Hanoi staged a ceremony at the Van Mieu (Temple of Literature)’s Thai Hoc Courtyard on November 13 to mark 950 years of Quoc Tu Giam (Imperial Academy) under the theme “Essence of Learning”, with the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, National Assembly, President, Government, Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee and Hanoi city as organisers.
The event drew former and incumbent Party, State, Government, National Assembly, and VFF leaders, central and local officials, diplomats and international organisations, heritage agencies, scholarly families, scientists, researchers, teachers, educational establishments and top valedictorians.
General Secretary of the CPV Central Committee and President To Lam and delegates opened the ceremony by offering incense at the Thai Hoc House in memory of the sages and notable figures, then watched a documentary tracing Quoc Tu Giam’s near-millennium history as Thang Long’s first university and the institutional start of Vietnam’s talent training mission.
In his opening speech, General Secretary and President Lam said the founders’ thousand-year-old vision still carries profound theoretical and practical significance. National strength, he said, is not gauged by economic size or defence potential alone but by cultural depth, brainpower, resolve, human dignity and the aspiration to rise.
To carry Quoc Tu Giam’s values forward, he called for preserving the Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam heritage and putting its spirit into daily school life. He asked Hanoi to work closely with culture, education and research agencies to complete open digitised materials on the relic soon.
He pushed for wider equal access to learning, more creative room for teachers and a lifelong-learning culture, saying that priority must go to remote, far-flung and ethnic minority areas, with every disadvantaged child and disabled student properly schooled. Education managers, he said, must streamline the apparatus and cut red tape so teachers can focus on lectures, research and their mission to impart knowledge, build character and nurture dreams. Universities and vocational establishments should partner with businesses and research institutes so learners can test knowledge against real-world problems, and schools should become incubators for outstanding ideas and talent.
Party committees at all levels were asked to vigorously follow the Politburo’s Resolution 71 on breakthroughs in education and training, the Party Central Committee’s Conclusion 105 on strategic directions for attracting and employing talent, and the Politburo’s Resolution 80 on Vietnamese culture development.
He set his sights on 2076 when Quoc Tu Giam turns one thousand years old. Future generations, he said, should inherit not only an intact thousand-year heritage but also the values, thought and aspirations around talent and learning that light Vietnam’s path to advance alongside the world’s powers.
The ceremony continued with a music show portraying Vietnam’s talent training tradition and development aspirations.
Before the ceremony, the Party and State leader visited an photo exhibition “From Heritage to Cultural Diplomacy”, co-staged by the Vietnam News Agency and Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam Centre for Cultural and Scientific Activities to mark the anniversary.
