1. A MOTHER TONGUE - BASED PRE-SCHOOL PROGRAMME FOR ETHNIC MINORITY CHILDREN IN GIA LAI, VIETNAM
Bangkok, Feb Presented by Hoang Thi Thu Huong, MA, Specialist from Early Childhood Education Department Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training

2. I. General Information Gia Lai:
A mountainous province with 13 suburban districts/cities, 171 communes and 1,405 villages.
Population = 970,000, 44.2 % ethnic peoples (Jrai: 30.2%; Bahnar: 13.5%; others: 1.7%).
Jrai people live mainly by cultivation and difficult living conditions.
GIA LAI

3. Why we need mother tongue -based program?
Ethnic preschool children account for one third of children enrolled in preschool in Gia Lai. It is impractical to implement the National Educational Program (NEP) for all the children because:
NEP uses Vietnamese language, which ethnic children cannot understand well.
Ethnic children have less experience in comparison with Kinh children.
Require development of materials to guide mother tongue -based program implementation suitable for five-year-old preschool children in minority areas.

4. Why we need mother tongue -based program? (cont)
Children can understand Vietnamese better and more quickly if they first learn their mother tongue well.
From this point of view, we should teach Vietnamese for ethnic children beginning with their mother tongue.

5. Why we need mother tongue -based program? (cont)
From : The pilot project was carried out in district AYunpa, Gialai prov. AYunpa is the home for three main peoples (Jrai, Bahnar and Kinh).
This pilot project achieved good results. Up to present, GiaLai Education and Training Service has multiplied these results in the region.

6. The pilot project procedure
Objectives:
- To use the minority language and culture to help children learn Jrai language as well as improve their Vietnamese.
- To attract children to go to school so as to help them become more confident and active participants in their own learning

7. How to carry out the Program
The 26-week NEP (for five-year-old children who haven’t gone to early childhood classes for 3 + 4yr olds) issued by the MOET will be adjusted to suit ethnic children.
Content connected with ethnic people’s life are also added to the Program to make it more effective.
About 30% of the curriculum designed by the local educators.

8. How to carry out the Program (cont)
- Adjusting the teaching approach and to make the education process closer to their real life.
- Developing both Jrai and Vietnamese languages.

9. Pilot project guiding principles
- Mother tongues are the main means of communication and help children discover the world around.
- Native villages where ethnic children were born and brought up contain their traditional culture, life style, habits and customs
- Ethnic people are born with their community- based style of living and the ability to fit themselves into their natural and social environment

10. Material Development for the Pilot Project
The Pilot Project Steering Board has encouraged community members:
-To collect ethnic traditional data including pictures, folk songs, traditional games and local festivals, etc.
-To draw pictures with local culture features to help teachers teach or organize the activities for their children.
-To record Jrai folk songs...

11. Project contents focus
Program contents focus on 3 activities: playing, learning and hygiene. Playing activity is a major one in preschool classes.
The learning activity focus on 3 major themes (Family, School and Native village) relevant to Jrai’s social and natural characteristics.

12. Teachers Training Duration: 10days/ a teacher with 2 main contents:
- Before joining the pilot program, pre school teachers attended a short-term training course on mother tongue based education methods and teaching Vietnamese as a second language.
Duration: 10days/ a teacher with 2 main contents:
1.Methods for children’s language development at the pilot classes
+ Direct method
+ Indirect method
2. Creating learning environment in pilot classes

13. The pilot project results
1. Advantages
- Curriculum content is suitable for children to learn due to its being short and simple, and easy for teachers to carry out
Children learn better and actively join in all the activities. Using two languages (mother tongue takes the amine role) has helped children understand better, become more confident
Some parents and local leaders want to have the program expanded and multiplied for all JRai pre-schools in the area.

14. The pilot project results (cont)
2. Some challenges
- A difficulty in developing and teaching mother tongue for ethnic children is the needs of children’s parents
- The parents encourage children to talk to them in Vietnamese with the hope that they can improve their Vietnamese before going to grade 1 so as to learn better in school for more opportunities to succeed in later life.
- Only few pre-school teachers are ethnic people.
- Lack of facilities and teaching aids

15. Thank you for your attention!