Party leader wants to lift ‘low rate' of education

HA NOI — More than two million poor and disadvantaged students have received financial assistance during the past four years.

However, despite the successes, shortcomings remain in education, a meeting between the Party General Secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, and the Ministry of Education and Training heard yesterday.

An information technology lesson at Quynh Mai Primary School in Ha Noi's Hai Ba Trung District. The education sector has developed and diversified to meet the demands of 22 million students. — VNA/VNS Photo Quy Trung

Up for discussion was the implementation of the 11th National Party Congress' Resolution on education reform and raising human-resource training to meet the country's needs in the 21st century.

Delegates to the meeting spoke of the need to thoroughly reform education management as well as the methodology of teaching and learning.

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan said that policies enhancing efficiency and quality of the sector had been incorporated to meet the Party's goals.

The sector had also focused on implementing a national curriculum for pre-school education as well as providing support to ensure disadvantaged children can go to school.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the Government had made considerable achievements on the establishment of permanent schools and provision of accommodation for teachers.

He said the rate of permanent schools had been raised from 52 per cent to 72 per cent, adding that despite low financial resources and many organisational difficulties, the education sector had developed and diversified to meet the demands of 22 million students.

Considerable investment had also been spent on the ethnic community in remote and mountainous areas to ensure social equality in education.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister said that despite all endeavours, education and training quality and efficiency remained low.

In addition, curricula and exams were outdated with little bearing on the realities faced by students.

Party leader Trong underlined the need for long-term strategic vision in education.

In the short term, he called for a focus on teaching ethics and management quality. — VNS

Ethnic people need training, education and healthcare

HA NOI – Nearly 90 per cent of ethnic people of working age are untrained.

This is one of the main obstacles limiting the development of mountainous areas, said Ksor Phuoc, president of National Assembly's Ethnic Council today.

Phuoc was speaking at a forum to develop human resources among tribal people and those living in mountainous areas over the next eight years.

The meeting involved policy makers and experts from international organisations.

Phuoc said improving the quality of human resources in ethnic areas was a key step in meeting requirements for national development.

Statistics from the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs revealed high illiteracy rates existed among ethnic people, especially in the northern uplands (12.7 per cent) and Central Highland areas (11.3 per cent). Most students leave school when they are 15 – or even before.

VN learns workers also march on their stomachs

Workers select food at the Mong Duong Coal Joint Stock Company's canteen in Quang Ninh Province.The company provides nutritious meals, but millions of other factory workers often eat unhygienic and poorly prepared food. — VNA/VNS Photo Ngoc Ha

BINH DUONG — Health authorities and nutrition experts are calling for factories in industrial zones and export processing zones to improve the quality of workers' meals as the number of collective food poisoning cases continues to rise.

Participants at the conference, organised yesterday by the Health Ministry's Viet Nam Food Administration, agreed that millions of workers across the country had been suffering from unhygienic meals, which did not provide them with enough nutrition to handle long working hours and affected the general quality of the labour force.

According to Tran Quang Trung, head of the National Food Administration, there were 927 food poisoning cases between 2007-11 nationwide, affecting roughly 30,700 people, including 229 deaths.

Between 2007-11, 72 collective food poisoning cases at public canteens in industrial and processing zones were reported nationwide, affecting 7,000 workers and hospitalising about 6,600.

Most of the cases at factories resulted from low quality ingredients and unhygienic processing and storage procedures that did not meet safety standards.

HCM City determined to fight drugs crime

HCM CITY - HCM City authorities hope to reduce the rate of people relapsing into illegal drug use, as part of efforts in the city's ongoing battle against drugs crime.

The city's plan to fight illegal drug use by 2020 with a vision to 2030 was launched today by the HCM City People's Committee.

Authorities aim to reduce the rate of relapse among former drug addicts from the current rate of 17 per cent to 10-15 per cent.

Work on fighting drug crime will continue to see police make drug busts, especially on traffickers of hard drugs such as heroin.

According to Deputy Chief of HCM City Police Ngo Minh Chau, 1,600 traffickers and 6.5kg of heroin as well as more than 27kg of ecstasy were seized during the first six months of the year.

The foreign traffickers recruit Vietnamese women to transport large amounts of ecstasy by plane from Africa, Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle into Viet Nam and from Viet Nam to other countries, he said. Local police have also discovered ecstasy production in the city area.

Faster issuance of land titles

A homeowner pays land and housing taxes in Ha Noi's Dong Da District. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is targeing that all outstanding land use rights and house ownership certificates be granted by local authorities by the end of next year. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Tu

HA NOI — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is calling for the issuance of land use rights and home ownership certificates to be sped up nationwide and the process of granting certificates to be completed by next year.

According to the department's report, by the end of June this year, more than 35.85 million certificates had been granted for a total of nearly 20.5 million ha, still below the expected figures.

The percentage of land area granted a certificate ranged from nearly 63 per cent to more than 87 per cent. The land's purpose varied from agriculture and forestry to aquaculture, and also included both rural and urban land and as well as land for special and religious purposes.

Deputy director of the General Department of Land Administration Le Van Lich said that the granting of land certificates had been progressing slowly despite the passing of the Government-issued Decree 88, which was intended to streamline it, in 2009.

Most provinces through out the country had not finished granting land certificates, he said, pointing out that Lai Chau, Phu Yen, Ninh Thuan and Gia Lai provinces were among those achieving the lowest percentages of land area granted.