Research Confirms that Mother Tongue Primary School Can Improve Quality of Education for Children from Ethnic Minorities in Viet Nam

The pilot project of Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education is implemented since 2008 by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in collaboration with UNICEF in three provinces with high ethnic minority population densities - Lào Cai, Gia Lai and Trà Vinh with three ethnic minority languages - Mong, J´rai, and Khmer. The evaluation of the project has shown improved quality of education for children from ethnic minorities.

Over the years the project has helped improve the quality of education for ethnic minority children. Evidence gathered from the three pilot sites indicate that the programme had a substantial positive effect on students, teachers, education managers, parents and beneficiary communities, thus contributing to improve the learning outcomes of the participating ethnic minority children.

Despite the positive progress that Viet Nam has made in achieving universal primary education, millions of disadvantaged children especially those belong to ethnic minority groups do not fully enjoy equal learning opportunities and quality education.

“It is obvious, though not yet generally recognized, that when children are learning in a language, which is not theirs, they are faced with a double set of challenges: not only do they need to learn a new language but they also need to learn new knowledge, new cultural norms and practices that are contained in that new language. Furthermore, these challenges might be exacerbated, for certain groups, who are already in situation of educational risk of illiteracy, poverty and other vulnerabilities”, said Yoshimi Nishino, Chief Social Policy and Governance of UNICEF Viet Nam. “MTBBE programme has been proved to contain all the requirements such as the relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency, sustainability. It has contributed and can be effective in achieving equity in education”.

The Final Review Meeting of AR MTBBE is carried out in Ha Noi today with the participation of about 150 teachers, school managers, community members, education managers at both national and subnational levels, officials from development partners, embassies and UN agencies in Viet Nam. At the meeting, participants share experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of the AR MTBBE and discuss about the future cooperation as well as the ways forward of MTBBE in the context of the comprehensive education reform.

At the meeting, Vice Minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Vinh Hien has expressed his appreciation to UNICEF’s support in education, especially in improving quality of education for ethnic minority children over its 41 years of working in Viet Nam. “The Ministry encourages the provinces with eligible conditions to continue implement and replicate the MBBE approach because this is not only effective in improving Vietnamese language for ethnic minority children but also in improving the quality and increasing the effectiveness of education for ethnic minorities. It also helps to preserve the local culture of the ethnic minorities”, said Vice Minister Hien.