Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have proposed a project to fix degraded sewers in downtown areas, with the cost estimated at more than 323 billion VND (14.1 million USD).  

The project is set to employ no-dig technology, which requires little construction space and minimises traffic disruption.

The technique will help clean and repair underground pipelines without digging them up, saving energy and money.

According to the municipal People’s Committee, the sewer upgrade is scheduled to run between 2017 and 2020, with investment sourced from Japan’s non-refundable official development assistance.

Water drainage is hindered by degraded sewers that are too narrow and by the concreting of canals and trenches, leading to flooding in HCM City after heavy rains.

Collision sends Đà Nẵng bus plunging into channel

A public bus plunged into a channel in the central coastal city of Đà Nẵng after being rammed from behind by a truck on Thursday.

The bus driver was wounded, and the bus sustained damage to its cab. There were no passengers on the bus.

The city’s traffic police said the bus, which was traveling from downtown on the Hòa Cầm flyover bridge, was suddenly hit by a truck from behind.

The accident is under investigation.

The bus is one of 61 new buses that the city launched last year to replace old ones. Last year, another bus overturned when it sped and lost control.

The public bus system in Da Nang only carries 10 per cent of daily commuters. Residents in the city of 900,000 make 2.1 million journeys each day, 80 per cent of them on motorbikes.

Rewards targeted at employees

On February 23, Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman of the Central Committee on Emulation and Rewards chaired a meeting to review the Committee’s activities last year and decide this year’s plan.

PM Phuc said emulation movements need specific targets which are closely associated with national and local socio-economic, defense, and security situation. 
The cabinet leader urged localities to creatively implement this year’s theme of enhancing discipline, raising high the sense of responsibility, and promoting innovation for fast and sustainable development. 

He said rewards should be promptly given to employees to encourage them in production.

The Prime Minister noted that to reach the goal of 1 million businesses by 2020, those with great social contributions need to be honored.

Doctors save baby’s life with pacemaker implant

Forty doctors at HCM City Obstetrics Từ Dũ Hospital and Paediatrics Hospital 2 this week implanted a pacemaker in a 36-week-old male infant delivered via a Caesarian section.

When the woman from Lâm Đồng Province first visited Từ Dũ hospital, doctors detected congenital heart defects in the infant, including an enlarged heart and third-degree antrioventricular block, a condition in which the valve between two heart chambers does not function.

At the time, doctors at Từ Dũ Hospital and physicians at Paediatrics Hospital 2 discussed possible solutions to the problem, saying the baby would not survive because of the defects.

They then decided to operate at the 36th week of the pregnancy.

On Monday, the surgery was carried out as scheduled. The baby weighed 2.3 kilos.

The male infant’s heart rate was only 52 beats per minute, while the normal rate is 110 or 160 beats per minute.

Doctors said that pacemaker implantation was the best way to save the patient’s life.

The infant is now being treated at Paediatrics Hospital 2.

Dr Nguyễn Thanh Trúc, deputy head of Paediatrics Hospital 2’s general planning division, said the hospital’s doctors would conduct further treatment to ensure the pacemaker could work a long time.

Nearly 8,000-10,000 babies are born with congenital heart defects in Việt Nam each year, including 50 per cent with serious defects, according to the Ministry of Health.

Serious defects are the leading cause of deaths among infants, accounting for 40 per cent of total deaths caused by all congenital defects.

Japanese-funded project improves women’s health

A Japanese-funded project on building a health care model for women has brought remarkable benefits for the beneficiary community after two years of implementation in central Thua Thien-Hue province.

The assessment was made by Mayumi Katsube, Executive Director of the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP), when reporting the project’s outcomes at a conference in Thua Thien – Hue on February 23.

The project built and put into operation a health consultation and service centre in Thuy Thanh commune in Huong Thuy town in March last year. 

The facility has to date trained 100 midwives for rural medical stations in Thua Thien – Hue and two neighbouring provinces of Quang Tri and Quang Binh. 

The project also provided gynaecological check-ups for more than 3,000 women across 20 communes of the three provinces.

Speaking at the conference, Nguyen Duc Vinh, head of the Ministry of Health’s Maternal and Child Health Department, lauded the project’s outcomes, saying it has improved reproductive health knowledge for midwives in rural and mountainous areas, enabled women to access comprehensive reproductive health services, and helped reduce mortality rate among mothers and children. 

Vinh requested local authorities to facilitate the implementation of the project’s third phase, which is set to run between March 15, 2017 and March 14, 2018.

Sleeper bus blast in northern Vietnam caused by explosives: police

Vietnamese police have attributed the explosion of a sleeper bus on February 21 to explosives following a preliminary probe.

Initial investigation by the Department of Police in the northern province of Bac Ninh showed that the blast of the passenger bus was caused by explosive materials, not by fuel or electrical problems.

The coach was carrying passengers from Thai Nguyen to Quang Ninh, both in northern Vietnam, when that explosion occurred as it reached Que Vo District in Bac Ninh at around 11:00 pm.

Two people were killed in the accident, while officers reconfirmed that 14 people on the bus were injured instead of 12 in previous reports.

According to Colonel Nguyen Cong Nghiep, deputy director of the provincial police department, specialized units under the agency, in coordination with the Criminal Science Institute under the Ministry of Public Security, have probed the scene and relevant exhibits for evaluation.

Preliminary results showed that the explosion was caused by explosives, Col Nghiep stated, adding that officers are working to determine the origin of the materials in an urgent manner.

Nong Duc Thuong, 22, and Vu Duc Anh, 24, were among the few passengers who were not asleep prior to the accident. They noticed a burning smell coming from the rear of the bus before the explosion.

“There were about 40 people on the sleeper bus, most of whom were sleeping,” Duc recounted. “After a loud explosion, I was thrown to the front of the vehicle. I was disoriented and suffered burns on my arms and face.”

Nguyen Tu Quynh, chairman of the Bac Ninh People’s Committee, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on February 22 that the conditions of all the wounded people have been stable.

The two deceased victims were identified as Duong Van Trung, 29, and Nguyen Van Cong, 55, Quynh continued.

According to Duong Thi Dong, Trung’s 50-year-old mother, she was sitting near her son in the back of the bus.

Dong suffered burns and minor wounds across her body and face after being thrown for a few meters by the force of the blast.

The woman added that she and her son were heading to Quang Ninh for work.

AkzoNobel Vietnam to give new coating to City Hall

AkzoNobel, the world’s largest global paints and coatings company, had announced donation of 3,000 liters of paint and wall plaster powder to help give a new coating to the HCMC People’s Committee building.

The age-old City Hall is known for its highly-unique historical, cultural and architectural values, and AkzoNobel Vietnam has previously helped to re-paint the exterior of the building.

David Teng, general director of AkzoNobel, said in a news release that the project is part of the company’s Humanitarian City Program in an effort to preserve the original beauty of the 100-year-old French-style architecture. 

Earlier, AkzoNobel Vietnam has also sponsored paints and other materials to recoat the HCMC Fine Arts Museum as another impressive architectural work in the city. The building’s exterior coating has worn out after nearly one century in existence, and AkzoNobel Vietnam donated over 2,200 liters of paint and the entire labor costs to restore the pristine beauty of the building.

Lai Chau’s Muong Te district improves local lives with WB funding

Muong Te district in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau has improved the lives of local people under a sustainable poverty reduction project funded by the World Bank (WB). 

Joining the project last year, Vang San commune was provided with initial capital of nearly 3 billion VND, part of which was used to buy poultry and cattle for poor households, repair and upgrade water supply stations, kindergartens and roads on paddy fields. 

By late 2016, the commune had disbursed about 770 million VND (33,400 USD), directly benefiting 701 households. 

Tran Van Don, Vice Chairman of the communal People’s Committee, said the commune will continue developing suitable livestock and agricultural models with the funding. 

The second stage of the project was conducted in 67 poor villages in Muong Te district from 2010-2015 with total investment of more than 1.3 trillion VND (some 57.5 million USD). 

The project comprises four components, including district economic development, budget for communal development, improvement of institutional and project management capacity. 

After five years of implementation, 12.08km out of 97km of roads have been concretised, more than 90 percent of households have accessed the national power grid and most local residents use clean water. 

Irrigation systems, schools and other facilities have also been built. The rate of poor households was reduced to 69.64 percent from 88.48 percent. 

Nguyen Van Duong, deputy director of the district’s poverty reduction project management board, said more than 3,000 households have benefited from the project. 

The district aims to become a well-developed locality of the province between by 2020. 

To that end, it will continue measures to reduce poverty, improve the leadership capacity at the grassroots level and urge local people to develop production.

Vietnamese students in France celebrate Lunar New Year

A Tet atmosphere was brought to overseas Vietnamese as well as international friends at a gala night recently held in Montpellier, France, by the Association of Vietnamese Students in Montpellier (AEVM).

The event drew nearly 400 guests, including politicians like Anne-Yvonne Le Dain, Member of Parliament, and Eric Coustou, Monaco Consul in France.

Performances such as lion dances, conical leaf hat dances and flash mob dances delivered by Vietnamese students wowed the attendees.

AEVM President Bach Hai Ngoc said that this was the first time the AEVM has held such an event.

Students buy bananas to help farmers ease glut

Students of the HCMC University of Food Industry have joined forces to buy banana in Dong Nai Province, as farmers there are facing a serious glut because few traders have shown up.

The campaign of buying banana to help Dong Nai farmers was launched by students and teachers of the university on Tuesday morning.

Pham Thai Son, director of a training center of the university, said the school’s students and lecturers expect to help farmers sell around ten tons of bananas this week alone, and some 50 tons of bananas throughout the campaign. The volume will be retailed at the university.

Since early Tuesday’s morning, the first banana truck was sold within one hour by students and staff of the university. Local residents also came to the farmers’ rescue. A local resident who came to pick her child at the school shared that she would love to buy bananas to help Dong Nai farmers release their burden.

Nguyen Kieu, student of the university, said that bananas are normally sold at the price of VND12,000 per kilo or even VND20,000 to VND25,000 per kilo sometimes. However, people can buy big and delicious bananas at the price of VND9,000 per kg at the university. 

Son added that the current price of banana in Dong Nai is only VND1,500 to VND2,000 per kilo compared to VND15,000 in previous years. “We buy bananas from Dong Nai farmers at the price of VNDD5,000 or VND6,000 a kilo and later sell it in HCMC at the price of VND9,000 per kilo. It is expected that with 240ha under banana cultivation in Trang Bom District in Dong Nai Province, about 5,000 tons of bananas need to be consumed.

Dak Nong spends over 200 billion VND upgrading water system

The Central Highlands province of Dak Nong will allocate more than 200 billion VND (8.7 million USD) to expand its clean water system and sanitation projects in rural areas in 2016-2021.

Of the sum, 184 billion VND (8.06 million USD) comes from World Bank loans, with the remainder from the province’s capital.

Up to 33 clean water works will be upgraded or built to serve about 45,000 residents in rural and remote areas. Clean water systems and sanitation projects in 46 schools and 2,200 toilets for rural households will also be built.

After the projects, Dak Nong province hopes that 90 percent of rural residents will have access to clean water, while all schools and medical stations will have water works and toilets. Local officials and people will also be given training courses in sanitation and water saving.

About 83 percent of Dak Nong’s population had access to clean water in 2016, however, the rate is low for people living in rural and remote areas, said the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Int’l experts honoured for help to Vietnamese women

Vietnamese and foreign experts working at embassies and international organisations in Vietnam on February 23 received the insignia “For the Development of Vietnamese Women” of the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) for their contributions to gender equality and the advancement of Vietnamese women. 

Cara Ellickson, an expert from the Coffey International Development organisation, has assisted the Union to successfully organise and manage six training courses relating to violence prevention, safety for women and child protection, and gender and disable people. 

She was active in sharing experience in gender equality-related issues with the Union’s staff, and cooperating with the Union to build a project to enhance women’s capacity to fight gender-based violence in 2014-2017. 

Meanwhile, Joerg Teumer from the Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation - SBFIC (SBFIC) was honoured for his important role in calling for technical and financial assistance from the SBFIC and the Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development of the Philippines for micro-financial projects of the VWU since 2014. 

He also worked to connect the Union with donors and international partners, enabling it to access loans and technical support, learn experience from those, and promote it to international friends. 

Ngo Dinh Quynh, a cultural specialist at the US Embassy in Vietnam, noted the VWU’s clearer presence in changing the life of women and girls. 

According to VWU Standing Vice Chairwoman Hoang Thi Ai Nhien, in the 2012-2017 tenure, the Union made breakthrough development in supporting women to develop economy and promote sustainable poverty reduction. 

About 5.4 million poverty-ridden households got access loans, while over 1.8 million female workers were provided with employment counseling and about 540,000 others joined vocational training courses, in the period. The VWU established over 6,500 cooperative economic models.

The VWU’s chapters nationwide have been implementing many programmes and projects, directly benefiting women and the community, and helping promote women’s rights. 

Dong Van looks to become best tourism site in north

Dong Van district in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang looks to become the most attractive tourism destination in the north by 2020.

Dong Van has huge potential for tourism development thanks to its splendid landscapes and a diversity of historical and cultural relic sites, said Nguyen Trung Ngoc, Vice Chairman of the district People’s Committee.

According to Ngoc, the district, located in the core zone of the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark, is home to over 40 percent of the total geological relic sites in the park. It also boasts four national historical and cultural relic sites, namely the Vuong family Palace, Dong Van ancient town, Lung Cu national flag pole, and the Tay Cuon fossil relic site in Ma Le commune. 

Ethnic minority groups in the region still practice their time-honoured traditions, many of which have been recognised as part of the national intangible cultural heritage such as the ancestor worship ritual of the Lo Lo, the Forest God worship ritual of the Pu Peo, and the Gau Tao spring festival of the Mong.

Following the recognition of the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark in 2010, the number of visitors to Dong Van has increased rapidly, rising more than 10 fold from 20,000 to more than 260,000 in 2016. 

To meet the demand of visitors, the district has called for investment in facilities serving tourism, with focus on restaurant and hotel network, Vice Chairman Ngoc said, stressing that at the same time, the district strengthens the protection of the environment and cultural heritage.

In order to become the most popular destinations in the northern region, Dong Van plans to build on its current tourist products, with more attention paid to the local buckwheat fields because in the past two years, the annual Buckwheat Flower Festival alone lures 50 percent of the year’s total number of tourists to Ha Giang province.

The festival is also among local tourism highlights in the National Tourism Year 2017.

The locality will invest around 10 billion VND (438,000 USD) in planting more buckwheat in every tourism sites and building parking zones and toilets to serve tourists.

Trieu Thi Tinh, Vice Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Dong Van Karst Plateau is one of the must-see destination in the journey to the northern mountainous region.

The province has submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism a proposal to make the Dong Van Karst Plateau a national tourism site.

Dong Van has received 4,000 arrivals so far this year, up 30 percent from the same period last year. The figure is expected to reach 300,000 by the end of this year.

Hải Phòng to play without key players

Hải Phòng will miss their key player, defender Nguyễn Anh Hùng, in the match against Sanna Khánh Hòa in the seventh round of the National Premier League in Nha Trang City today.

Hùng received three yellow cards, so he cannot play in the upcoming match. Hùng is the top choice of coach Trương Việt Hoàng at the defence line. He played well in all six matches of Hải Phòng in the tournament and was also noticed by the goal.com.

However, northern port city team Hải Phòng will welcome the return of striker Errol Stevens after a suspension in the match with Hà Nội.

Without Hùng, Hải Phòng will have their work cut out, as Khánh Hòa have good attackers such as Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Chí and Lâm Ti Phông.

Hải Phòng have made a good start in this year’s football season with 10 points and rank fourth in the rankings. Khánh Hòa has dropped to 10th place with six points.

Giàu appointed coach of Long An

Phan Văn Giàu has been appointed coach of V.League 1 side Long An, replacing coach Ngô Quang Sang.

Sang was removed from the position by Long An and was also suspended from Việt Nam Football Federation’s football activities for three years following Long An’s unsporting behaviour in the match against HCM City on February 19.

Forty two-year-old Giàu is a well-known former midfielder of Đồng Tâm Long An, which won the league in 2005 and 2006. He is the elder brother of Phan Văn Tài Em, who won the Vietnamese golden ball award in 2005.

Giàu’s first task is to stabilise his players mentally following the team’s breakdown, the worst in Việt Nam’s football history, and then restore the club’s image.

At present, Long An are at the bottom of the rankings with only four points from six matches. They will meet Hoàng Anh Gia Lai in the seventh round of the national premier league on Saturday.

Long An industry goes green

The southern province of Long An has assigned priority to environment-friendly technologies and strengthened environmental management to ensure sustainable operation of its industrial parks, Phan Nhân Duy, director of its Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said.

It has 28 IPs and 16 IP complexes currently in operation, with over 1,000 plants with a total investment of over US$5 billion.

All had to file reports on their environmental impacts and environmental protection commitments to get their licences. They have their own wastewater and solid waste treatment facilities.

Many of their developers have invested in modern environmental treatment systems and want environment-friendly projects in their IPs, Duy said.

Exports from these IPs and IP complexes account for over 50 per cent of the province’s annual exports of over $4 billion.

The measures taken by the province have helped it restructure its economy from agricultural to industrial, Duy said.

Lê Anh Hiếu, marketing manager of Long Hậu JSC, the developer of Long Hậu IP in Cần Đước District, said his company is focused on environmental protection.

The IP prescribes environmental protection to its tenants, he said.

Its wastewater treatment system is testament to the IP’s environmental protection efforts, he said.

The effluent treatment and water supply systems cost over VNĐ10 billion to build, he said.

Recently it increased its wastewater treatment capacity from 2,000cu.m per day to 6,500cu.m, and the treated water is used to water trees in the IP.

Long An regularly monitors surface water and air quality and does studies of the environment at places facing pollution risks.

The province has taken measures to prevent pollution and encourages the use of new technologies for clean production, ISO 14000 and green consumption, and helps polluting enterprises relocate from residential areas.

Hiếu said the province has also done a study of the waste discharged in rivers to protect them. 

Vietnam accuses YouTube of 'slander and distortion' in videos

The Ministry of Information has expressed concern over YouTube videos that violate Vietnamese laws.

Officials in charge of online information at the ministry said they had found 17 videos containing slanderous content and distorted historical facts that could stir national unrest.

One of those videos was the recommended link following a regular music video, they said.

“It’s a serious matter that YouTube allows videos containing bad content to stay online and available to Vietnamese users,” an official said.

Advertisements featuring big Vietnamese brands appear before and during these videos, which can damage the brands and their reputations, officials said.

Le Quang Tu Do, deputy director of the ministry’s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, said the companies, their advertising agents and YouTube were all responsible for not checking the content.

A source from one of those companies told VnExpress they had no idea their brand and products had been attached to the videos, adding that they will verify and work with their advertising partners to resolve the matter.

A representative from Google, which manages the popular video sharing site, said any viewers can report improper videos and ask for them to be taken down.

However, Do said global content providers such as Google and Facebook must follow Vietnamese laws and proactively protect Vietnamese users.

“We will ask the government to impose penalties and technical measures if these providers do not follow Vietnamese laws,” he said.

The ministry plans to meet with the businesses, as well as with YouTube and Google, to ask them to remove the content.

Nearly 49 million people in Vietnam, or more than half of the country’s population, are internet users. A Nielsen survey released last September found that 92% of them watch online videos at least once a week and 64% are daily viewers.

Complaints over expensive rice export licences

A discussion about ways to loosen Decree 109 on rice export has been held by the UK-based organisation Oxfam and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on February 22.
   
Ngo Van Nam, representative of ADC Company in HCM City said Decree 109 was no longer suitable for the current economy. The ADC Company has a 35,000 hectare of material area and 16,000 farmers but has no intention to ask for the licence because of the high cost. Instead, they partnered with another company that already has the licence. Each time they want to export, they have to hire extra help to deal with the administrative procedures. He said the fee for the licence is USD20,000.

The regulations stipulate that once a company has a rice export certificate, it must export at least 10,000 tonnes of rice a year. ADC Company hopes that rice export contracts will be auctioned. Currently, big companies have most of the contracts and give the good ones to their familiar smaller companies. Other companies have to take risky contracts just to meet the quota.

Dang Thi Lien, director of Long An Food Company said the specific measurements of a required material area should be scraped so that firms can be more flexible to improve rice quality and meet social and environmental responsibilities.

Several experts said they could understand that the government might tighten the regulations on rice exports for food security, but Vietnam doesn't have to worry about food shortages. If the government doesn't change the regulations, farmers may continue to pursue quantity despite the cheap prices instead of quality.

However, the process should be considered carefully to avoid chaos. Tran Tien Khai from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, agreed and said that government should also take lessons from the dwindling exports of shrimp, catfish and dragon fruits. 

Meanwhile, Director of VCCI in Can Tho City Vo Hung Dung said there was no reason to blame small companies. He thinks only dumping by big companies could affect the market that's why there was a need to create a fair arena for all businesses.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade recently signed a decision to abolish a limit the number of rice export companies at 150.

Israel Film Festival 2017 held in Vietnam

The Israel Film Festival 2017 will take place in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city from February 24-March 6.

The event will present to movie lovers great films of different genres that carry Israeli unique characteristics. Audience will have a chance to take on a cinematographic journey to the country and learn more about Israeli diverse cultures, traditions and identities.

The films include Nhung nha ao thuat (Magic Men), Khong dong luc (Zero Motivation), Ngoai co thi sao (A Matter of Size), Sua (Jellyfish), and Nam tieng tu Paris (Five Hours from Paris). 

They will be screened at National Cinema Centre, 87 Lang Ha Street in Hanoi from February 24-27; and at BHD Star Cineplex – Floor 3&4 Bitexco No. 2 Hai Trieu, District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City on March 3-6.

Workers’ kids receive attention from labor unions

To help workers’ children have more items for their entertainment and learning demand, labor union gave kid toys and learning items for them worth VND47 million (US$2,059).

Managers of the Children Sponsorship Fund of the Vietnam Labor Union and the Ho Chi Minh Labor Union visited the preschool in Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in District 7 and gave kid toys and learning devices.

The preschool have most of workers’ kids. On the occasion, unions of industrial parks and export processing zones also gave 430 gifts to workers’ kids in the school.

The preschool was opened on June 1, 2016 on the area of 3,600 meter square with the cost of VND40 billion.

Financial autonomy to create high quality education products: HCMC Party Chief

Investment in education is investment in sustainable development. Within permit conditions, HCMC leaders always give priority to the field’s development, speed up schools’ autonomy and mobilize social resources to create high quality education products meeting targets of the country’s industrialization, modernization and international integration, said Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee Dinh La Thang on February 23.

Speaking at a working session with the city Department of Education and Training, he said that the policy should be implemented in a suitable roadmap for schools to gain from partial to full autonomy on the basic of publicity and transparency to create the society’s agreement, not affect educational quality or concern students’ parents.

Reporting at the meeting, director of the department Le Hong Son said that the city now has 2,168 educational institutions including 1,360 public schools with the total of 1.76 million students. Last year, 14 colleges and vocational, special and nursery schools were given personnel autonomy to recruit regular employees themselves.

Nearly 100 percent schools have implemented the Government’s Decree 43/2006 on financial autonomy but only five accounting for 0.4 percent of the total have been affordable for their operating costs.

For the last recent years, HCMC has called on social investment in education and mobilized funds from many resources to develop public schools. Of these, students’ parents voluntarily contribute about VND450 billion (US$19.71 million) a year to assist educational activities and improve material infrastructures.

Besides the city has piloted an advanced and high quality school model with higher than normal tuition and efficiently carried out the integrated program teaching mathematics and science subjects in English under international standards.

Mr. Son reported many difficulties in materializing the financial autonomy and social investment policy because of asynchronous polices and lack of instructions from authorized agencies making public schools and teachers unable to promote their ability and creativeness.

Deputy director of the department Le Hoai Nam said that financial independence of public schools had been very difficult and the city should solve mechanism difficulties to adjust tuition level suiting education development requirements. According to him, at present schools are permitted to collect a maximum of VND400,000 a student a month so they have not been able to exercise fully financial self-control.

The Education and Training Department also named many insoluble issues at the meeting, for instance population has increased much faster than school building and the number of students per class is high now. Many schools have been short of material infrastructures to organize two spells of study a day, increase extracurricular activities and exercise for students and teach living skills.

In addition, many good English teachers in primary and secondary schools have quitted because of low wage inappropriate with their ability.

Secretary Dinh La Thang said that it is necessary to determine the leadership role of the Department of Education and Training as well as the initiative of each school in financial autonomy and development directions in the phase of 2020-2030. They should make clear which assistances they need from the city to obtain their targets.

He noticed the currently high obese ratio of students in cities because of little physical exercise.

The secretary instructed agencies to solve difficulties in implementing the financial autonomy, human resources and tuition adjustment to facilitate the education and training’s autonomy.

He proposed the Department of Finance to provide the Department of Education and Training with sufficient funds for regular spending on educational activities, the education industry to study a suitable wage mechanism for teachers. The wage should suit working ability instead of paying all teachers at the same level, aiming to lure and keep good teachers in the field.

The Education and Training Department should have a road map to reduce curricular overload for students because they have to study and take exams too much. From now until 2020, the agency must put an end on the ongoing rampant tutoring which has caused negative issues and coordinate with relevant sides to hike the ratio of urban students knowing how to swim especially those in Can Gio district, added Mr. Thang.

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri/VNE