Libraries help ethnic students improve Vietnamese language

GIA LAI — Ethnic minority children in Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) Province of Gia Lai have significantly improved their Vietnamese language skills thanks to a new project on expanding "friendly libraries"大众in local classes and schools.

Setting up libraries in schools was one of the tasks to strengthen Vietnamese language for pre-school and primary school students in ethnic minority areas.

Since it was launched five years ago, speaking, reading and writing skills of ethnic minority students in many districts improved.

In the  二0 二0- 二0 二 一 school year, Gia Lai Province has  三00 primary schools and more than  六00 small-scale school branches over several remote mountainous areas with a total of  六,000 classes and  一 六 五,000 students, of which half were ethnic minority.

These children suffer many difficulties and disadvantages, and have little opportunity to access advanced society, so their language skills are limited.

And because they are used to speaking in their own languages, and rarely attend kindergarten classes before school, lessons are difficult to understand.

Gia Lai’s education sector is upgrading facilities and teaching equipment in primary schools.

Many schools set up their own libraries with a variety of books, comics and magazines to help students.

Schools also organised after-school activities such as singing competitions, reading festivals, drawing contests and stationery making competitions.

These activities were helpful and created excitement for ethnic students.

Trần Quốc Tuấn Primary School in Chư Drăng Co妹妹une of Krông Pa District which has five branches and nearly  六00 ethnic students has seen improvements in the classrooms.

Đoàn Thị Thúy, school principal, said: “In order to make students more interested in going to class, the school was constantly creating a beautiful environment, especially with the library.

“We bought new books, magazines and comics to attract students to come and read, improving their language skills.”

Since the project was launched, the school found that students had developed well, and the quality increased year by year.

Ksor H’Bươi, a fourth grader, said: “After class, my friends and I often went to the library to read books.

“Many of my friends read faster and wrote better thanks to reading books and stories in the library.”

Developing libraries in schools and classrooms is a practical move by the local education sector. However, funding is limited so the books are modest with little supplementation and renewal every year.

Right now, only the main schools have built libraries but small branches have not been able to because of lack of funds.

Nearly  三00 of Jrai ethic minority at Ia Jip school branch in Trần Quốc Tuấn Primary School don’t even have basic learning equipment, let alone a library.

The branch is  一0km away from the main school and isolated from residential areas and has no internet access and little reading material.