President Nguyen Minh Triet attended the opening ceremony for the new academic year in Le Quy Don High School, HCM City on August 31.

President Nguyen Minh Triet (in suit) with Le Quy Don School students at the opening ceremony ( Photo: SGGP)

He applauded social contributions of education in the city, in which Le Quy Don took the lead. The school reported that most of its students had graduated the final exam and half of them passed the university entrance tests.

The Vietnamese leader beat a drum to start the new academic year.

In related news, the deputy Education and Training Minister, Pham Vu Luan, attended the first ever opening ceremony of the Canadian International School.

The school’s 165 students, from 16 nations, will follow the Canadian school curriculum. Some scholarships, each worth US$200 – $10,000, will be awarded to excellent students and those who won exam competitions held in the country or internationally.

Heightening the effectiveness of the Nguyen Duc Canh Scholarship, which rewards children of poor employees who have achieved good results in school, was the theme of a meeting held by the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Association on August 31.

Participants said the scholarship should be raised to equal tuition fees to help needy children overcome difficulties.

The Nguyen Duc Canh program has presented over 246,000 scholarships, worth totally VND61 billion, to studious yet needy pupils and students for the past 15 years.

VietNamNet/SGGP