As many as 408 organisations, businesses and individuals both at home and abroad have been honoured for their huge contributions to the country’s education and training sector.

Of those, four establishments and five individuals received certificates of merit bestowed by the Prime Minister, 194 organisations and 153 people were awarded certificates of merit conferred by the Minister of Education and Training and 27 others were presented with the insignias “For the Cause of Education.”

While addressing the awards ceremony in Hanoi on January 15, State President Nguyen Minh Triet applauded the valuable support given by the business community and kind-hearted individuals.

The Party and the State always care for and regard education and training as a key priority for the country and allocate the largest sum they can for investment in this field, stressed President Triet.

The State leader also called upon donors to lend more support as well as contributions to the education and training sector, to enable the movement to develop on a larger scale.

Since the first awards ceremony was held in 2007, the sector has received almost 18.26 million USD and more than 167,000 sq.m of land to build schools.

The biggest foreign donors include the New Zealand Agency for International Development, the Lawrence S. Ting Foundation, the Minors Organisation and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency./.