LookAtVietnam – The trial bilingual education programme co-launched by the Ministry of Education and Training and the United Nations Children’s Fund in 2007 has been hailed as a success by officials.

Ethnic children of Kinh, Muong and Dao learn Vietnamese in the northern Vinh Phuc province’s Nga Hoang commune.

“The programme’s also very flexible as children can turn to teachers for immediate help,” said the Education Ministry’s Ha Duc Da.

Young learners were taught Vietnamese in their native languages using props and flashcards.

The Ministry of Education and Training’s Research Centre for Ethnic Minority Education tested the children’s language skills and found that they could communicate more confidently and comfortably than their counterparts who were taught exclusively in Vietnamese.

More need skills

Truong Kim Minh, director of the northern province of Lao Cai’s Education and Training Department, said more Vietnamese-language teachers should be armed with the skills they needed to take part in the programme.

However, while the Central Highland province of Gia Lai considered teachers’ enthusiasm and commitment as the strongest part of the programme, officials from the southern province of Tra Vinh believed that parents and local policy-makers played the most important role.

Despite the programme’s early successes, educators from the three provinces said many obstacles still had to be overcome. Lao Cai province has to contend the geographical isolation of its scattered population, said one educator.

“When it rains, teachers have to pick up students themselves. Local rituals such as weddings or burials also enable children to play truant,” Minh said.

Ksor Jin, vice director of Gia Lai province’s Education and Training Department, blamed grinding poverty and parents’ reluctance to let their children attend school as the most significant obstacles to the programme’s success.

He also said there was a shortage of teaching materials. However, he said bilingual education was the best way to integrate ethnic minority children into society while preserving their cultural and linguistic uniqueness.

More support

However, Vi Van Dieu, director of the research centre, said the programme could only succeed with the support of society.

The bilingual education programme has also been rolled out in primary schools in 12 other provinces, reaching more than 188,000 pupils who are taught in one of the eight ethnic languages including Jrai, Cham, Khmer, Chinese, E De, Bahna, Thai, and Mong.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News