Mekong Delta targets sustainable education development
According to Nguyen The Nghia, Director of the National Centre for Strategy and Policy Research, education development poses great challenges to the region’s sustainable development.
He said that only 32.1 percent of regional
labourers aging from 15 years and above graduated from primary schools.
The rates of those who have yet to attend school and have no
qualifications were 7.8 percent and 26.6 percent, respectively.
The
Mekong Delta is also facing a reality that the quality of human
resources has not met the region’s socio-economic development
requirements.
A research presented at the event revealed that
the region’s workforce rate accounts for 22 percent of the country’s
population, but almost all lack necessary skills. Around 70-80
percent of local labourers have yet to join vocational training courses.
The Mekong Delta has a total area of around 40,000 square
kilometres and is home to a population of 18 million. It is a major
aquaculture region and the largest rice producer in Vietnam.
However,
the number of students studying agro-aquaculture and forestry in
universities in the region remains low, resulting in a limit in
education of these majors.
Participants said regional localities
should build a plan developing their human resources based on the
region’s socio-economic development targets, focusing on the region’s
strengths of agriculture and aquaculture.
They proposed that
training institutions and enterprises need to enhance cooperation to
devise target training programmes suitable with each regional locality’s
demand, while labour export to foreign markets should be promoted.
Local
authorities should pay attention to building practical and appropriate
incentives to attract qualified labourers to return to work in their
hometowns, experts said.-VNA