Most ethnic minority students have returned to school following the prolonged Tet holiday in the provinces of Dien Bien, Yen Bai and Khanh Hoa. This was due to the efforts of school management boards and local authorities. In the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai, a provincial Education and Training Department report made known that 90% of students were back at school after Tet. The department set up two teams before the holiday to monitor the situation, and teachers were also sent to absentee students' houses to encourage them to return to class. In the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien, only several kindergarten students were reported absent from school due to sickness caused by the icy weather, said Do Van Muoi, deputy head of the provincial Education and Training Department's Primary Education Office. To encourage students to go back to school, free lunches and warm clothes for students had been provided in the districts of Muong Cha and Dien Bien, he said. In the central province of Khanh Hoa, the ratio of students returning to school after Tet was higher than in previous years, said director of the provincial Education and Training Department Le Tuan Tu. The local education sector had implemented five methods to lure ethnic-minority students back to school, having nearly 8,000 primary students each provided with VND200,000 ($10) per month for school lunches, he said. The department had also opened Vietnamese classes for around 1,500 ethnic minority pre-school students, and granted scholarships for outstanding students of all ages, he said. The province has invested VND56 billion ($2.6 million) to improve the facilities in two primary schools in the mountainous districts of Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh. (Vietnam News Feb 17)
