News Release

Primary teacher development project in Vietnam secures $6 million funding

Grant and Award Announcement

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester's Centre for Formative Assessment Studies (CFAS) has been contracted by The World Bank and the UK government's Department for International Development (DfID) to initiate a potential $6 million programme to improve the quality of primary education through upgrading the national primary teacher training programme in Vietnam.

The University's involvement in the project will have immediate implications for the upgrading of primary education in ten provinces of Vietnam, with a prospective roll out to all the country's 64 provinces in the short-term future. The value of the current phase of work to be completed by November 2005 is $282,000.

With 90% of 14-year olds now reportedly completing basic education, the Vietnamese Government is turning its attention to issues of quality and efficiency, and in particular to strengthening the curriculum and improving the skills and management of the teaching force. Accordingly, the aim of this phase of the project is to ensure that both current and future trainee teachers, and the 25,000 existing primary education teaching population in the initial ten provinces, will benefit from improved, continuously focused and targeted programmes of training and development.

The project has the aim of developing primary teachers' professional standards. This will involve introducing new regulations and procedures to ensure quality assurance of training providers, and to regulate teacher training standards.

Through the work of the CFAS team, in conjunction with the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training's Quality Assurance department, primary teacher training providers will ensure that they comply with the Ministry regulations on quality accreditation. They will also ensure that internal and independent external moderation procedures are in place to assure the reliability and accuracy of assessments, as well as monitor and evaluate all aspects of provision to improve its quality. This will ensure that it complies with the quality accreditation standards for primary teacher training.

By November 2005 the target is to have systems in place to identify targets for improvement, to review provision against these targets, to specify action taken to secure improvements and to ensure that the specified action is taken and leads to improvement.

Bill Boyle, Director of The University's Centre for Formative Assessment Studies commented: "This project is groundbreaking as it lays the foundations for a nationwide programme to upgrade the teacher training institutions in Vietnam and their training programmes for primary teachers. It aims to sustain the initial teacher training reform impetus through a planned and focused programme of continuous professional development.

"To do this meaningfully we are developing a longitudinal database of professional development activities and experiences which will match the teacher's needs as he/she progresses through their careers.

"The project is naturally being monitored by neighbouring countries, including China, so we hope the anticipated positive outcomes for the Vietnamese education system will be mirrored by other countries in the region and influence their thinking as they develop their own strategies for primary education reform."

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For more information please contact Jo Grady, Media Relations Officer at Te University of Manchester on 44-1-612-752-018 or at jo.grady@manchester.ac.uk.


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