Investing resources to develop the ethnic minority university preparatory school system to improve the quality of education in ethnic minority areas

Minister and Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities talks with students of the Central Ethnic University Preparatory School on the opening day

The content of Sub-project 2 aims to invest in consolidating and enhancing the infrastructure and training capacity of preparatory colleges and boarding schools for ethnic minorities; improving the quality of preparatory college training for ethnic minority students to ensure the quality of university training for ethnic minorities. Thereby, making an important contribution to the implementation of ethnic policies, improving the quality of human resources contributing to socio-economic development, maintaining national defense and security in mountainous ethnic minority areas.

There are currently 4 ethnic minority preparatory schools nationwide, including the Central Ethnic Minority Preparatory School, Sam Son Ethnic Minority Preparatory School, Nha Trang Central Ethnic Minority Preparatory School, and Ho Chi Minh City University Preparatory School. Reality has proven that ethnic minority preparatory schools are a very important bridge for ethnic minority students, especially ethnic minority students who have very few opportunities to enter university. Over the years, the system of university preparatory schools has achieved many important achievements, contributing to creating human resources for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

The most typical is the Central Ethnic University Preparatory School, which belongs to the system of specialized schools nationwide. The school has a history of nearly 50 years of construction and development. This is the first preparatory school established in the country to implement the ethnic policies of the Party and State in the field of education and training. From this school, the dreams of tens of thousands of students of all generations have grown up, currently working and working in all regions of the country; many of them are leaders in important positions from the Central to the local level and have made many contributions to the economic, cultural and social development of the mountainous areas and ethnic minority areas, helping the mountainous areas to catch up with the lowlands.

Currently, the Central Ethnic University Preparatory School is the school with the largest scale of ethnic university preparatory training in the country. In the 2023-2024 school year, the quality of university preparatory training has been improved with the output reaching 99% of students eligible for admission to higher education institutions; of which 50% of students passed directly according to their wishes to universities, many students passed the entrance exams to schools in the fields of Security, Military, Health with high school graduation exam scores... In the 2024-2025 school year, the school received tens of thousands of interested and information seeking visits, with more than 5,000 online registrations and more than 3,000 applications sent in, for the school to enroll 1,200 students.

National Target Program 1719 allocates important resources to invest in infrastructure to develop University Preparatory Schools.

Or Sam Son University Preparatory School with 142 staff, teachers and a spacious infrastructure system, capable of enrolling 1,000 - 1,200 students per year, is also a reliable address to meet the requirements of creating human resources for mountainous areas, ethnic minority areas, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development of localities. In the 2024 - 2025 school year, the School will enroll nearly 602 students of the 22nd University Preparatory Course, from 31 different ethnic groups, from 23 provinces and cities. All of them are from ethnic minority areas, extremely difficult areas, and island border areas with very difficult socio-economic conditions...

However, in addition to the achievements, the system of preparatory schools for ethnic minorities is also facing many difficulties. Currently, 3/4 of the preparatory schools for ethnic minorities do not meet their enrollment targets, some of which can only enroll 50% of students, although students of preparatory schools enjoy many incentives. The rate of students passing the entrance exam directly to universities has reached about 55%, some schools have reached over 90%, so ethnic minority students have many favorable conditions in choosing their major when applying for admission to universities.

In addition, the demand of students for the University Preparatory program is decreasing due to the influence of factors such as geographical distance, family economic conditions, and changes in the labor market requiring "more workers than teachers". These are difficulties and challenges that University Preparatory educational institutions must find ways to resolve, have a breakthrough direction, to both ensure annual enrollment targets, as well as improve the quality of training to create human resources, especially high-quality human resources for ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period of 2021 - 2030...

To overcome these difficulties, on August 24, 2020, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1292/QD-TTg approving the Project on rearranging and reorganizing public service units under the Ministry of Education and Training. Subsequently, according to Decision No. 1127/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, from September 26, 2022, the management of ethnic minority preparatory schools will be transferred from the Ministry of Education and Training to the Committee for Ethnic Minorities.

This decision is a macro-level solution to create conditions for ethnic minority preparatory schools to better perform the function of specialized schools in education and training. At the same time, it is a preparation step for the implementation of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period, starting in 2021.

Accordingly, the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 Period, Phase I: From 2021-2025 (abbreviated as National Target Program 1719) has allocated huge investment resources in the field of ethnic education.

Specifically, to consolidate the development of this specialized model, Project 4 in the National Target Program 1719 has dedicated Sub-project 2 on investment in facilities of public service units operating in the field of ethnic affairs with the goal of consolidating and enhancing facilities and training capacity of preparatory colleges and boarding schools for ethnic minorities; improving the quality of preparatory college training for ethnic minority students to ensure the quality of university training for ethnic minorities.

From this resource, public service units operating in the field of ethnic affairs have received strong investment attention. For example, the Infrastructure Investment Project for the Central Ethnic University Preparatory School in Nha Trang is also expected to invest more than 197 billion VND from the Central Budget development investment capital (according to Decision No. 1719/QD-TTg dated October 14, 2021 of the Prime Minister).

Improving the quality of training and creating human resources for ethnic minority and mountainous areas is a regular and continuous task.

The project will be implemented from 2023 to 2025, at 2 locations, including: Facility 1: No. 46 Nguyen Thien Thuat, Tan Lap Ward, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province; Facility 2: Bac Hon Ong, Phuoc Dong Commune, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province.

To ensure the progress of implementation, the Project is divided into 2 component projects, implemented in parallel. Accordingly, Component Project 1 includes upgrading facilities, purchasing equipment to support teaching and learning for the Central Ethnic University Preparatory School in Nha Trang. Component Project 2 will invest in construction at the Bac Hon Ong facility, Phuoc Dong commune, Nha Trang city...

Along with that, Project 5 under the National Target Program 1719 on developing education and training to improve the quality of human resources with 4 accompanying sub-projects also allocates a significant amount of resources up to 128,266 billion VND for ethnic educational institutions, including investment in the field of university preparatory training.

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, Principal of the Central Ethnic Minority University Preparatory School, said: In the National Target Program 1719, there are separate sub-projects designed for ethnic minority university preparatory schools. This is the basis for university preparatory educational institutions to be invested in and developed comprehensively in all aspects in the coming time, in order to promote the strengths of specialized schools, thereby improving the quality of training and creating human resources for ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period of 2021 - 2030.

It can be seen that the resources from the National Target Program 1719 are an extremely important foundation for pre-university education institutions to be invested in and develop comprehensively in all aspects in the coming time. And the remaining problem is the internal problem of pre-university schools in proactively removing difficulties and obstacles in enrollment and improving training quality.

The Ceremony to honor outstanding and exemplary ethnic minority students and youth in 2024 will take place on December 27 and 28.

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/dau-tu-nguon-luc-phat-trien-he-thong-truong-du-bi-dai-hoc-dan-toc-nang-cao-chat-luong-giao-duc-vung-dtts-1735225761007.htm