The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has fulfilled its target of providing universal preschool education for five-year-old children and received approval for its educational development plan for 2020 from the Ministry of Education and Training.

In the announcement ceremony on February 3, Nguyen Viet Dung, Director of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City, spoke highly of the city’s achievement which marks a profound breakthrough in its preschool and general education.

Preschool education lays a solid foundation for children’s physical and mental development, in addition to nurturing positive feelings and creative thinking at an early age. By giving priority to nursery schools, Can Tho has shown its dedication to improving the public intellectual standard and national education quality, he noted.

He also hailed the city’s effort to complete the universal preschool education target a year ahead of schedule.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Van Tam committed to making every effort to implement the educational development plan which is focused on building a learning society, preventing illiteracy, improving education infrastructure and teachers’ capacity, increasing the number of children aged 3-4 attending two classes a day for a full school year, and reducing malnutrition rate in children to below 5 percent.

All communes and districts in the city have kindergartens and standard kindergartens, 37 percent of the classrooms are solidly constructed, all kindergartens have qualified teachers and adequate provisions of basic teaching equipment, and 99 percent of the child population attend school.

Nine of the organisations with significant contributions to universalising preschool education were recognised and awarded at the ceremony.-VNA