Children learn drawing at a kindergarten in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi (Photo: VNA) This is part of the Politburo’sDirective No 28-CT/TW, issued on December 25, 2023, on the enhancement of childcare, education, and protection.
In November 2012, the Politburo alsoreleased a directive on promoting the Party’s leadership over child care,education, and protection which affirmed the need to boost the private sector’sengagement in the work.
Since then, much progress has beenseen in the attraction of private parties to child care and protection, the Ministryof Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said, elaborating that familiesand the society’s awareness of the issue has been increasingly improved as seenin higher rates of birth registration and children covered by health insurance.
The mobilisation of private resourcesfor education has also been stepped up while curricular and extracurricularactivities reformed to include contents related to child care and protectionsuch as life skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, and childhood accident prevention.
Authorities, the community, and children themselves have also become more awareof the importance of child care and protection and further involved in thework, which has seen active performance by the Vietnam Fatherland Front, YouthUnion, Women’s Union, and Farmers’ Union, and Vietnam Association for theProtection of Child Rights, as well as domestic and international non-governmentalorganisations, according to MoLISA.
MA Pham Thi Hai from MoLISA held thatto promote the private sector’s engagement, the State should establish a legalframework on child protection, including the mobilisation of private parties’participation; regulate the rights and responsibilities of individuals,organisations, and the community when they supply child care and protectionservices; and stipulate people’s rights to benefit from those services.
In addition, the State needs todevise mechanisms and policies on training civil servants and volunteers in thefield, create a favourable environment for child care and protection along withthe supply of children-related products, and fulfill its role in supervision,inspection, and settlement of law violations, she noted.
Hai added that though engaging the private sector’s participation is meant tomaximise resources for child care and protection, investment from the Statestill holds the main role, particularly in remote areas and at the grassrootslevel, where it is difficult for private investors to gain benefits or profitfrom.
The state budget’s spending on education and health care for children has beenrising over years, statistics show.
During 2013 - 2023, educationaccounts for 17.8% of the state budget’s total annual spending. Of the spendingon education, 20% is for pre-school education, 32% for primary education, 25%for junior high school education, and 12% for senior high school education.
As a result, impressive achievementshave been harvested, including the rates of literate school-age people and childrenenrolling in compulsory preschool education at 96.8% and 98.3%, respectively. Vietnamalso ranks 59th in the global education rankings.
Meanwhile, considerable funding hasalso been allocated for health care, the Ministry of Finance said, noting that thestate budget’s total funding for the health sector tops 38.13 trillion VND (1.5billion USD) for the 2021 - 2025 period, excluding the spending integrated intothe national target programmes.
A number of health programmes and projects for children have been carried outsuch as buying health insurance for under-six children, the expandedvaccination programme, and the ones on food safety, population, and HIV/AIDScontrol.
Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said mother and child indexes inVietnam are relatively goods compared to many other countries with equivalentper capita income.
During 2020 - 2022, the under-five mortalityrate was brought down to 18.9 per thousand from 39.6 per thousand while theunder-one mortality rate also fell by over two times to 12.1 per thousand from29.5 per thousand. The rate of fully vaccinated children under one year of age hasalso been maintained at over 90%.
A recent nutrition census indicated that the rate of under-five children withstunting has also declined gradually, from 29.3% in 2010 to under 18.9% in2022./.
VNA
