More investment in education for mountainous areas
Nong Thi Ngoc Lan, the principal of Thai Nguyen province's boarding secondary school who has been working for 26 years in the mountainous district of Vo Nhai in Thai Nguyen province affirmed that the Party and State have paid special attention to education in ethnic minority areas over the past years through policies towards education and preferential treatment for teachers in such needy areas.
However, education in mountainous areas has not yet been fully developed and still faced with many difficulties compared to the plains areas. I hope the Party and State will pay more attention to mountainous areas and promulgate suitable policies to support education in such areas in the coming time. Infrastructure such as teaching equipment, textbooks, reference books and teachers manuals all need more investment. Moreover, training courses should be provided for teachers and education management staff to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
At present, teachers working in the needy mountainous areas are given an additional allowance during their first five years in post according to Government Decree 61 promulgated in 2006. However, the Decree needs to be amended to increase the number of years the allowance is payable. Such changes will encourage teachers to stay longer in such areas. Additionally, the Party and State should have a preferential policy towards pupils in needy areas such as offering them scholarships, textbooks and so on and pay more attention to both disadvantaged students and those who have good academic results.
The scholarship levels offered to pupils studying at boarding high schools and secondary schools at present are the same. Therefore, I suggest a higher level of scholarship equal to the minimum salary be given to boarding students at high schools. In addition, the State should have a policy to encourage excellent students in ethnic minority and needy areas to go to teachers training colleges so that they can teach in their home town following graduation.
Improving workers’ living conditions
As a Party member, Dao Van Viet, Trade Union Chairman of VPIC Company in Ho Nai 3 Industrial Zone, Trang Bom, Dong Nai province who is joining in activities of a party grassroots organisation in a non-state enterprise, said he hoped this type of Party organisation will be given more attention and more favourable conditions will be created to allow it to develop further.
Party members and Party grassroots organisations in joint venture companies play a very important role and are considered to be a bridge linking the Party with employers and workers. With more than 500 thousand workers in industrial zones and enterprises located outside industrial zones in Dong Nai province, workers have a very important position in socio-economic development in Dong Nai province in particular and the country in general. However, there are few Party grassroots organisations in non-State enterprises in the area.
Under the leadership of the Party, during the revolutionary periods, the working class successfully completed its mission, and during the renewal process, the Party and State have been mindful of the working class Therefore, in recent years the living conditions of workers have consistently improved and that of skilled workers is growing even faster.
We believe and hope that the 11th Party Congress will promote the spirit and wisdom of the collectives; and discuss and decide upon goals and measures to create breakthroughs in the country's socio-economic development in the time to come. At present, the workers' life is still hard, however, we should rise above ourselves, improve our knowledge and skills and build our solidarity for a stronger working class. We wish that the Party will have more specific policies to build workers into a strong class in both quantity and quality and there will also be more policy amendments and supplements and new laws on employment, housing, wages, social insurance, health insurance and social welfare in order to improve the physical and spiritual life of workers.
