Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia delivered a speech on Vietnam’s pre-school education development policy at the 4th World Congress and 14th International Meeting on Early Education and Preschool held in Monterrey City, Mexico.

The speech focused on the efforts of the Vietnamese Government to promote national pre-school education and recent achievements in the field. It also highlighted future challenges and strategies to push the sector further.

Vietnam was the first Asian nation and the second in the world to sign the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, Nghia said, adding that the Vietnamese Government continuously prioritises education and human resources development.

According to the Deputy Minister, in recent years Vietnam has paid particular attention to developing a network of pre-schools in each locality throughout the country and meeting the increasing demands of families. There are 13,700 kindergartens in Vietnam, with 88 percent being public schools.

However, the country is also facing a number of difficulties, such as shortages of schoolrooms, high-quality teachers and funds for the sector, which require joint efforts from the government, all sectors of the economy and the public.

During her speech, Nghia highlighted the need to step up communication efforts to increase the public’s awareness of the role of pre-school education, and to focus on developing infrastructure, ensuring sufficient funding, improving relevant policies, training teachers and revising training programmes in an effort to make the sector stronger in the future.

Taking place from October 16-18, the meetings brought together more than 1,500 delegates from 31 countries.

On the sidelines of the events, the Vietnamese official held meetings with several international delegations to share Vietnam’s experience in developing the sector. She was received by the General Secretary of Mexico’s Labour Party Alberto Anaya Gutierrez.-VNA