VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan said the draft Strategy for Education Development for 2009-2020 had the necessary components to build a modern educational system.

A teacher and her students use computers during a history lesson at the Kim Lien Primary School in Dong Da District, Ha Noi.

Nhan made the statement yesterday while attending a meeting with editors-in-chiefs, leaders and reporters of press agencies to make public the important contents of the draft strategy.

The draft pointed out that Vietnamese education has accomplished a number of important goals: increasing the people’s cultural knowledge, training human resources personnel, nurturing talents and developing the educational network to meet the learning demands of 23 million students.

Viet Nam now has more than 9,000 grassroots-level study centres in 11,000 communes and wards.

Thanks to such achievements, Viet Nam’s Human Development Index has been raised from the 109th among 174 countries in 2000, to the 105th among 177 countries in 2005.

The draft also pointed out certain weaknesses, such as the slow update of university curricula and the fact that school infrastructures are often lacking or obsolete.

According to the draft, by 2020, 80 per cent of Vietnamese should graduate from senior secondary school, 100 per cent of districts should have regular educational centres, 95 per cent of communes and wards should have study centres and 65 percent of labourers should have got training.

The draft also set targets that 99 per cent of children and 90 per cent of ethnic minority children should attend primary schools at the correct age, 70 per cent of disabled people and 95 per cent of poor children should receive assistance to attend school.

By 2020, the country should have 450 students for every 10,000 people, in which 40 per cent of students would be studying at non-State universities.

The draft also stated that 70 per cent of primary school students should learn English since the third grade, and university and colleges students in some subjects should utilise English in their studies.

Professor Dr Nguyen Huu Chau, director of the Viet Nam Education Institute, the institution that compiled the draft, said that the draft had 11 solutions to help implement the above targets, including solutions to renew educational management and affirm the key role of teachers and principals in the education system.

The draft also mapped out 14 national targets, including attracting overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and foreigners to share their expertise and technology with Viet Nam.

Some of the meeting’s attendees said the draft should further identify how to implement the targets. They said the solutions must be clearer and the curricula must have more international elements. The draft should have criteria to build some international - level universities and should focus more on a moral education for students, said some.

They also said the draft should have more policies regarding teachers and raise the role of educational managers.

Nhan acknowledged most of these opinions and answered a number of questions.

(Source: Viet Nam News)