LookAtVietnam – Increasing co-operation between the education and museum sectors would enhance students’ learning at all levels, from primary school to the university,

Ho Chi Minh City children visit the War Remnants Museum as part of their study.

Education officials from high schools and universities also gathered at the City Museum to discuss future co-operation among schools and museums.

Do Lan Huong, deputy head of the HCM City Museum’s Propagation and Education Department, said field trips to museums should become a major extra-curricular activity.

Phan Thi Yen Tuyet, lecturer at the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said museums should send up-to-date information to universities and faculties on their programmes.

Creating a friendly environment with more space for studying and playing at museums would help attract more students to visit after school hours, she said.

Professor Duong Trung Quoc, general secretary of the Viet Nam History Association, said many museum spaces were narrow and cramped.

Huong said that schools often organised large groups of students for one-day tours at museums, which leads to overcrowding and a lack of suitable space for studying.

Tours for youngsters

Many of the seminar attendees proposed that special tours, separate from the regular tours for visitors, should be developed with younger students in mind.

Museums and teachers should work together to create tours and programmes that would enhance learning, said Le Thi Hong Viet, headmaster of Go Vap district’s Nguyen Du High School.

Many museums have organised thematic tours about the history of HCM City or Sai Gon’s patriots during the period from the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, and have taken their exhibitions to local schools and rural areas.

Since the start of the year, museums in the city have attracted more than 160,000 students to visit and study, well above the municipal People’s Committee’s target of 100,000 students.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News