In an effort to comprehensively and fundamentally innovate education, many schools across Da Nang have increased the organisation of experiential activities at historical and cultural relics and traditional craft villages for their pupils.

This not only creates liveliness and intimacy in teaching and learning, but also arouses pride and awareness of protecting and preserving historical relics and cultural heritages of the homeland among pupils.

Pupils of the Nguyen Phu Huong Junior High School in Hoa Tien Commune, Hoa Vang District, introduce historical figures in the form of dramatisation. Photo: K.NGUYEN

Joy and excitement are the feelings of the "pupil tourists" when participating in the experiential activity, recently organised by the Hai Chau District-based Le Hong Phong Junior High School, at Mr. Huynh Van Muoi's fish sauce making facility located in Man Thai Ward, Son Tra District.

Accordingly, pupils were introduced to how to make traditional fish sauce, and familiar types of fish sauce found in the daily meals of people in central Viet Nam.

More interestingly, they can mix the ingredients themselves, make the finished product and bring home jars of fish sauce as gifts for their families.

Excitedly participating in the steps of filtering fish sauce and making instant salted shrimp sauce, Nguyen Vinh Ky, 8^th grader of the Le Hong Phong Junior High School, shared that this was a very useful trip, and they hope to visit the place again.

“Instant salted shrimp sauce is a familiar dish of my family, but today I just learned how to make it and made it myself. Coming to the traditional craft village, we learned a lot of useful social and historical knowledge. If I have the opportunity, I want to experience more famous traditional craft villages in Da Nang such as rice paper, Quang noodles, and sesame seeds making facilities” Ky added.

The local education subject in the new education programme requires pupils to have knowledge in many aspects such as history, geography, society, and traditional craft villages. Therefore, the organisation of field trips to museums, relics, and traditional craft villages is very meaningful, which not only supplements lessons in class, but also improves communication skills and increases social knowledge for pupils.

Mr. Le Van Suc, Head of History Team at the Le Hong Phong Junior High School, said that the school regularly organises filed trips to museums citywide or craft villages in Hoi An City (Quang Nam Province) for its pupils. Each field trip or extracurricular activity helps school pupils have practical experiences and learn better.

"Through these activities, the school hopes that pupils will be aware of preserving and maintaining the traditional crafts left by their ancestors, in order to contribute to the development of craft villages and promote the cultural values ​​of their homeland", said Mr. Suc.

Hoa Vang District houses the most historical and cultural relics in the city with 35 ranked relics, including 6 national-level and 29 municipal-level ones. With the advantage of this rich cultural and historical resource, schools in the district pay special attention to organising extracurricular educational activities, returning to the source, and visiting red addresses for students.

Notably, the Nguyen Phu Huong Junior High School based in Hoa Tien Commune has many vivid and visual forms of historical education.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, Principal of the school, said that the school established the “I Love History” Club which organises monthly activities with topics about famous people, relics, and historical battles in visual form. In the 2023-2024 school year, the Club organided a visit and study tour at the Cam Ne village communal house, attracting nearly 100 pupils to participate.

The school plans to organise 1-2 experiential activities each year for all pupils at historical sites in the district in order to help them learn about the history, culture, and revolutionary traditions of their homeland.

“In these activities, teachers combine teaching history with educating students on ethics, lifestyle, and life skills. This helps arouse pride, love for the homeland, and appreciation for the cultural beauty of the place where they live,” Ms. Nga shared.

According to Deputy Head of the Education and Training Office of Hoa Vang District Phan Huu Dung, extracurricular activities, experiences, and visits to historical sites and red addresses are of interest to schools. In the 2022-2023 school year, these activities attracted more than 8,300 preschoolers, primary and junior high school pupils to participate, and this number increased to nearly 12,000 in the 2023-2024 academic year.

In addition, extracurricular educational activities in schools are also constantly innovated in both organisation methods and content, aimed to create closeness and excitement for pupils.

In extracurricular lessons, historical materials are always integrated by teachers in many forms such as presentations, games, and quizzes with prizes to teach knowledge in a lively way, suitable for pupils' ages. This creates a diverse and rich educational environment and methods, helping pupils have practical experiences, appreciate, preserve and promote the traditional cultural values ​​of their homeland.

Reporting by KHOI NGUYEN - Translating by M.DUNG