Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

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Participatory poverty monitoring in rural communities in Viet Nam 106 traditional teaching methods dominate. Teacher rotation in ethnic minority mountainous areas has a negative impact on the quality of teaching and learning. Few teachers from low lying areas want to live and work in ethnic minority mountainous areas for more than three to five years. In especially disadvantaged communes teachers enjoy a hardship allowance (on top of a preferential salary) for five years. Few teachers want to stay on without the allowance. Salaries for short term teachers in mountainous areas are low. To overcome the shortage of teachers, some schools in specially disadvantaged ethnic minority mountainous areas have employed teachers on short term contracts. The low pay (on average about 1.2 million VND/month, about 20 - 30% that of those in the long term payroll) leads to uncertainly among temporary teachers. The use of “nominated teachers” is a challenge in monitoring communes in ethnic minority mountainous areas (Xy - Quang Tri, Cu Hue - Dak Lak, Phuoc Dai - Ninh Thuan and Phuoc Thanh - Ninh Thuan). Nominated teachers are usually teachers from local ethnic minority groups who have completed lower secondary schools with an additional two years of pedagogic training. However, school managers often comment that as their teaching skills and overall participation in school activities are limited. Thus in some places, the nominated teachers are only allowed to teach minor subjects, such as physical exercise, first grade ethnic minority languages or do office work. Students’ learning quality Educational outcomes have improved. The campaign “Toward friendly schools and active learners” launched by the Ministry of Education and Training has been effective. Many schools have introduced concrete measures to improve the quality of learning, such as organizing extra classes in summer and at the beginning of the school year, providing special classes for weaker students and introducing a more realistic workload for ethnic minorities. The majority of students now attend lessons commensurate with their ability. There are challenges to education quality, which requires efforts from the schools, families and society, as well as renewed learning and teaching methods. According to the current assessment system, the proportion of students reaching the “creditable and outstanding” level in the ethnic minority mountainous communes is low and is only slowly improving. Some students at lower secondary schools but can’t read or write fluently and have poor numeracy skills. Teachers have to teach primary level knowledge to secondary students, and few students go on to upper secondary school. Some ethnic minority students also struggle to communicate and learn in Vietnamese (Table 6.3). Students’ different abilities in communes with mixed ethnic groups provides a difficult challenge for teachers.
Five-year Synthesis Report Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam TABLE 6.3. Parents’ feedback on difficulties in communication with teachers and getting knowledge by the national language, 2011 (%) Commune Not difficult Slightly Very difficult Don’t know difficult Thuan Hoa 14 77 9 0 107 Ban Lien 57 35 5 3 Thanh Xuong 72 28 0 0 Luong Minh 12 64 20 4 Duc Huong 100 0 0 0 Xy 16 56 26 2 Cu Hue 47 37 16 0 Phuoc Dai 36 36 2 26 Phuoc Thanh 43 26 0 31 Thuan Hoa 72 17 5 6 Average 41 40 9 10 SOURCE: Households interviews “Bilingual teaching” and using “teachers’ support staff” are two methods to overcome the language barriers for the ethnic minorities’ primary students. However, “bilingual teaching” in the ethnic minority mountainous areas is currently difficult due to limited funding, and shortages of teachers and materials. The “Teachers’ Support Staff” programme was highly praised by communities and schools, but finished in 2010 after funding from the World Bank ended (Box 6.2). BOX 6.2. The initiative “teachers’ support staff” at the remote villages should be maintained At the monitoring points in ethnic minority mountainous areas, bilingual teaching (in Vietnamese and local dialects) are not a common practice. Among the ten monitoring points, only Cu Hue - Dak Lak has two classes in the Ede language. Although the Ede parents highly praise these classes, the Ede students themselves are not so eager. While the bilingual teaching is encountering difficulties, the use of “teachers’ support staff” by the “Primary Education for Disadvantaged Children” Project (PEDC - funded by the World Bank to implement in 226 districts of 40 provinces) at the remote villages is a practical solution. The “teachers’ support staff” are local ethnic minority people, and can serve as a bridge linking teachers, families and the local community, can encourage children to go to school, prepare lessons and teaching aids, and work as interpreters during the lecturing. In some monitoring points with a high number of ethnic minorities’ children, the teachers are rotating and so they don’t know the local language, and so the “teachers’ support staff” initiative is highly valued by the community and schools in removing language barriers for children from ethnic minorities. The PEDC Project ended in 2010, so there were no more “teachers’ support staff”. Those having been employed as teachers’ support staff say that they want to continue this job, and want to continue their study so that they can work as teachers in the future. Maintaining this model is a recommendation of all schools at the monitoring points that have participated in the PEDC project.
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PARTICIPATORY POVERTY MONITORING IN
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PREFACE 1 7 In early 2007, Viet Nam
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ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS 10 ActionAi
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12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The last five
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14 and improve monitoring and evalu
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16 TABLE 1. The monitoring points C
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18 transparency, and accountability
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20 TABLE 2. Characteristics of the
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Part 1 Poverty Trends and Key Theme
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Participatory poverty monitoring in
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