Implementing Organization Continuing Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training Language of Instruction
Vietnamese (Kinh) and a number of minority languages, including Nung, Tay, Khmer, H’mong, Ede and Dao Funding
Vietnamese government, international NGOs Programme Partners Main partners are the Ministry of Education and Training and UNESCO Hanoi. Other partners include the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, the Vietnam Association for Promoting Education, Vietnam’s National Fatherland Front, the People Mobilization Division of the Border Guard Command, the Women’s Union, the Youth Union and the Farmers’ Union. Annual Programme Costs 120,000,000,000 Vietnamese Dong or VND (around USD 5,700,000) Annual programme cost per learner
1,050,000 VND (around USD 50) Date of Inception
2009
COUNTRY CONTEXT
Vietnam has made substantial process in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and has been successful in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and in securing gender equality in educational enrolment. Female participants now make up 50% of enrolments in both primary and secondary education. Despite this progress, gender inequality remains a major issue.
Women from ethnic-minority groups living in rural communities or with migrant status are particularly likely to be disadvantaged. Ethnic-minority women living in rural communities are over-represented among the poor, for example, while the gender gap in education persists within ethnic minority communities. Women in Vietnam also have poorer access to health services than men and con- tinue to be victims of gender-based violence. Female workers tend to earn less than men and are less likely to receive vocational training (World Bank, 2011).
The Vietnamese government recognizes that adult literacy and gender equality, especially among ethnic minorities, need further improvement. Its five-year plan for socio-economic development in the country acknowledges that improv- ing the living standards of ethnic minorities is necessary in order to promote further development within Vietnam. The Community Learning Centres – An Active Tool in National Literacy and Post-Literacy programme fits well into this context as a large- scale government-run programme that aims to alleviate poverty among the rural poor and to promote gender equality (World Bank, 2014).
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
The programme was launched in 2009 by the Vietnamese Continuing Education Department. The main goal is to promote adult literacy and reduce poverty among ethnic minorities living in remote regions of Vietnam. In addition to community development, the programme also strives to empower women and to promote gender equality. It aims to raise the status of women in communities to help them protect themselves against domestic violence,
rape and social discrimination. It consists of five grades, each of which takes learners three months to com- plete. Topics taught include reading, writing, arithmetic, society, science, agriculture, environmental protection, human rights, gender equality, and parenting.
The programme is currently im- plemented nationwide in 10,815 communities in 63 provinces. Every year the programme reaches around 26,500 participants in literacy classes and some 21,300 participants in post-literacy classes. From its inception in 2009 to 2013, 238,942 learners participated in the programme.
Aims and Objectives
The programme has two sets of ob- jectives related to different timelines. The first set of objectives, which programme implementers want to achieve by the end of 2015, are to:
■ Increase the national adult literacy
rate to 96%;
■ Increase the adult literacy rate
among ethnic-minority groups to 86%; and
■ Promote and sustain the develop-
ment of community learning centres in Vietnamese communities, with a particular focus on remote mountain- ous areas.
The next set of objectives, for 2020, are to:
■ Increase the national adult literacy
rate to 98%;
■ Increase the adult literacy rate
among ethnic minority groups to 90%; and
■ Continue establishing CLCs in
In addition to improving literacy rates, the programme aims to promote community development by reducing poverty levels and contributing to the eradication of hunger. To reach these goals, programme implementers teach communities about agriculture, nature, science and technologies in order to raise their standard of living and to empower them to address and solve the challenges they face. Additionally, the programme aims to empower women and to promote the languages of ethnic minorities through reading and writing classes. These classes are held in theNung, Tay, Khmer, H’mong and Ede languages.
PROGRAMME
IMPLEMENTATION
Teaching and Learning:
Approaches and
Methodologies
The programme, in the main, targets adults, specifically women and minor- ity groups. However, the courses are
open to all members of a community regardless of age, gender or religion. The first step in implementation is to determine the learning needs of a community. Here, the programme relies on a tailored approach that aims to reflect, as much as possible, the needs of the community. In the beginning, facilitators of a local community learning centre (CLC) talk to community members and encour- age them to participate in the literacy courses. This activity takes place in coordination with local women’s un- ions, youth unions, heads of villages, local schools and the Department of Education and Training (DOET). Programme implementers also organize events, such as literacy days, to raise awareness of the programme. The next step is to survey the local population to evaluate existing levels of literacy within the community. Besides evaluating participants’ reading and writing levels, the surveys also assess the learning needs and aspirations of respondents. CLC managers and DOET employees then analyze the surveys and develop a tailored learning plan for each community. When designing these
learning plans, implementers take the number, gender, age and the religious and ethnic background of learners into consideration. In general, teachers have the freedom to adjust the teaching content and methods to suit the specific needs and situations of learners.
The teaching approach adopted by the programme tries to involve participants actively in the learn- ing process. Facilitators employ literacy teaching methodologies that promote critical thinking and independence. For example, one of the methodologies used is REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques). In addition, facilitators use traditional Vietnamese literacy teaching methods whereby students listen to and imitate the teacher. Facilitators do not want to lecture to participants, but seek rather to actively engage them in the learning process. They facilitate discussion among learners as to how best to address and solve local problems. This helps develop analytical skills and critical thinking, as well as developing
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Transforming Our World: Literacy for Sustainable Development life and literacy skills. Literacy andpost-literacy classes can also take the form of on-the-job training. For example, facilitators organize classes on fertilizer application techniques outside in the fields.