues, draw pictures on historical relic topics, write perceptions and make relic models from recycled materials. In the summation session, there were many articles, pictures and nice, impressive models composed by the students.

Ms. Le Thi Chinh, Principal of Thanh Ha township Primary School said that this program is really helpful, the teachers are provided with more documents on specific local cultural heritages, helping to easily integrate information into academic subjects. "In the coming time, the school will implement this program more deeply, will integrate appropriate contents of the program into other subjects, especially life skills education subject", Ms. Chinh said.

Cultural heritage education program in schools has been implemented by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism since 2015. Up to now, there have been about 3,000 students in Thanh Mien district, Ninh Giang district, Thanh Ha district, Chi Linh city and Kinh Mon town experiencing the program. The interest of the program is that the students participate in not only theory but also practical experience through learning about famous historical monuments in their locality. At the end of each field trip, students have to exchange and discuss to write compositions, draw pictures or tell stories about their own feelings and thoughts about the trip. This increases students’ interactivity and discovery. History lessons about relics and heritage are thus easy to acquire, equipping them with knowledge and giving them opportunities to promote their creativity through compositions.

This should be replicated

Presentation of Nghia An commune Primary School students (Ninh Giang) about cultural heritage

By far, the heritage education for young people through the system of monuments and typical cultural institutions is a method highly appreciated and judged by cultural experts and educational experts. Responding to the initiative by Ministry of Education and Training, the schools also conduct extra-curricular programs for students to visit, have picnics to historical and cultural sites. However, for many reasons, most of them are not really effective. In fact, for the students, visits to museums and relics are closer to the meaning of having fun than learning. Few teachers asked them to write articles, or to have compositions after each trip, it is thus difficult to leave really profound lessons to young people. Therefore, the requirements that the heritage education program being implemented by Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism can partly overcome this weakness.

Participating in the program, the teachers are supported by the department's experts on materials for books, pictures, tapes or maps on historical and cultural relics so that the teachers can have full teaching information. In addition, to ensure the best teaching effectiveness, teachers are also trained on how to integrate this program into the core academic subjects. All participating students must have articles, drawings ... about each field trip. However, the difficulty that the program is facing is the lack of funds and human resources, so despite the ambition to organize widely in the province, each year the department can only deploy this program for 1 or 2 schools. In addition, schools cannot spend too much time outside the assigned program to regularly organize extra-curricular programs, while each program designed by Dept. of Culture, Sports and Tourism usually lasts about one month.

Therefore, in order to put heritage education into practice, it is very necessary to have close coordination between cultural and educational interdisciplinary sectors. Hopefully, in the coming time, relevant agencies will take appropriate measures to promote more effectiveness from the program, contributing to replicate the love for heritage and the sense of conservation and promotion of heritage values ​​in young generations.

HUYEN ANH