WB Lends Vietnam $77M to Help Poor Students

Disadvantaged kids and their teachers will receive dual-ethnic language textbooks as part of the plan. The World Bank has granted Vietnam a credit line of $77 million for a project to help reform the general education system in Vietnam. Vietnam will also contribute $3 million to raise the total funding for the project to US$80 million. A ceremony to kick off the project was held by the Ministry of Education and Training and the World Bank in Hanoi on January 17. The project, which will run until 2020, aims to improve education for primary and secondary school students. It will also provide textbooks aligned with the revised curriculum and assessment system. Students from poor families will be able to borrow new textbooks under the project. New bilingual textbooks in Vietnamese and other ethnic languages will also be made available online to train teachers. (VnExpress Jan 18)