In order to create a solid foundation for ethnic minority students when entering grade 1, the People's Council of Thai Nguyen province has just issued Resolution No. 02/2025/NQ-HDND, supporting funding for teaching and learning Vietnamese for ethnic minority children before entering grade 1.
Accordingly, each ethnic minority child in the province will be supported with 350,000 VND to buy documents and learning materials to learn Vietnamese. Teachers directly teaching are supported according to the actual number of periods, with an average of about 5.9 million VND/class.
The teaching program will be held in the summer, lasting no more than 1 month and with a maximum limit of 80 periods. In the 2024 - 2025 school year, the program will be implemented in Vo Nhai, Dinh Hoa, Dong Hy districts with a scale of 150 classes, serving 2,622 children, all teachers participating are volunteers.
The Government has recently issued Decree No. 66/2025/ND-CP stipulating policies for children in kindergartens, students, and trainees in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, coastal areas and islands and educational institutions with children in kindergartens and students enjoying policies.
Notably, boarding students and boarding students are supported with food, housing, and rice. Regarding food expenses, each student and trainee is supported with VND 936,000 per month and is entitled to no more than 9 months/school year.
Regarding housing, each boarding student and semi-boarding trainee must be self-sufficient in accommodation because the school cannot arrange accommodation in school or grade 1 and grade 2, students with disabilities who need to live near the school to be supported by relatives will be supported with VND 360,000 per month and will receive no more than 9 months/school year.
In addition, each student and trainee is supported with 15 kg of rice per month and is entitled to no more than 9 months/school year.
For first-grade boarding students who are ethnic minorities who have learned Vietnamese before entering the first-grade program, they will receive an additional month of the above policies.
On April 22, at a reception with Ms. Silvia Danailov - Chief Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam, Central Party Committee member, Minister of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Dao Ngoc Dung informed that, entering the period of innovation, Vietnam needs to innovate thinking and methods of implementing policies for children.
Therefore, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung suggested that UNICEF, together with Vietnam, change the approach to children. Instead of reaching the entire Vietnamese children's community, UNICEF chose one target, children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
An issue shared by Minister Dao Ngoc Dung at the meeting was the situation of not knowing the mother tongue of a part of ethnic minority children. Therefore, schools must pay attention to and include this issue in their teaching.
Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that in the next 5 years, Vietnam will make fundamental changes in the two fields of education and health, especially in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
Regarding education, along with exempting all tuition fees, in the coming time, the entire boarding school system will be built, with the motto of doing from the border, mountainous areas to urban areas, not from urban areas.
Minister of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Dao Ngoc Dung also hopes that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will have a comprehensive survey of ethnic minority children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas as a basis for establishing mechanisms and policies in the coming time.
