Caring for education and training in ethnic minority and mountainous areas

In recent years, the education and training (E&T) career in ethnic minority and mountainous areas (EMM) has received special attention from the Party, the State, authorities at all levels, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Provincial People's Committee through policies, support and investment for development. Thanks to that, the E&T career in EMM and MN areas in the province has had significant changes.

Prepare ethnic minority children well for first grade

The project “Enhancing Vietnamese for preschool children and students in ethnic minority areas in the period of 2016 - 2020, with a vision to 2025” has been implemented by schools through many effective solutions to improve the quality of Vietnamese language teaching for ethnic minority students, ensuring that students meet the Vietnamese language proficiency standards of each class. Accordingly, schools have organized preparatory Vietnamese language teaching for first graders in the summer; organized training for 100% of managers and teachers on teaching Vietnamese to ethnic minority students. Along with that, building a Vietnamese communication environment for students through Vietnamese teaching activities in subjects and educational activities such as organizing learning games, increasing teaching time, Vietnamese exchange activities... As a result, in the 2022 - 2023 school year, 11,260/11,551 ethnic minority students completed the class program, reaching a rate of 97.5%.

1 teaching period at Dong Tien Primary and Secondary School

Along with that, primary education institutions organize teaching and learning ethnic minority languages in accordance with actual conditions and students' needs. Accordingly, the whole province has 4 districts, 12 schools, 152 classes with 3,679 students learning Cham language. The units implement teaching Cham language 2-4 periods/week in accordance with the school's reality. As a result, 3,674/3,679 students completed the Cham language program, reaching a rate of 99.9%. In addition, schools also strengthen the organization of topics, build model activities in the field of language development, enhance life skills education, help children be bold and confident in communication, focus on educating necessary social skills to prepare children well for grade 1.

Pay attention to investing in education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas

In addition, the network of schools and classrooms, especially schools with a large number of ethnic minority students, has been invested in and built to be more and more spacious, ensuring adequate conditions to gradually improve the quality of teaching and learning. In particular, the specialized education system (boarding schools for ethnic minorities, semi-boarding schools for ethnic minorities) has increasingly promoted positive effects. Policies and regimes for managers, teachers and students who are ethnic minorities are fully, promptly and in accordance with regulations. Facilities meet the learning needs of students studying 2 sessions/day, all schools have subject classrooms for students to practice practical subjects. Dormitories and cafeterias are reasonably arranged within the school's area, meeting the needs of boarding and entertainment for students. In addition, localities have promptly resolved other policies and regimes according to central regulations and provincial regulations related to teachers and students such as allowances for teachers, support regimes for organizing Cham language teaching, regimes for ethnic minority students with very small populations, regimes supporting books, notebooks, rice, lunch for students in mountainous areas, and regimes for students with disabilities...

The Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, the Association for the Promotion of Education at all levels, the Fund "Helping Children Go to School", the collective of cadres, teachers and employees actively participate in mobilizing children to go to class and return to school; build and maintain many models to help students in difficult circumstances, poor students, ethnic minority students... Thanks to that, the rate of students going to school has increased, the number of students repeating grades and dropping out of school has decreased. As evidence, the rate of ethnic minority and preschool students dropping out of school every year has decreased significantly; the rate of students graduating from junior high school and high school has increased, especially the high school graduation rate of ethnic minority boarding students in the 3 years, from 2021 reaching 99.63%; in the 2022 and 2023 school years, it reached 100%, an increase of 0.37% and maintained the annual graduation rate...

According to the Department of Education and Training, in addition to the results achieved, there are currently many teachers who have not been trained in ethnic languages according to the prescribed standards. Therefore, there is no specialized expertise in this subject, and current ethnic minority language teachers are mainly trained and educated locally. On the other hand, teachers all work in ethnic minority areas, but the policy only applies to areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions, while ethnic minority and mountainous areas do not enjoy the policy.

To improve the quality of education and training in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, the provincial education and training sector continues to improve the structure of the system and network of educational institutions, diversifying the forms of teaching and learning organization. Continuously improve the quality of education, flexibly implement educational programs suitable to the learning conditions of learners, linking education with the practical socio-economic development and cultural characteristics of the locality. Along with that, develop and improve the quality of the teaching staff and educational managers to ensure sufficient quantity, professional standards, and reasonable structure. Fully implement policies for teachers and learners. Increase budget investment and facilities for ethnic education...

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