The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has fulfilled its target ofproviding universal preschool education for five-year-old children andreceived approval for its educational development plan for 2020 from theMinistry of Education and Training.

In theannouncement ceremony on February 3, Nguyen Viet Dung, Director of theMinistry of Education and Training’s Representative Office in Ho ChiMinh City, spoke highly of the city’s achievement which marks a profoundbreakthrough in its preschool and general education.

Preschool education lays a solid foundation for children’s physicaland mental development, in addition to nurturing positive feelings andcreative thinking at an early age. By giving priority to nurseryschools, Can Tho has shown its dedication to improving the publicintellectual standard and national education quality, he noted.

He also hailed the city’s effort to complete the universal preschool education target a year ahead of schedule.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Van Tamcommitted to making every effort to implement the educationaldevelopment plan which is focused on building a learning society,preventing illiteracy, improving education infrastructure and teachers’capacity, increasing the number of children aged 3-4 attending twoclasses a day for a full school year, and reducing malnutrition rate inchildren to below 5 percent.

All communes anddistricts in the city have kindergartens and standard kindergartens, 37percent of the classrooms are solidly constructed, all kindergartenshave qualified teachers and adequate provisions of basic teachingequipment, and 99 percent of the child population attend school.

Nine of the organisations with significant contributions to universalising preschool education were recognised and awarded at theceremony.-VNA