Positive changes from the Project to enhance Vietnamese language for ethnic minority children

Implemented since 2016, the Project "Enhancing Vietnamese language for preschool and primary school children in ethnic minority areas in the period 2016-2020, with a vision to 2025" has been bringing about positive changes in improving language skills, increasing the rate of children attending school and contributing to narrowing the educational gap between advantaged and disadvantaged areas in Quang Ninh.

An extracurricular lesson "Three-color sticky rice festival" of children at Quang Duc Kindergarten (Hai Ha district).

In Phase II (2021-2025) of the Project, with high political determination and synchronous participation of all levels, sectors and localities, the Project has achieved many positive results. On the basis of their mother tongue, ethnic minority children are supported to develop Vietnamese naturally and effectively, thereby improving their communication skills, thinking and learning.

To facilitate the implementation of the Project, Quang Ninh province has issued 5 resolutions on mechanisms and policies to support preschool children and cadres and teachers working in mountainous, ethnic and island areas. The policies focus on supporting lunch, organizing summer classes, cooking meals for boarding students, travel and living expenses for cadres and teachers, and expanding the scope of children supported with tuition and study costs. These are practical steps, contributing to ensuring educational equity, reducing malnutrition rates and improving the quality of care and education for children in ethnic minority areas.

From the 2021-2022 school year up to now, nearly 7 billion VND has been invested to improve facilities, supplement equipment, supplies, and learning materials for ethnic minority kindergartens in localities such as Ha Long, Mong Cai, Hai Ha, Binh Lieu, Ba Che, and Tien Yen. All schools have built a rich and friendly Vietnamese language environment, encouraging children to communicate in both their mother tongue and Vietnamese through play corners, experiential activities, and ethnic cultural exchanges.

A class of 4-year-old kindergarteners at Dai Duc Kindergarten (Tien Yen district).

Along with that, schools have launched many emulation movements to build a child-centered learning environment, a "green - clean - beautiful" school, combining the use of local learning materials and friendly materials to increase the closeness and effectiveness in children's language acquisition.

Communication work was deployed in a variety of ways, from village loudspeakers, parent meetings, propaganda boards at schools, to mobilizing mass organizations to participate. More than 500 propaganda sessions were conducted through loudspeakers, 400 parent meetings, and thousands of people were exposed to content to enhance Vietnamese language for children, helping the community raise awareness and better coordinate with schools in educating their children.

Notably, some parents also support teachers in learning their mother tongue to improve teaching quality, demonstrating active support in the effort to "popularize" Vietnamese language for children.

Identifying teachers as the decisive factor for the success of the Project, Quang Ninh province has organized more than 300 training courses for 100% of teachers teaching ethnic minority children, focusing on methods of organizing activities, managing mixed classes, and effectively exploiting the mother tongue as a foundation for developing Vietnamese. In addition, every year the province also opens training courses on Dao Thanh Phan, Dao Thanh Y ethnic languages... for teachers in ethnic minority areas to improve the quality of communication and teaching closer to reality.

Up to now, 100% of ethnic minority preschool children in educational institutions have been enhanced with Vietnamese language according to their age. The rate of preschool children attending class reached 95.4% (exceeding the target), however, the rate of children in nursery schools only reached 45.6%, not reaching the project plan. Some difficulties still exist such as difficult travel conditions in mountainous areas, limited awareness of some parents, teachers not fluent in their mother tongue, lack of documents to enhance Vietnamese language according to regions...

However, the positive changes from the Project have been and will continue to contribute to improving the quality of preschool education in ethnic minority areas, gradually creating a solid foundation for ethnic minority children to integrate and develop comprehensively.

Hoai Minh

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/hieu-qua-tu-de-an-tang-cuong-tieng-viet-cho-tre-em-dan-toc-thieu-so-3354037.html