LookAtVietnam – Nearly 83 per cent of people between the age of 18 and 21 in HCM City completed the 12th grade last year, . . .

Nearly 83 per cent of people between the age of 18 and 21 in HCM City completed the 12th grade last year, which exceeded the target set by the city’s People’s Committee by 8 per cent, according to the city’s Department of Education and Training.

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Huynh Cong Minh, director of the education department, said the ministry was encouraging all students nationwide to complete junior and senior high school, although compulsory school attendance was only through the fifth grade.

He said many students in low-income families continued to drop out of school, forgetting what they learned during primary school.

To make education available to everyone, HCM City has built more schools and community learning centres, in addition to offering tuition support to needy students via scholarships or monthly allowances to families.

Between 1999 and 2009, the city built 12,964 new classrooms. The number of junior high schools in HCM City increased to 150 and vocational schools to 41, Minh said.

However, many of them had failed to meet national standards, and vocational schools still were not attracting a sufficient number of students, he added.

Minh said the ministry had encouraged provinces and cities to set ambitious targets for school attendance with an aim to universalise primary, junior high school and high school education throughout the country.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News