Central Highlands prioritises teaching of ethnic minorities’ languages

Currently, the languages of Ede, Jrai, Bahnar, K’hor and M’nong ethnic minorities are taught for thousands of students in Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lam Dong and Dak Nong province. Dak Lak alone houses more than 14,416 students studying these languages at 718 classes across 124 primary and secondary establishments.

In recent year, the localities have organised communications campaigns to encourage parents to voluntarily enroll their children on ethnic language courses at school. Many local schools employ textbooks published by the Ministry of Education and Training in Ede, Jrai, Bahnar and K’ho languages for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. In boarding schools for minority students, the education takes place in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades using local teaching programmes and documents.

Since the beginning of the 2018 – 2019 school year, Dak Lak province has given free new textbooks in Ede language to 13,170 Ede ethnic pupils in 3rd, 4th and 5th grades and 133 Ede language teachers across 106 local primary schools. The provinces of Kon Tum, Dak Nong and Lam Dong have annually spent hundreds of billion VND on printing textbooks in ethnic minority languages and purchasing teaching tools and equipment.

Most language teachers in the region have been trained at universities and colleges, and taken part in courses on ethnic language education.