Review the Child development project





Ha Noi, Jan. 16 (VNA) -- The rate of five-year-old children in poor, remote and mountainous areas going to school reached 72-99.7 percent thanks to the child development project in the 1996-2000 period.

The project was carried out in 44 districts of 30 provinces, said a conference to review the project held in Ha Noi on Jan. 15 by the Ministry of Education and Training's Pre-school Education Department.

The project aimed to attract 25 percent of children from 1-5 years to day-care centres or pre-school kindergartens, and provide pre-school education programmes for 80 percent of 5-year-old children before they begin primary school.

Over the past five years, all day-care centres and pre-school kindergartens received aid for child care, all teachers in projected districts attended further training courses, and 550 ethnic students were trained into teachers of pre-school education programmes.

The project helped build 1,134 sanitary facilities 500 kitchens and 120 clean water stations in 36 districts.

In the reviewed period, the rate of malnourished children was reduced significantly and 91-100 percent of children in projected districts were provided with the necessary vaccines.

In addition, the child development project also contributed to reducing the rate of ethnic children having to repeat grade 1 because of difficulties in Vietnamese-language reading and writing.--VNA