Innovation and improvement of education quality in ethnic minority areas

Consistently implementing the ethnic policy of "Equality, solidarity, mutual assistance, and mutual development", the Party and State always consider education and training as the top national policy; a basic condition to ensure the implementation of socio-economic goals, construction and protection of the country in general, and ethnic minority and mountainous areas in particular.

The rate of students in ethnic minority and mountainous areas going to school is increasing day by day. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

Institutionalize the Party and State's guidelines and policies

Since the renovation period, the Party and State have always paid attention to the cause of education and training, creating conditions for education and training to go ahead as a solid foundation to effectively serve the socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Conclusion No. 65/KL-TW dated October 30, 2019 of the 12th Politburo clearly stated: “Improve the quality of education and training for ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Maintain and promote the achievements of eliminating illiteracy, universalizing preschool education for 5-year-old children, universalizing primary and secondary education. Improve the quality and expand the system of ethnic boarding and semi-boarding schools; support food and accommodation for students in extremely difficult areas. Innovate the admission method towards nomination, university preparatory regime, vocational training for ethnic minorities; have a mechanism to take care of the lives of teachers and educational managers working in ethnic minority and mountainous areas”.

The 13th National Party Congress continued to emphasize “Paying due attention to educational development in mountainous areas, highlands, islands, and ethnic minority areas... Having specific investment policies for disadvantaged areas and ethnic minority areas”.

Through each Congress, based on the theoretical and practical achievements, the Party's documents on education and training have increasingly paid more attention to regional characteristics in policy proposals, closely following the reality of educational development in order to propose appropriate policies, ensuring effectiveness and feasibility in the implementation process. Up to now, the system of normative and legal documents has become increasingly synchronized, creating a legal basis to promote the development of education and training in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Specifically, Article 61 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates that “The State prioritizes the development of education in mountainous areas, islands, ethnic minority areas and areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions.”

The 2005 Law on Education and the 2009 Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2009 Law on Education have a number of provisions regulating policies to support and invest in the development of education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas and areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions.

The Government has issued 42 legal documents on ethnic minority and mountainous education or related to ethnic minority and mountainous education such as: Decree No. 116/2016/ND-CP, dated July 18, 2016 of the Government "Regulating policies to support students and general schools in communes and villages with special difficulties"; Decision No. 159/2002/QD-TTg dated November 15, 2002 on "Implementing the Program to solidify preschool and general schools and classrooms. Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021-2030, including implementing Project 5 on developing education and training to improve the quality of human resources...

Step by step affirming the quality of education and training

With the above policies and guidelines, education and training in ethnic minority areas have achieved important results from preschool to high school, meeting the learning needs of ethnic minority children and strengthening the contingent of ethnic minority cadres and civil servants.

The system of educational facilities from preschool to high school has been consolidated and developed. According to the results of the 2019 Survey of 53 Ethnic Minorities, the country has nearly 21,600 schools and 26,500 school locations in ethnic minority areas. The rate of solid schools and school locations has gradually increased according to the levels of education from preschool to high school.

The political system at all levels has paid attention to directing the construction of kindergartens, the first level of education in the national education system, laying the foundation for the physical, emotional, social and aesthetic development of children in ethnic minority areas with a total of 6.4 thousand schools and nearly 10.9 thousand school locations. The secondary school system has 4.1 thousand schools and 646 school locations. The high school system has 884 schools and 64 school locations.

The system of ethnic boarding schools with 314 schools and 1,097 semi-boarding schools, with the rate of solid schools reaching over 93%, notably 15 ethnic boarding schools in border communes with the rate of solid schools and classrooms reaching 100%, has contributed to increasing children's opportunities to go to school, improving the quality of education in ethnic minority areas.

The number and quality of ethnic minority teachers has increased. According to the General Statistics Office, there are approximately 525,000 teachers teaching in schools and school locations in ethnic minority areas, with more than a quarter of the teachers being ethnic minorities and nearly a fifth of the teachers being female ethnic minorities.

So that students from ethnic minority and mountainous areas can go to school with sparkling happiness. (Source: chinhphu.vn)

Teachers and educational administrators enjoy many preferential policies including: preferential allowances, attraction allowances, seniority allowances beyond the framework, regional allowances, study allowances, professional training. Ethnic language teaching programs for ethnic minority students have initially received attention in order to preserve and conserve the spoken and written languages ​​of ethnic minorities.

In 23 provinces and cities with a large number of ethnic minorities, teaching and learning of 8 ethnic minority languages ​​are being implemented, including: Mong, Cham, Khmer, Gia Rai, Bana, Ede, Mnong, Thai. The Ministry of Education and Training has compiled a number of textbooks to teach ethnic scripts such as: Khmer, Mong, Mnong, Bana, Ede, Cham, Hoa...

The rate of mobilizing students to attend classes is increasing, the quality of education is gradually improving. The literacy rate of ethnic minorities aged 15 and over is 80.9%. Ethnic minorities with high literacy rates include the Ngai (96.5%), San Diu (95.7%), Muong (95.5%), Tay (94.9%), Tho (94.9%), Hoa (91.0%), Nung (90.0%).

In addition, policies for students in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions are being effectively implemented.

According to statistics from the Ethnic Committee, there are currently 5 pre-university training schools nationwide that have created conditions for ethnic minority children to be selected to study at universities, colleges, and intermediate schools.

The schools have performed well in their task of training quality human resources for ethnic minority localities; over 50% of students from these schools pass the entrance exams to universities and colleges; 5% study through selection; 13% enter university preparatory courses; 20% study at vocational colleges and vocational schools; the remaining few participate in work and production in the localities; 51/53 ethnic minorities have students through selection to study at universities; ethnic minority students in particularly difficult areas are supported with food, accommodation and study expenses, so the proportion of cadres, civil servants and public employees who are ethnic minorities is increasing, better meeting the human resource needs for socio-economic development of localities.

Thanks to the effective implementation of the Party and State's policies on education, training, attraction, recruitment and use of ethnic minority cadres, the number of ethnic minority cadres has increased in both quantity and quality, with nearly 70,000 ethnic minority staff, accounting for 11.68% of the national total.

According to the monitoring report of the Ethnic Council in ministries, branches and 36 localities, the number of ethnic minority civil servants and public employees trained in professional skills is 17,598 people (nationwide: 374,263 people), accounting for 4.7%; trained in political theory: 14,381 people (nationwide: 476,225 people), accounting for 3%; trained in state management: 7,368 people (nationwide: 77,927 people), accounting for 9.45%; trained in professional skills: 35,457 people (nationwide: 415,867 people), accounting for 8.52%; trained in other skills: 36,648 people (nationwide: 219,940 people), accounting for 16.67%; Overseas training: 99 people (nationwide: 2,989 people), accounting for 3.3%", has contributed to promoting political, economic and social development, maintaining security and order in ethnic minority areas nationwide, creating a foundation for equality among ethnic groups.

Ethnic minority and mountainous areas account for 3/4 of the country's natural area with large areas, fragmented terrain, steep slopes, harsh climates, and difficult transportation. Ethnic minorities account for 14.6% of the country's population, with scattered populations and many difficulties in their lives. The difficulties and characteristics of nature and socio-economy have a significant impact on the development of education and training.

Invest in educational resources appropriate to local realities

To improve the quality of education and training in ethnic minority areas, in the coming time, all levels and sectors need to focus on the following solutions:

Firstly , increase investment sources for education and training development; synchronously coordinate between policies and policy implementation, between education and training activities of relevant ministries and branches.

Second , perfect the policy of training ethnic minority teachers with qualifications in both pedagogy and knowledge for each region and each ethnic group. Develop a remuneration regime and use teachers and educational managers in accordance with practical requirements so that they can feel secure in their profession and be attached to their locality. At the same time, strengthen the training of ethnic minority language teachers; innovate professional activities, focusing on the form of professional activities in clusters, blocks, teams, groups, concentrated and via the Internet.

Third , innovate educational policies at all levels, expand the teaching and learning of ethnic minority languages ​​in general schools; innovate and improve the effectiveness of admission policies for ethnic minority children to study at universities, colleges and vocational high schools; expand pre-university faculties in universities for ethnic minorities; develop appropriate support policies for ethnic minority students at each level of education, with priority given to particularly disadvantaged areas.

Fourth , diversify and rapidly develop training, fostering and vocational training in ethnic minority areas; prioritize work-study training; introduce vocational training programs into ethnic boarding schools; develop vocational school models associated with enterprises suitable to the requirements of local socio-economic development, in which priority is given to training children of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas. Increase the scale of mobilizing children to attend classes in remote, isolated and ethnic minority areas, as well as research and develop models of ethnic boarding schools and semi-boarding schools suitable to the socio-economic development conditions of ethnic minority and mountainous provinces.

Fifth , continue to review and re-plan the network of educational and training facilities, solidify and standardize school and classroom facilities at all levels, especially prioritizing investment in building new schools for communes without kindergartens; focus on investing in facilities for satellite schools; prioritize allocating regular financial expenditures, investment funds and support programs and projects for provinces that regularly suffer heavy damage caused by natural disasters.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/doi-moi-nang-cao-chat-luong-giao-duc-vung-dan-toc-thieu-so-293855.html