The Central Highland province of Dak Lak has completed new editions of primary school textbooks written in the ethnic Ede language.
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| Ethnic Ede children attend class in a boarding school in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. New Ede language textbooks have been completed and will be put to use later this year. — VNA/VNS Photo Trong Duc |
The provincial Department of Education and Training said the new textbooks would be handed out to students at the beginning of the new academic year, which starts in September.
Head of the department\'s Ethnic Minority Education Research Unit Nay H\'Ban said the new editions, which include three books for third to fifth graders, would replace old editions that have not been updated for three years.
"These books are designed to better cater to ethnic minority students and include contents that is more relevant to their lives," H\'Ban said.
"The curricula\'s workload will also be reduced, with two classes per week instead of four."
The teaching of bilingual languages, including Vietnamese and Ede, helps ethnic students improve their study results, practise their language skills and preserve their mother tongue and traditional culture.
Dak Lak Province is home to about 13.6 percent of the 1.8 million Ede living in Vietnam. The Vietnamese and Ede languages have been taught through pilot programmes at primary and secondary boarding schools for several years.
In the 2010-11 academic year, about 12,000 ethnic minority students at 88 schools in the province studied the Ede language.
Provincial authorities hope to see bilingual classes at more than 580 classrooms at 100 schools to reach 15,000 students by 2015.
Currently, Vietnam has 53 ethnic minorities, 30 of which have their own written languages. More than 10 ethnic languages have been taught at schools and seven used in the mass media, including H\'mong, Thai, Jrai, Ede, Bana, Cham and Khmer.
