VietNamNet Bridge - About 4.8 million children at preschools throughout the country face high risks – food contamination, accidents and child abuse.

A report of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) showed that 4.8 million children from three months to six years old go to preschools. 

Since state-owned preschools cannot satisfy the increasingly high demand, parents have to send their children to non-state schools though they feel insecure about the education quality.

An official of the Di An Town education sub-department in Binh Duong province said that there are 10 state-owned preschools and more than 100 private run schools and classes. The existing state-owned preschools can accommodate 25.5 percent of children, while 74.5 percent have to go to non-state ones.

Of 1,006 existing preschools in HCM City, there are only 431 state-owned ones. There are also 1,551 privately run classes, 121 of which have not been licensed.

About 4.8 million children at preschools throughout the country face high risks – food contamination, accidents and child abuse.

A survey conducted by the Vietnam Education Science on preschool education establishments discovered a lot of latent risks: cleansing substances were put in the places within the reach of children, while wardrobes and furniture were located in unreasonable places which may cause incidents. 

Nguyen Thi My Trinh from the Vietnam Education Science Institute said when inspecting preschools, the preschools’ owners showed her the certificates on education management. However, when she gave questionnaire, some of them could not give answers because they were Illiterate. 

This means that the owners of the education establishments did not attend any training course, but they bought or borrowed the certificates.

“In such education establishments, there is a high possibility of children getting abused,” she commented.

Education experts also pointed out that the danger for children also comes from the teachers’ situation of physical and mental health.

Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, vice president of the HCM City Central Junior College cited a report by Nguyen Manh Ha from the Hanoi National University as saying that 90.3 percent of 333 surveyed teachers suffered from occupational stress. 

Anh noted that preschool teachers face higher risk of catching stress than people in other careers. 

Nguyen Tung Lam from the Hanoi Education Psychology Association noted that preschool teachers abuse children because they have to work under hard pressure. 

The child abuse is seen mostly at privately run schools and household run classes, because the education establishments, trying to minimize the operation costs, employ untrained teachers and pay low wages to workers. Therefore, the teachers are discouraged in their works.

Deputy chair of Duong Noi Ward in Hanoi Nguyen Thi Thu noted that the current laws set too low requirements on preschool owners. One just needs to finish high school and 3-month vocational training certificate to set up a preschool. 

Tien Phong