As the capital works to expand pre-school networks it also aims to lift education standards and reduce malnutrition among young children, said the municipal Department of Education and Training.

Hanoi was piloting a project to improve pre-school education which aimed to ensure half the kindergartens and nurseries reached national standards by 2015.

The department said the project, with 3 trillion VND (167 million USD) coming from the city’s education budget, aimed to ensure 35 percent of children under three and 95 percent aged three to five get pre-school education and care. This would ensure all five-year-olds were ready for first grade within six years.

The project would provide the city with 1,010 billion VND (56.1 million USD) to build more pre-schools and 1,000 billion VND (55.5 million USD) to improve temporary classrooms. The remainder would be spent on improving facilities, raising education standards and ensuring children’s health, the department said.

The project also aimed to provide 70 percent of disabled children with proper pre-school education and reduce malnutrition rates among children to below 7 percent.

“The city’s kindergartens and nurseries will have internet access and 80 percent will have used information technology in management and education activities by 2015,” said Nguyen Ngoc Diep, head of the department’s Planning and Finance Division.

With correct implementation, the project would expand the pre-school education network to ensure every ward or commune had at least one or two kindergartens and nurseries, said Diep.

Department statistics show the city’s 790 kindergartens and nurseries cater for 85 percent of children aged three to five and about a quarter of those under three.

The department said the city needed about 700,000sq.m to build the required facilities./.