Strengthening Vietnamese language teaching for preschool children and primary school students of ethnic minorities

After 3 years of implementing the project "Strengthening Vietnamese language preparation for preschool children and primary school students in ethnic minority areas in the period of 2016 - 2020, with a vision to 2025 based on the mother tongue of children", Khanh Hoa province has recorded positive results, but there are still some difficulties that need attention from all levels and sectors.

Many kindergartens in Khanh Hoa province have built a bilingual Vietnamese language enhancement environment suitable to local characteristics, such as: Creating vegetable gardens, flower gardens, and ornamental plants with bilingual annotations; paintings, corners displaying objects simulating the culture of local ethnic people...

The classroom has a space with pictures, utensils, toys, and materials in Vietnamese, a television, and daily activities for fun and practical communication. Strengthening Vietnamese for children from kindergarten has created a foundation for ethnic minority children to enter the primary school program.

Before entering first grade, ethnic minority children in Khanh Hoa province are also given Vietnamese language reinforcement for 1 to 2 months, depending on the school. Primary school students who are limited in Vietnamese, slow to progress, or have not completed Vietnamese in the school year are also given extra tutoring during this time.

According to Mr. Do Huu Quynh - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Khanh Hoa province, the activities to enhance Vietnamese have brought practical results, helping children to be bolder and know how to use Vietnamese in communication more; children preparing to enter grade 1 know how to recognize and pronounce the Vietnamese alphabet; know how to hold a pen, sit in the correct writing position; get used to some activities and learning routines. Some children can already color and write letters and some simple rhymes.

During the school year, primary schools maintain the integration of Vietnamese language for ethnic minority students in subjects and educational activities, launch a movement to build a Vietnamese language environment, deploy language corners in the classroom to support students, and maintain the exchange activity "Our Vietnamese Language"...

Thereby, contributing to maintaining and improving the quality of education in ethnic minority areas. In the last 3 school years, the rate of ethnic minority students attending school at the right age reached 93 - 94%; 6-year-old children entering grade 1 reached 100%; students completing primary school reached 100% and completing class programs reached over 96%.

Preschool children in class

In recent years, the subsidized meal program at school for 9 months of the school year has helped ethnic minority kindergarten and primary school students attend school more regularly. At the primary level, studying 2 sessions/day has created conditions for schools to organize well the enhancement of Vietnamese language.

However, according to Mr. Phan Van Thoai - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Khanh Son district, the life of ethnic minority people is still difficult, while the State has not had a policy to support lunch for children of nursery age, so the rate of mobilizing children of this age to go to class is still low. In the district, the rate of mobilizing children to go to nursery school in 2023 only reached 28.4%, far from the target of 35% in 2025.

Besides, students who participate in intensive Vietnamese language classes during the summer do not have lunch support; teachers want to rest during the summer, so most of them are not interested in teaching during the summer.

According to Mr. Do Huu Quynh, in general, ethnic minority students are still shy; the Vietnamese communication environment is not uniform because most of them only speak Vietnamese at school, but when they return home, they speak their ethnic language, so developing Vietnamese language skills is difficult.

It is known that the Department of Education and Training has proposed that the province continue to pay attention to appropriate policies and regimes for students, teachers, managers of schools with ethnic minority students and those participating in activities to enhance Vietnamese language for ethnic minority students.

Recently, the Department has advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council a resolution to support lunch money for kindergarten children to mobilize children of this age to attend classes to meet the set targets. The Department is completing documents to advise the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council a resolution on the regime of organizing Vietnamese language teaching and learning in the summer for ethnic minority children before entering grade 1.

In the 2023-2024 school year, Khanh Hoa province has 36 kindergartens (out of a total of 81 public kindergartens with ethnic minority students), 34 primary schools (out of a total of 160 primary schools with ethnic minority students) in 6 districts, towns and cities (Khanh Son, Khanh Vinh, Cam Ranh, Cam Lam, Dien Khanh, Ninh Hoa) organizing enhanced Vietnamese language teaching for children.

These are schools with a large number of ethnic minority students. In the summer of 2024, nearly 1,700 children preparing to enter grade 1 will receive Vietnamese language enhancement (for 1 month), with local funding of more than 353 million VND.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/khanh-hoa-tang-cuong-day-tieng-viet-cho-tre-mam-non-va-hoc-sinh-tieu-hoc-dan-toc-thieu-so-20240823151919417.htm