Vietnam will spend $2.59 billion to boost primary education in an effort to complete the national universalization of primary education in 2015, state media reported January 07. The funding part of the government’s National Program of Education For All through 2015 will be also used to tackle gender inequality in primary and secondary schools and improve training standards, the Vietnam News Agency said Jan 6. Under the program, kindergartens and primary schools would be set up in every commune across the country. Currently, 80% of children under five years old attend kindergartens, more than 96% of children aged six attend primary schools, said Pham Ngoc Dinh, deputy head of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Primary Education Department. In the 2008-2009 school year, 13% of kindergartens met national education standards. The rate will be 15% next year. Vietnam aims to have 70% of disabled children attending school this year and 100% of schools would have a computer laboratory and receive free text books by 2015.
