Vietnam Provides Free Internet Connection for All Schools

All schools across Vietnam are now provided with free-of-charge Internet services thanks to a joint program between the Ministry of Education and Training and the Viettel Telecom Group (Viettel), the Tin Tuc newspaper reported Dec 20. Between September 2008 and July 2010, Viettel fully implemented the program of providing free Internet for more than 29,500 schools throughout the country. This allows over 25 million teachers and students to access Internet for learning and research purposes.  With the success, Vietnam is now one of the few countries in the world that has entirely free Internet connection in schools, Pham Vu Luan, the Minister of Education and Training, said at a conference in Hanoi on Dec 18. The Southeast Asia country now ranks as high as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in terms of the use of information technology (IT) in education, showed the 2010 report of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). (Tin Tuc - News Dec 20 p7)