In five particularly poor and difficult communes in Muong Cha district of Dien Bien mountainous province, the education and training sector has opened training courses on the bilingual education model for the commune’s cardres, pupils’ mothers and teachers.

The model will be applied next year. Accordingly, during the class, pupils’ mothers will join the class to give the lecture with a role as “Mong and Thai ethnic language assistants” together with teachers.

Difficulty from nursery

Nearly 7am, the sun was yet to crop up beyond the mountain peak in front of Muong Cha town, Mrs Giang Thi Cau, 29, from the Mong ethnic minority group in Huoi Tung village, Huoi Leng commune was seen present at the class.

From the previous afternoon, Mrs Cau and her husband travelled more than four kilometres by motorbike and stayed at their acquaintance in order to participate in the class.

This was the first time she had been invited to attend the training course on the project “Taking care and educating children comprehensively” implemented by the Save the Children UK (SCUK) and Muong Cha district’s education and training department.

Of particular interest is that next year like Mrs Cau, other ethnic mothers will join teachers to give lectures to pupils in the village.

The SCUK’s survey said, in Muong Cha, the contingent of nursery and primary school teachers includes mainly the Kinh (Viet) people who are still not good at the ethnic languages. Learning Vietnamese language is very difficult for pupils because they get used to speaking their own languages at home and in the class.

It is more difficult when many ethnic groups are located in the same village, therefore, the class includes pupils from various ethnic groups. Pham Thi Nguyet, a primary school teacher in Huoi Leng, said the situation had caused difficulty to organising school activities. Naturally, they gather together in their same ethnic groups, leading to poor study results.

Mothers and teachers together give lessons

With the assistance of the SCUK, the Muong Cha education and training sector is implementing the project in pilot areas in Huoi Leng, Muong Tung, Sa Tong, Hua Ngai and Pa Ham communes where mainly Mong and Thai ethnic minority people live.

One of the goals of the project is to build a contingent of assistant teachers including enthusiastic mothers such as Mrs Giang Thi Cau. Teachers and mothers teach “bilingual languages”, using both ethnic minority language and standard Vietnamese language at nursery schools and the first two years of primary education.

Ethnic mothers will exchange with teachers about lesson plans, experience of bringing up children and knowledge about nutrients. Initially, mothers will play a role of language assistants, helping pupils to understand teachers’ lessons.

The model in Muong Cha will be applied in the 2007 school year. The training courses for mothers and teachers on this model are being organised from June to August 2006. After the courses, mothers will be selected and be able to become nursery teachers.

A representative from the SCUK said this model had learnt experience of the same successful models in Quang Ninh province. Tens of nursery ethnic teachers, who completed only the second or fourth grades, have been trained. The model has helped improve the quality of nursery and primary school education for pupils from Dao and San Chi ethnic minority groups.

Determination from the community

Since last year when the project was launched, leaders of Muong Cha district and relevant sectors have shown their determination to implement the project effectively. Programmes to improve ethnic languages for the district’s cadres have been held. Twenty courses on Mong and Thai language have been organised, attracting 400 participants.

Despite difficulty, leaders of the district and communes in the area have shown their belief in success of the SCUK’s project, opening a new prospect for training contingents of teachers at their residences.

Apart from the model in Muong Cha, similar projects in five other communes in DaKrong district of Quang Tri province and five communes in Yen Bai province have been implemented by the Save Children US and the Save Children Japan. The results gained from these projects will help the government and the ministry of education and training to build strategies to improve the quality of education and training in ethnic minority areas in a long-term period.

By VAN NGHIEP CHUC