The northern mountainous Dien Bien province announced the achievement ofits goal to provide universal preschool education for five-year-oldchildren on February 6.

The locality hasimplemented its universal education plan through 2020 since April 2011.Its four-year effort paid off, as its universal preschool education wasrecognised for meeting national standards by the Ministry of Educationand Training on December 31 last year.

The planhas made positive changes in the local preschool sector and expanded thenetwork of kindergartens across the province.

There are currently 167 kindergartens operating across 769 campuses inall 130 communes, and 64 of the kindergartens were recognised as meetingnational standards.

The province also focusedon developing school infrastructure with 51 percent of classrooms deemedstable and well-constructed.

The number ofchildren attending preschools was also on the rise with nearly 44,600enrolled between 2014 and 2015 compared to 30,000 from 2009-2010. All ofwhom received two classes a day for a full school year and 94 percentwere day-boarders.

The number of qualifiedteachers also increased with about 43 percent of 1,450 kindergartenteachers holding university degrees with another 28 percent holdingassociates degrees.

Deputy Chairman of theprovincial People’s Committee Pham Xuan Koi said preschool educationlays a solid foundation for the success of universal primary andsecondary education efforts.

Dien Bien provinceis committed to maintaining preschool quality along with encouragingthe establishment of private kindergartens as it aims to have 50 percentof local children below 2-years-old and 98 percent of 3-5 year-oldsattend school. It hopes to have 60 percent of its preschools meetingnational standards by 2020.-VNA