France increases efforts to promote teaching of French in Vietnam
Ha Noi, May 21 (VNA) -- The French Government will grant French Francs 13 million to support the teaching of French as a second language in Vietnamese secondary schools for the next three years.
To this effect, French Ambassador to Viet Nam, Serge Degallaix, and Vietnamese Education and Training Minister Nguyen Minh Hien signed an agreement in Ha Noi May 21.
The aid will create favourable conditions for the stable development of bilingual-language classes that were set up in 1994. France hopes that the aid will help to expand the experimental teaching of French as a second language in a number of secondary schools.
As many as 75 bilingual classes will be opened for first grade pupils in the 2001-2002 school year, thus bringing the number of such classes to 725 with 19,578 pupils.
The country has 697 bilingual-language classes in 19 provinces and cities with a total number of 18,820 pupils in the last school year.
In the 1999-2000 school year, 76 out of 91 students of the Marie-Curie and Le Hong Phong high schools in Ho Chi Minh City and the Chu Van An high school in Ha Noi sat final examinations using both Vietnamese and French languages.--VNA
