Prime Minster Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a strategic program for better education and training during the period 2012-2015 with an investment capital of VND15 trillion (US$720 million).
Among the program targets is to have compulsory preschool education for children of five years of age by 2015; reinforce anti-literacy programs; and teach alphabets and better prepare 99 percent of five-year-old children for entry to first grade.
The program also sets goals to teach the English Language to more students by 2015. As per the program, 70 percent of third grade students in junior high schools and 40 percent of sixth grade students must study a foreign language by the academic year 2015-2016.
The program will also support education in remote disadvantaged districts, mountainous regions and districts where most of the ethnic minority groups reside.
Under the program, an additional 1050 classrooms will be built, 100 more libraries, 150 more gyms and 2,200 more dormitories at 223 special schools for ethnic minority students. In addition, the program will repair and construct new classrooms at pedagogy universities.
The Ministry of Education and Training has ordered schools to use books issued by the ministry to raise teaching standards in children of five years of age during the school year 2012-2013.
During the new school year, preschools will strive to increase the number of school-going children across the country. The ministry has asked local leaders to encourage children to go to school and see that around 90 percent five-year-old children study all day in schools.
