Decision No. 20/2006/QĐ-TTg on the development of education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta region until 2010

Pursuant to …;

On the development of education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta region until 2010

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PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Considering the proposal of the Minister of Education and Training,

DECISION:

Article 1. Objectives for the development of education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta region until 2010:

1. Enhance the literacy rate and quality of human resources in the Mekong Delta to leverage the strength of the region, create breakthroughs in economic and social development processes, and accelerate industrialization and modernization efforts; build the Mekong Delta into a comprehensively developed and sustainable economic hub with high economic growth rates.

2. Strive to achieve by 2010 an educational development index for the Mekong Delta that equals the national average.

Article 2. Specific targets for the development of education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta region until 2010:

1. Early childhood education: Provide care for 15-17% of children under three years old in nurseries; attract 65-67% of children aged 3-5 to kindergarten; mobilize 90-95% of five-year-olds to attend large kindergartens to prepare them for primary school. All early childhood education facilities will implement childcare and education programs according to new curricula.

2. Primary education: Mobilize 99% of primary school-aged students to attend school; organize two sessions per day, initially implemented where there is demand and conditions permit; the entire region achieves the national standard for universal primary education at the appropriate age.

3. Secondary and high school education: All provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta achieve the standard for universal secondary education; increase the proportion of secondary school-aged students attending school to 87-90%; ensure that 50% or more of high school-aged students enter high school.

4. Ethnic education and community integration education: Strengthen and improve the quality of education in boarding schools for ethnic minorities; establish mechanisms to manage and coordinate with Khmer temples to teach writing, supplementary education, and customs to ethnic minority communities; consolidate schools and classes for disabled children.

5. Vocational education: Increase annual recruitment targets for intermediate vocational training so that the scale of intermediate vocational training accounts for about 5% of the population aged 16 to 20; strive to reach 23% of workers having undergone vocational training; intensify short-term vocational training for rural laborers, ethnic minority workers, workers in areas transitioning land use purposes, and workers for export. By 2010, the number of vocational schools in the Mekong Delta will be 32 schools, including: 5 colleges, 27 intermediate schools, and 70 county-level vocational training centers.

6. Higher education: Achieve an average ratio of 150 university students per ten thousand people; encourage and prioritize fields of study in education, healthcare, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, construction, post-harvest technology, economics, business management, tourism, trade, culture, and society. Develop specific plans to send cadres and students abroad for study.

7. Continuing education: Ensure all counties have continuing education centers; strive for 90% of communes, wards, and towns to have community learning centers.

Article 3. Main solutions for developing education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta region

1. Enhance material and technical infrastructure of schools; complete the network of schools to meet requirements for expanding scale, improving quality, and enhancing effectiveness of education, training, and vocational training:

a) Implement the reinforcement of school buildings, address the basic shortage of classroom space in early childhood education, primary education, secondary education, and high school; construct systems of schools meeting national standards and ethnic boarding schools; ensure all schools are equipped with desks, chairs, blackboards, office equipment, libraries, laboratories, and subject-specific classrooms for education;

b) Upgrade the material and technical infrastructure of vocational schools and intermediate vocational schools: establish district and county-level vocational training systems; focus investments on building some vocational schools and intermediate vocational schools; increase state budget investment for newly established vocational schools and training centers;

c) Increase investment to enhance the training capacity of teacher training colleges to ensure the quality of teacher training and other vocational training; develop Can Tho University according to the criteria of a key university; increase investment in building facilities for Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy, An Giang University, Dong Thap Teachers' College, and Tien Giang University;

d) Invest in building the training facility of the Fisheries University in Kien Giang;

đ) Upgrade Bac Lieu Teacher Training College, Vinh Long Technical Teacher Training College, and Tra Vinh Community College to universities. Study establishing a university in the Mekong Delta region for cultural fields;

e) Establish private universities in Can Tho City, Long An Province, and other provinces when conditions are met;

g) Establish several community colleges in Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Long An, An Giang, and Can Tho based on planning. Focus on opening professions linked to local labor needs.

2. Build and improve the quality of the teaching staff and educational management personnel:

a) Develop an overall plan for the development of teachers, lecturers, and educational management personnel at all levels, ensuring sufficient quantity, coordinated structure, and meeting quality standards in professional qualifications and expertise;

b) Increase the duration and frequency of training within the cycle, regularly train primary and secondary school teachers;

c) Increase enrollment quotas for training primary school teachers in subjects such as music, fine arts, civic education, physical education, information technology, and foreign languages;

d) Open management education departments in universities and teacher training colleges; regularly hold management education and training courses locally.

3. Reform educational content, curricula, and teaching methods:

a) Develop a flexible academic year plan to ensure students have adequate study time and are suitable for the natural conditions of the Mekong Delta.

b) Adjust the education program in the direction of strengthening vocational guidance to ensure the basic requirements of the common program and be suitable for children in the Mekong Delta region;

c) Based on the textbooks program, organize the compilation of local educational materials and teaching guides for subjects that are appropriate to the characteristics of students and the economic and social conditions of the locality;

d) Develop and promulgate a framework program for teaching ethnic languages, incorporate ethnic cultural education content into teaching in boarding schools for ethnic minorities; prioritize the Khmer language teaching program for teachers and staff working in areas with Khmer communities;

đ) Expand joint training programs, address-based training, and fully exploit international cooperation programs of universities and colleges in the region;

e) Establish a preparatory college department at Can Tho University, increase preparatory quotas and select candidates for ethnic minority students to enter colleges and universities;

Article 4. Several mechanisms and policies

1. The Ministry of Home Affairs shall take the lead, coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the People's Committees of provinces and cities to propose preferential policies for policy beneficiaries in the Mekong Delta region and difficult areas;

2. Prioritize state budget allocation, including central and local budgets, for investment in education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta region;

3. Encourage various economic sectors to participate in investing in education, training, and vocational training in accordance with Resolution No. 05/2005/NQ-CP of the Government, suitable to the economic characteristics and social conditions of each locality; establish private and non-state schools in favorable areas to concentrate state budget investment in difficult areas;

4. Implement policies to encourage and provide adequate incentives to attract high-level scientific and technological cadres from both domestic and foreign sources to participate in developing education and training in the Mekong Delta and difficult areas, implement special policies to attract and develop vocational teacher teams and university and college lecturers; apply selective admission to technical college and university teacher training institutions;

5. Encourage and create conditions for localities, educational and training institutions in the region to develop and expand bilateral and multilateral cooperation relationships with countries and international organizations;

6. Implement strong decentralization in educational management work to enable local authorities to proactively manage and direct the educational cause;

Article 5. Implementation

1. The People's Committees of provinces in the Mekong Delta region must consider the implementation of the contents of this Decision as a key task of the Party committees, local governments at all levels, and the people in the region; at the same time, closely cooperate with central ministries and agencies in building and implementing programs and projects proposed;

The People's Committees of provinces in the region actively build implementation plans for this Decision, ensuring consistency with the directives of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, relevant agencies, and being suitable to the characteristics of the locality, while considering this as one of the important contents of the plan for the next five years;

The People's Committees of provinces and cities in the region are responsible for ensuring the allocation of local budget funds for the fields of education, training, and vocational training, including investment costs, recurrent costs, and national target program costs, not lower than the level in the annual state budget assigned by the Prime Minister;

2. The Ministry of Education and Training shall take the lead, coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and related ministries and agencies, based on their functions and responsibilities, organize and direct the implementation of specific programs and projects, prioritized investments, and key projects to achieve the development targets for education, training, and vocational training stipulated in Article 2 of this Decision; monitor and urge ministries, agencies, and localities to implement tasks related to the development of education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta; build and complete special mechanisms and policies related to students, teachers, and education management applicable specifically to the Mekong Delta and difficult areas;

Annually, the Ministry of Education and Training shall take the lead, coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to organize evaluations of work results and continuation plans; by the end of 2010, summarize the development of education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta during the period 2005-2010, and develop plans for the subsequent years;

3. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, based on the development targets for education, training, and vocational training stipulated in Article 2 of this Decision, shall take the lead, coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to guide and direct localities in implementing tasks in the field of vocational training;

4. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training, related ministries, and the People's Committees of provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region to develop plans and ensure a gradual increase in the proportion of investment in education, training, and vocational training in the Mekong Delta from the current 17.17% to 20% of the total education, training, and vocational training budget of centrally-administered provinces and cities by 2010;

5. The State Bank of Vietnam shall instruct priority preferential credit for university and college students in the Mekong Delta to borrow money for schooling, thereby expanding opportunities for poor and disadvantaged people to have the chance to pursue higher education at colleges and universities.

6. The Ministries of Home Affairs, Industry, Agriculture and Rural Development, Fisheries, Construction, Transport, Commerce, Health, Culture and Information, National Defense, Public Security, Science and Technology, Posts and Telecommunications, Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam Television, Voice of Vietnam Radio, the Committees for Ethnic Minorities, Sports, Population, Family and Children; the General Administration of Tourism, and relevant agencies shall coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to mobilize resources from their respective ministries and sectors to integrate into investment programs and projects within their areas of management in order to develop education and training in the Mekong Delta region.

7. Each year, the ministries, sectors, and localities shall report to the Prime Minister on the results of implementing this Decision.

Article 6. The Standard Measurement Quality Control Department shall be responsible for organizing and guiding the implementation of the Regulations adopted herein.

The Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of governmental agencies, and Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities in the Mekong Delta are responsible for enforcing this Decision./.