The American Health Education Associates will support Vietnam to build 20 primary schools with 70 classrooms in disadvantaged areas during 2010.
A newly completed elementary school in Dak To District, Kon tum Province
Investments worth $500,000 USD will be allocated in Da Nang, Dak Lak, Kon Tum, Quang Nam, Hoa Binh and Hung Yen Provinces.
The project aims to build 100 new primary schools in total in impoverished mountainous areas.
The project was started in 2005 and was sponsored by Nippon Fund and Asia Education & Friendship Association (AEFA) of Japan.
A shortage of classrooms and schooling facilities is major factor in pupils dropping out of school. The project has now built 59 schools, each with 4-5 classrooms, in mountainous areas since 2005. This makes conditions more favourable for thousands of pupils to attend classes and decreases chances of them dropping out.
Ho Van Chau, Manager of the Education Department of Dak To District, Kon Tum Province said, “The project of Health Education Associates helps thousands of pupils who are mostly from ethnic groups in remote areas have new and safe classrooms. It is really a precious contribution to the education programme in the province.”
There are 11 primary schools that have been built in Dak To District since 2007. As planned, there will be another 5 soon.
In addition to building new schools under national standards, the project also has established cultural exchanges between schools of the project and the Japanese students. Pupils will have a chance to exchange letters, drawings, cultural information, learning tools or memorial gifts in order to strengthen solidarity and mutual understandings between the future Vietnamese and Japanese generation.
