DECISION

RATIFYING THE PLAN FOR EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING DEVELOPMENT IN THE MEKONG RIVER DELTA REGION TILL THE YEAR 2000 AND FOR THE 2001-2005 PERIOD

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;
Pursuant to the Prime Minister’s Decision No.01/1998/QD-TTg of January 5, 1998 ratifying the overall planning for socio-economic development in the Mekong river delta region from now till the year 2010;
At the proposal of the Minister of Education and Training in Report No.5485/VP of June 15, 1999 ratifying the plan for educational and training development in Mekong river delta region till the year 2000 and for the 2001-2005 period,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To ratify the plan for educational and training development in the Mekong river delta region till the year 2000 and for the 2001-2005 period with the following principal contents:

1. The plan’s name: The plan for educational and training development in the Mekong river delta region till the year 2000 and for the 2001-2005 period.

2. The plan-managing agency: The Ministry of Education and Training.

3. The plan’s objectives:

From 1999 to the year 2000 and in the 2001-2005 period, the objectives of the educational and training development in the Mekong river delta region shall be:

1. To attract children of the age that needs to be enrolled in crèches and pre-school classes. To ensure that the rate of 5-year old children sent to pre-school classes before their enrollment in primary education schools attains 60-75% by the year 2000 and about 80-95% by the year 2005.

2. By the year 2000, all provinces in the Mekong river delta region to achieve the standards of primary education universalization and illiteracy elimination and against illiteracy relapse, and thereby to firmly consolidate the illiteracy elimination result and raise the quality of the primary education universalization.

3. To step by step universalize the junior secondary education in localities where conditions permit.

4. To vigorously develop various forms of vocational training. To strive to raise the rate of trained laborers in the region to 13-14.5% by the year 2000 and 20-25% by the year 2005. By the year 2000, to achieve the objective that each province has at least one job-training school, and 30% of the rural and urban districts have their job-training centers, regular education centers and/or vocational guidance and education centers. In provinces where conditions permit, to establish intermediate medical schools and/or intermediate culture, physical training and sport intermediate schools.

5. To scale up and raise the quality of the university and college training. To increase the number of students per ten thousand people to 40 by the year 2000 and around 60-70 by the year 2005.

6. To consolidate the network of schools and classes. To step by step build schools up to the national standards. To basically eliminate night-time classes by the year 2001, to build solid and semi-solid general education schools, achieving the rate of 60% by the year 2000 and 80% by the year 2005.

7. To substantially satisfy the demand for primary education teachers by the year 2002 and for junior secondary education teachers by the year 2005. To scale up the teacher training for the Pedagogical Department of the Can Tho University, the Technical Teachers’ Training Schools and the local teachers’ training schools. By the year 2003, to achieve the objective that each specialty of the teachers’ training schools has at least 1-3 cadres of post-graduate level. To raise the professional qualifications of lecturers in teachers’ colleges and job-training schools up to the national standards by the year 2005.

Article 2.- Organization of implementation:

To assign the following agencies to work out specific plans and organize the implementation thereof, in order to achieve the objectives of educational and training development in the Mekong river delta region till the year 2000 and for the 2001-2005 period.

1. Regarding the planning of educational and training development in the Mekong river delta region.

Basing themselves on the educational and training development objectives mentioned in Article 1 of this Decision and the overall planning for the socio-economic development of the Mekong river delta region till the year 2010, the People’s Committees of the provinces in the Mekong river delta region shall work out their own plans for educational and training development in the 2001-2005 period.

The Ministry of Education and Training shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the localities, the propaganda agencies and the central and local mass media agencies in regularly providing relevant information on, propagating the role and effect of the education and training among the people of all strata in the localities in order to raise their awareness thereof, and mobilizing all social forces to participate in the educational and training development.

2. Regarding the primary education universalization and illiteracy elimination:

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall direct and provide financial support taken from the target programs for Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and Kien Giang provinces, so that these provinces shall reach the standards of primary education universalization and illiteracy elimination by the year 2000 at the latest.

3. Regarding the tertiary training and vocational education:

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches and the People’s Committees of the regional provinces in elaborating the plan for building a network of universities and colleges in the region, then submitting it to the Prime Minister in the fourth quarter of 1999; direct the elaboration of the plan for establishment of An Giang university, Vinh Long people-funded university and community colleges in Tien Giang and Dong Thap provinces.

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall devise plan(s) to increase the enrollment quota for the Mekong river delta provinces; to increase the number of lecturers and post-graduate cadres; and invest in the material foundations and other facilities for Can Tho university, with priority being given to the Medical Faculty and the Pedagogical Faculty, in order to meet the training demand.

- The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall coordinate with the concerned ministries, branches and the People’s Committees of the concerned provinces in directing the establishment of new job-training schools in Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and Kien Giang provinces. For the existing job-training and professional intermediate schools, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Training shall direct the expansion of the training scale, the number of specialties and trades, with special attention being paid to those associated with the local economic development such as: agriculture, marine product culture and exploitation, food and foodstuff processing, rural electricity supply, agricultural engineering, building of fishing and transport ships and boats, construction and communication.

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in formulating the project for development of a network of part-time education and training establishments, such as: job-training centers, regular education centers and labor and vocational guidance centers.

4. Regarding the building of the schools’ material foundations:

The People’s Committees of the regional provinces shall have to allocate land for building schools under the planning, direct the socialization of the education, training, mobilize the people to contribute their money and labor to the building of schools, and use the State funds from the target programs, foreign-loan programs and other sources in the local budget balance for the building of the schools’ material foundations. The People’s Committees of the provinces shall have to spare around 30-40% of their revenues which have been left to their localities according to the provisions of the Law on the State Budget (the agricultural land use tax, the land use right transfer tax, the revenues from the national construction lottery...) for investment in school projects and elimination of night-time classes.

- The People’s Committees of the regional provinces shall elaborate mechanisms and policies for mobilizing people’s contributions and other capital sources for investment in the educational and training development, especially for the upgrading of the system of local schools and classes.

5. Regarding the issue of teachers and teachers’ training schools:

- The provincial People’s Committees shall direct the branches in continuing to build up the material foundations for the teachers’ training schools. In coordination with the Government Commission for Organization and Personnel, the Ministry of Education and Training shall organize the survey and assessment of the situation on teachers, work out and execute the plans for recruitment thereof and building up of the contingent of teachers for such schools in order to meet the training demand.

- The People’s Committees of Ca Mau, Soc Trang and Tra Vinh provinces shall concentrate their investment in their intermediate teachers’ training schools so as to soon upgrade such schools into teachers’ colleges fully capable of training primary education and junior secondary education teachers for their respective localities.

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall direct the application of the mode of on-spot post-graduate training to raise the qualifications of lecturers of teachers’ training schools in the Mekong river delta region; devise plans to mobilize the teachers’ training schools throughout the country, particularly the Ho Chi Minh City Teachers’ College and the Thu Duc Technical Teachers’ College to support the regional teachers’ training schools in training junior and senior secondary education teachers and job trainers.

- The Government Commission for Organization and Personnel shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training, the concerned agencies and the People’s Committees of the regional provinces in working out plans to continue rationally employing teachers who have already attained the retirement age but still have working capacity, good health and voluntarily to continue working.

6. Regarding the investment in education and training at the Mekong river delta region.

- The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Finance in continuing to make priority investment in education and training in the Mekong river delta region in the State’s key investment programs and plans on education and training and other socio-economic development programs; planning the gradual increase of investment in education and training in the Mekong river delta region from 18% (1998) to 20% by the year 2000 and around 22% of the total budget for education and training in the 2001-2005 period.

7. Regarding the preferential policy:

The Government Commission for Organization and Personnel shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Commission for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, the Ministry of Finance and the People’s Committees of the regional provinces in proposing preferential policies toward the subjects meeting with difficulties in the region.

Article 3.- To assign the Ministry of Education and Training to monitor and direct the implementation of this plan and periodically report to the Prime Minister on the implementation situation.

Article 4.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 5.- The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces in the Mekong river delta region shall have to implement this Decision.