Valofrase, a project promoting French in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, has reaped encouraging outcomes over the past four years, contributing to improving the quality of teaching and learning French in the three Indochinese countries.
At a June 23 conference to review the implementation of the project’s first phase during the 2006-2010 period, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia described this as a new and effective cooperation model that should be expanded.
At the event, held in Ho Chi Minh City by Valofrase’s Regional Committee for Coordination, participants also touched on hurdles facing the project, such as low-quality management and a human resources shortage at different levels.
In order to better the project’s second phase, they agreed on the need to pursue a multilateral partnership, pay attention to the quality of targets instead of the quantity and establish a system to oversee students’ study. They also mapped out an array of activities to promote the French environment.
According to Tran Thi Mai Yen, Director of the Asia-Pacific French Centre in HCM City , the second phase of Valofrase will focus on heightening awareness of students and their parents about the benefits from learning French.
The phase is expected to effectively contribute to regional countries’ plan on teaching foreign languages for students ranging from primary to senior levels between 2008-2020, she said.
Valofrase was being jointly launched by the Association of Universities of the Francophonie (AUF) and Ho Chi Minh City Education and Training Department./.
