Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to take bold measures to tackle all problems in the national pre-school education system. According to a report by the MoET, there are more than 13,000 kindergartens in the country but this number falls short of demand by nearly 400. Worse still, 2,600 hamlets and villages in the country have no day care centers. The report said that many kindergartens are in bad condition such as lacking clean toilets and hygienic water supply systems, which have affected the quality of care and education for children. Only 60% of classrooms in kindergartens nationwide meet national standards and many facilities are temporary constructions that are not safe for children. A lack of teaching staff and their low professionalism are other matters of special concern. There are more than 180,000 kindergarten teachers in the country but another 90,000 are needed, the ministry estimated. At a recent meeting held in Ho Chi Minh City, Deputy Education Minister Nguyen Thi Nghia said that the national project estimated to cost VND480 trillion ($22.8 billion) in total, aiming to ensure pre-school education for all five-year-old children by 2015, is facing many difficulties because of a shortage of funds. As of July, the country had only six provinces and cities had achieved the target, she said. The MoET should cooperate with other agencies to solve these problems to ensure that the preschool education universalization target would be completed on schedule and to reduce the national illiteracy rate, Mr. Dung noted. (VietNamNet Aug 1)
