CHAPTER THREE
CULTURE, EDUCATION, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY
Article 30
The State and society seek to preserve and develop Vietnamese culture, which shall be national, modern, and humanistic; it shall inherit and promote the values of the cultures of all nationalities in Vietnam, the thought, morality and style of Ho Chi Minh, the quintessence of human culture; all creative talent among the people shall be developed to the full.
The State undertakes the overall administration of cultural activities. The propagation of all reactionary and depraved thought and culture is forbidden; superstitions and harmful customs are to be eliminated.
Article 31
The State shall create favourable conditions for the citizens to develop all-sidedly; it shall undertake civic education and urge people to live and work in accordance with the Constitution and the law, to set up families that are cultured and happy, marked by patriotism, love of socialism, a genuinely internationalist spirit, friendship and cooperation with all nations in the world.
Article 32
Literature and art contribute to fostering the personality of and nurturing spiritual nobility and beauty in the Vietnamese man.
The State shall make investments for the promotion of culture, literature and art; it shall create favourable conditions for the people’s enjoyment of valuable literary and artistic works; it shall give its patronage to creative talent in literature and the arts.
The State shall promote diversity in literary and artistic activity; it shall give encouragement to mass literary and artistic activities.
Article 33
The State shall promote information work, the press, radio, television, cinema, publishing, libraries and other means of mass communication. Shall be strictly banned all activities in the fields of culture and information that are detrimental to national interests, and destructive of the personality, morals, and fine lifeway of the Vietnamese.
Article 34
The State and society seek to preserve and develop the national cultural heritage; they take good care of preservation and museum work; they look after the repair and maintenance of, and seek to obtain the best effects from, historical vestiges, revolutionary relics, items of the national heritage, artistic works, and places with beautiful scenery.
All acts in infringing historical vestiges, revolutionary relics, art works and places with beautiful scenery are strictly forbidden.
Article 35
Education and training are top-priority policies.
The State develops educational work with a view to heightening the people’s spirit, training manpower, and fostering talent.
The aim of education is to form and nurture the personality, moral qualities, and abilities of the citizen; to train working people and equip them with skills, to imbue them with dynamism and creativeness, national pride, good morality, and the will to strive for national prosperity, so as to meet the need to build and defend the country.
Article 36
The State undertakes the overall management of the national system of education with regard to the objectives, contents, plans, the standards required of teachers, the regulations governing examinations and competitions and the system of diplomas and certificates.
The State shall ensure the harmonious development of the educational system: pre-school education, general education, vocational training, college and post-graduate education; it shall enforce the generalisation of primary education, eliminate illiteracy; it shall develop various educational institutions: State-run schools, people-run schools, and others.
The State gives priority investment to education and encouragement to other investors.
Priority investment is reserved for educational work in the high- lands, in regions inhabited by national minorities and in regions encountering special difficulties.
Mass organisations, first of all the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, social organisations, economic bodies, the family and the school all bear responsibility for the education of the youth, teenagers and children.
Article 37
Science and technology play a key role in the country’s socio-economic development.
The State works out and implements a national policy on science and technology; strives to build an advanced science and technology; sees to a well-coordinated development of all scientific branches with the aim of laying a scientific groundwork for the enactment of lines, policies and laws, renovating technologies, promoting productive forces, upgrading managerial skills, ensuring proper standards and rate of economic development, and contributing to national defence and security.
Article 38
The State makes investment in and gives financial assistance to science through various channels, priority being reserved for vanguard sciences and technologies. It looks after the training and rational use of scientific and technical cadres particularly highly-qualified ones, skilled workers and artisans; it strives to create favourable conditions for creative work by scientists; devises many forms of organisation and activity for researchers, ties scientific research to the requirements of socio-economic development, ensures good coordination between scientific research and training on the one hand and production and trading on the other.
Article 39
The State makes investment in, ensures the development of, and exercises unified management over the protection of the people’s health; it mobilises and organises all social forces in the building and development of Vietnamese medicine following a far-sighted orientation; prevention shall be combined with treatment, traditional medicine and pharmacology with modern medicine and pharmacology, State health services with people’s health services; the State shall see to the organisation of health insurance and create the necessary conditions for all citizens to enjoy health care.
Priority is given to the programme of health care for highlanders and national minorities.
It is strictly forbidden to private organisations and individuals to dispense medical treatment, to produce and trade in medicaments illegally, thereby damaging the people’s health.
Article 40
It is the responsibility of the State, society, the family and the citizen to ensure care and protection for mothers and children; to carry into effect the population programme and family planning.
Article 41
The State and society shall develop a system of physical culture and sports that is national, scientific and popular.
The State exercises overall management for the development of physical culture and sports; it shall establish a regime of compulsory physical culture in the school; it shall give encouragement and assistance to various forms of physical culture and sports activity freely practised by the people; it shall create the necessary conditions for the unceasing expansion of mass activity in physical culture and sports; it shall pay attention to activities in professional sports and to the fostering of sports talent.
Article 42
The State and society shall promote tourism; tourist activities shall be expanded at home and internationally.
Article 43
The State shall expand international intercourse and cooperation in the fields of culture, information, literature, art, science, technology, education, health care, physical culture and sports.
