School violence in Vietnam has become so serious that the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) had to organize a national online conference to discuss the solutions. Nearly 20,000 teachers and managerial officers attended the event on April 17.

Prior to that, the Hung Yen Education & Training Department organized an online conference after a ninth female grader was beaten and hospitalized.

The provincial authorities of Quang Ninh, where a series of violence cases occurred recently, have also stated a conference on ensuring security in school will be organized in the locality.

Nha, at the national conference, emphasized the important role of the staff of 1.4 million teachers in teaching ethics and preventing school violence.

He said teachers must not be ‘teaching workers’, who come to class when lessons begin and leave the office when school hours finish. They must be ‘educators’ who love students and understand them. Those who violate teachers’ ethics must stop teaching, rather than move to other classes or other schools.

“Teachers must have pedagogical skills and love for students. The training curriculum must be adjusted and teachers must be trained to become educators, not teaching workers,” Nha said.

Nguyen Van Hoa, chair of Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary School, put emphasis on ethics lessons at school.

During his 20 years of working as headmaster, he had to spend time to deal with problems between students, teachers, and parents. However, the situation improved since the school began teaching value and life skills for one 45-minute period a day.

“Students have learned life skills, teachers have learned how to control their feelings and give psychological advice to students,” he said, adding that the school’s environment has changed and these problems no longer exist.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Minh, rector of the Hanoi University of Education, strongly proposed to tighten control over games and videos on the internet.

“We still cannot control cyberspace, so many problems have arisen,” he said, adding that the effects from online violence games, negligence of families and the lack of life skills are the causes of school violence.

Nguyen Tung Lam, chair of the Hanoi Psychology Association, agrees that teachers play a very important role in forming students’ personality. If teachers are observant and communicative, students will ask for their advice and tell them about serious problems.

In general, educators all believe that school violence needs to be settled by psychological counseling and advice, not physical punishment.

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