The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will support secondary school teacher education in Vietnam with a loan of 34 million U.S. dollars, an ADB report said on Tuesday.

The Upper Secondary and Professional Teacher Development Project will provide money to train secondary teachers, collect and analyze educational data, assist with teacher registration and accreditation, and help modernize equipment and facilities for teachers and students, said the report.

"This project will help ensure that students in Vietnam will receive quality education that expands and improves employment opportunities," said Sukhdeep Brar, an ADB Senior Education Specialist. "Students will benefit from instruction by a better qualified teaching force."

In addition to students, those expected to benefit from the project will be secondary school teachers, who will have opportunities to improve their skills through training programs. Also, ethnic minority groups, particularly women, will have greater access to quality teacher training programs through the provision of scholarships, dormitories, and enhanced facilities serving ethnic minority areas.

Vietnam has made significant progress in improving access to education, with about 94 percent of children enrolled in primary school and 51 percent enrolled in secondary. This compares to a secondary education enrollment rate of only 19 percent in 1993.

The Government expects enrollment to increase in secondary schools and needs to ambitiously expand the number of qualified teachers in the country. An estimated 58,000 more secondary school teachers will be needed by 2010.

Source: Xinhua