Localities nationwide are ready to welcome pupils and students to the new academic year of 2013-2014 which will kick off on September 5.

At a working session with authorities from central Nghe An province last week, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Minh Hien urged the province to pay more attention to improving education quality and developing human resources, particularly by providing pre-school univerlisation for five-year-old children, raising education quality for mountainous and training establishments.

The 2013-2014 academic year should focus on enhancing education management efficiency, ensuring enough classes for pupils and renovating testing and assessment methods, he said.

Nghe An and other localities should also work to increase the rate of children attending, schools, build more national-standard schools and improve education quality and efficiency.

In the past, Nghe An has succeeded in establishing a network of schools by building at least one kindergarten and one primary school for each commune, ward and town.

The province has also worked to renew training methods and apply information technology in education and training.

In Ho Chi Minh City, director of the municipal Education and Training Department Pham Ngoc Thanh said the city’s policy was aimed to not let any pupils drop form schools because of a financial shortage.

Education promotion associations at schools would work with the municipal Fatherland Front Committee to support disadvantaged pupils, he said.

The department has cooperated with relevant agencies to address urgent issues such as overcrowding at a number of schools, school shortages in some areas and a lack of teachers.

The city will see around 1.5 million new students attend this academic year at over 1,800 schools.

Central Highlands provinces have actively mobilised and prioritised their resources to build new and upgraded school facilities in rural areas in improve learning conditions for ethnic minority children in the new academic year.

As a result, the total number of general schools and nurseries in the region has increased to 3,132.

The provinces have also paid special attention to consolidating temporary schools and classrooms, spending over 1.5 trillion VND (71.4 million USD) since 2008 to upgrade 52,851 classrooms, leaving only 17,179 temporary classrooms in the region.

Dak Lak province is leading the region in the construction of school facilities for children, with an average of 967 new classrooms built every year.-VNA