Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc joined the teachers and students at the Vietnamese-Lao T78 Friendship School in Hanoi on September 23 for its ceremony to launch the 2014-2015 academic year.

The event was also attended by representatives of the Laotian Embassy to Vietnam , ministries, agencies and local authorities.

The Vietnamese-Lao T78 Friendship School, founded in 1958, was the first boarding school to teach Vietnamese to Lao students in Vietnam .

So far, the school has provided training for 21,768 Lao students and almost 10,000 Vietnamese ethnic minority students.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Deputy PM hailed the school’s achievements in recruiting and training high-quality teaching staff and enhancing the Vietnamese-Lao friendship.

He urged the institution to make its curricula more practical and learner-oriented, and focus on social skills.-VNA