Workshop on Discovery and Re-discovery of the Muong Culture through Education in Thanh Hoi Commune
On 9th September 2011, the Center for Environment and Community Assets Development (CECAD), which is under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), jointly organised with the Thanh Hoi Middle School a workshop on Discovery and Re-discovery of the Muong Culture through Education in Thanh Hoi Commune to evaluate project activities of the project entitled “Discovery and Re-discovery of the Muong culture through education in Thanh Hoi commune, Tan Lac district, Hoa Binh province”. The project was funded by the Ford Foundation (USA) and implemented at the Thanh Hoi Middle School in the school year of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.
In addition to CECAD staff, there were some 50 representatives, including leaders from the Hoa Binh Provincial Education and Training Department, the People’s Committee of Tan Lac District, the Tan Lac District Education and Training Office, the People’s Committee of Thanh Hoi commune, neighbouring Middle Schools, all teachers and representative students from the Sixth Grade of Thanh Hoi Middle school attending the workshop.
CECAD project staff reported an evaluation of the implementation process of the project, as well as its objectives, content, methodology applied by the project and the results of the project. By applying new educational approaches, such as creative thinking students have become more active and creative through participatory observation, experience, group discussions and presentations of their research findings. Moreover, students of the sixth grade who attended classes on the three selected topics, including món cá ốt tồ (making steamed fish with bamboo shoots), xe đác (water wheel), and cây thuốc và bài thuốc thuyền thống của người Mường (medicinal plants and Muong people’s traditional remedy) could understand their Muong culture better.
Those teachers of the Thanh Hoi Middle School that had participated in the activities of the three topics mentioned above reported the implementation process, lessons learnt and the advantages and challenges of the application of the project results to other subjects in the school
The Deputy Director of the Hoa Binh Provincial Education and Training Department, vice-president of the Tan Lac People’s Committee, leaders of the Tan Lac District Education and Training Office and the People’s Committee of Thanh Hoi commune highly appreciated the success, the scientific and practical values of the project. Many representatives and teachers congratulated the success of the project and expressed their wish to receive continued support from CECAD as well as the authorities of all levels in order to maintain and apply the new teaching methods and skills, which they have learnt from the project to other subjects for the entire middle school students.
Representatives, teachers and students visited the exhibition room where all items and project results on display were made or contributed by students and teachers. After that they watched a film on the project activities. All participants, especially the teachers and students of the Thanh Hoi Middle School were very happy to see themselves in the film, an impression that they had never experienced before.
The workshop was a great success. CECAD and the teachers of the Thanh Hoi Middle school will continue the collaboration to implement the remaining activities of the project, one of which is to complete a manual disseminating approaches that integrate local cultures and the environment into middle school programs. All of this aims to apply the approaches to other schools where the majority of the students are Muon
