Comrade Nguyen Xuan Thang, Member of the Political Bureau, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, and Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, presided over the meeting of the Council for evaluating the Son La Provincial Political School's achievement of Level 1 standards. Photo: PV

The Son La Provincial Political School, formerly the Son La Provincial Party School, was established on December 20, 1962. Following the directives of the Central Committee and the Provincial Party Committee, on November 11, 1993, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 666/QD-UB merging three schools: the Provincial Party School, the Provincial Administrative School, and the Lo Van Gia Youth Union School, to form the Provincial Cadre Training and Development School. In accordance with Decision No. 88/QD/TW dated September 5, 1994, of the Central Secretariat, on May 31, 1995, the Standing Committee of the Son La Provincial Party Committee issued Decision No. 738-QD/TU renaming the Provincial Cadre Training and Development School to the Son La Provincial Political School.

Over 63 years of construction and development, the Provincial Political School has strived to overcome all difficulties, effectively organizing the emulation movement "Teaching well, learning well, serving well"; promoting its role and function as a center for training and fostering key leading and managerial cadres of the Party Committee, government, and political and social organizations; strengthening scientific research; improving the quality of training and fostering cadres, effectively serving the cause of reform, industrialization, and modernization of the province. The school also participates in training political theory cadres for provinces of neighboring Laos, contributing to fulfilling the international obligations of our Party and State.

In accordance with Regulation No. 11-QD/TW dated May 19, 2021, of the Secretariat of the Central Committee on standard political schools, the Son La Provincial Political School advised the Working Group of the Provincial Party Standing Committee to develop and issue Project No. 08-DA/TU dated January 19, 2023, on building and developing the Son La Provincial Political School to meet standards in the period 2022-2025, with a vision to 2030. The project sets the goal of achieving Level 1 standard by 2025 and the orientation to achieve Level 2 standard by 2030.

The Board of Directors of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, along with leaders of Son La province, congratulated the Provincial Political School on being assessed as meeting Level 1 standards. Photo: Khai Hoan

Based on that, the School has concretized these into plans and implemented them synchronously: consolidating the organizational structure, standardizing the staff and lecturers; innovating the content and methods of training and professional development; promoting scientific research and summarizing practical experiences; building a Party school culture; and investing in modern facilities and equipment. All activities were carried out seriously and according to the evaluation process outlined in Guidance No. 61-HD/HVCTQG of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics. To date, the Son La Provincial Political School has been assessed as achieving Level 1 standards, with 6 out of 6 groups of criteria and 55 out of 55 indicators meeting the standards. Of these, 8 indicators exceeded Level 1 standards and approached Level 2 standards, with outstanding results:

The school has focused on perfecting its institutional framework and regulations, ensuring consistency, systematic approach, timeliness, and appropriateness to the school's practical work, creating motivation for staff, employees, and students to strive to complete their tasks well. At the same time, it actively participates in providing feedback on central government documents related to the school's functions and responsibilities.

The standardization of faculty and staff has received attention, achieving 29 out of 29 targets, with 4 targets exceeding the standard. Currently, the school has 34 out of 34 lecturers with a master's degree or higher, exceeding the standard by 10%; including 2 PhDs, 1 lecturer currently pursuing doctoral studies, and 1 lecturer registered for doctoral studies in 2025. The heads and deputy heads of departments have successfully proposed 15 school-level scientific research projects; 100% of lecturers have certificates in Marxist-Leninist classics and Ho Chi Minh Thought, exceeding the standard by 20%; and 64.7% of lecturers hold the rank of senior lecturer (grade II staff) or equivalent or higher, exceeding the standard by 4.7%.

The quality of training and professional development is constantly improving, including: training in intermediate-level political theory; and training for target groups according to Regulation No. 09-QDi/TW dated November 13, 2018, of the Secretariat of the Central Committee on the functions, tasks, and organizational structure of provincial and centrally-administered city political schools. Currently, the school is implementing intermediate-level political theory training for district-level officials and department-level leaders of the committees, departments, and agencies of 9 provinces of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. The school innovates teaching methods and content, linking theory with practice, and seriously carries out self-inspection and evaluation of training and professional development quality. In 5 years, the school has opened 135 training and professional development classes, including 68 intermediate-level political theory classes (3,763 students). The school has successfully conducted 17 out of 51 intensive classes, achieving a rate of 1/3 and meeting Level 1 standards.

Scientific research and practical experience summation activities achieved 9 out of 9 targets, with 3 targets exceeding the standard. The school carried out 22 school-level research projects, exceeding the standard by 46.6%; advised the Provincial Party Committee on the issuance of 2 provincial-level projects and implemented 2 provincial-level scientific research projects, exceeding the standard by 33.3%; organized 5 provincial-level and equivalent scientific seminars and workshops, exceeding the standard by 46.63%. Research topics focused on evaluating and testing the practical implementation of the Party's guidelines and major policies of the State and the province in the locality, identifying limitations and their causes, and proposing solutions to overcome them; while also serving training and professional development. The school published 5 specialized and reference books with rich content and guaranteed quality. It also published 15 publications on theoretical and practical information. We built the school's website http://truongchinhtri.sonla.gov.vn/, with regularly updated information and nearly 237,000 visits.

Based on the regulations of the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy on cultural conduct in Party schools, the Party Committee and the School's Board of Directors launched a campaign for 100% of cadres, staff, and workers to implement cultural conduct in Party schools according to regulations; organized a competition for students excelling in political theory, honing leadership and management skills, and cultivating the ethics and style of grassroots cadres. They also effectively implemented the study and emulation of Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality, and style. Over the past five years, the Party organization and the Board of Directors have been assessed as having successfully completed their tasks; the school as a whole, the departments and offices, and many individuals have received commendations from the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy and the Son La Provincial People's Committee.

Infrastructure and technical facilities have received attention, achieving 3 out of 3 targets and exceeding 1 target. Currently, the Son La Provincial Political School is allocated over 115,608 m2 of land, exceeding the standard by 5.8 times. All construction projects are fully and synchronously built according to regulations, including the construction of a new multi-purpose gymnasium; renovation and upgrading of lecture halls; and the addition of equipment to serve teaching, learning, and training, meeting the requirements for improving the quality of training, education, scientific research, and practical experience summation; ensuring an increase in the school's centralized training scale. The school has implemented 8 software programs within the province's digital transformation support package. Financial planning, allocation, use, and management are carried out in accordance with regulations, openly and transparently.

With renewed enthusiasm, determination, and pride, the Son La Provincial Political School will continue to strive to build an exemplary political education environment, upholding discipline, order, democracy, and unity; constantly innovating the content and methods of teaching; closely linking theory with practice, contributing to the training and development of cadres with sufficient qualities, capabilities, and prestige, commensurate with their tasks... making practical contributions to the rapid and sustainable development of Son La province in the new era.

Some images showcasing the outstanding activities of the Provincial Political School.

Leaders from Son La province and nine provinces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic attended the opening ceremony of the Intermediate-level Political Theory course for officials from the provinces of Laos.

Scientific conference on protecting the Party's ideological foundation and combating false and hostile viewpoints in Son La province, 2023.

Certificates were awarded to lecturers who achieved the title of excellent lecturer at the school level in 2023.

Presenting commemorative flags to students participating in the 2024 Excellent Political Theory Student Competition.