Education programme brief 4

Action Research on Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education:Inclusive education – using mother tongue based bilingual education to improve learning

outcome of ethnic minority children in Viet Nam 1

1. Background

Viet Nam is a country with around 90.5 million inhabitants1 and 54 ethnic groups2. The majority

Kinh ethnic group accounts for about 86 per cent of the total. The other 53 ethnic groups have population sizes ranging from a few hundred to around one million people and account for about 14 per cent of the total population3. These ethnic minority groups live in scattered settlement patterns, primarily in the Northern Uplands, Central Highlands and South West regions. Ethnic minority groups have their own language, traditional culture and religious beliefs, which form the basis of their identity.

Despite the Viet Nam’s rapid socio-economic development that allows the country to earn the Middle Income Status, opportunities to benefit from these achievements have not been equally distributed among different ethnic groups. In 2008, half of ethnic minority households were living under the poverty line while in the Kinh majority, this rate was less than 9 per cent. In the same year, 62 per cent of ethnic minority children were from families living under the monetary poverty line and were deprived from at least two of the domains of education, health, shelter, water and sanitation.

1 Source: General Statistics Office, 17 Dec 20142 There are five ethnic minority groups with more than one million inhabitants including Khmer, Mong, Muong, Tay and Thai.3 Census 2009 – cf. Annex 1 for an overview of available Census data on EM groups in the focus provinces of the 2012-2016 Government of Viet Nam - UNICEF Country Programme

Due to the differences in socio-economic situations, traditional customs and taboos, there are still disparities and inequity in access to public social services such as education and health for ethnic minority people and children.

Viet Nam has achieved universal primary education for children up to age 11 as well as universal lower secondary education. Net enrolment rate at primary education stood at 97.7 percent in 2012 according to Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 2013 Report. During the last decade in primary school completion rate rose from 81.7 per cent in 2006 to 99.6 per cent in 2011 (MICS, 2006 and 2011). The quality of education has been consistently ameliorated. The number of schools and number of teachers per class increased at every educational level. In the period 2007-2012, the percentage of qualified teachers reached 99.6 percent at primary and lower secondary education, and 99.2 percent at upper secondary education. Education has received increasing attention from family and society. There is 20.9 per cent of public spending on education in 20104.

Despite these significant strides in education, disparities in equal opportunities to access to education between Kinh majority and ethnic minority groups remain significant. For example, the literacy rate among Mong ethnic minorities aged 15 and above was only 38 per cent, while the national average was 94 per cent. Similarly, only 73 per cent of Mong and 86 per cent of Khmer, ethnic minority, primary school aged children

4 National Education Development Plan 2011-2020.

Action Research on Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education:Inclusive education – using mother tongue based bilingual education to improve learning outcome of ethnic minority children in Viet Nam

2 Action Research on Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education:Inclusive education – using mother tongue based bilingual education to improve learning outcome of ethnic minority children in Viet Nam

are enrolled in primary school, while the rate for the Kinh majority is as high as 97 per cent (MICS 2011).

One reason for this disparity is that ethnic minority children do not have, or have very limited access to education in their mother tongues. The official language in school is Vietnamese and only few teachers can communicate in local ethnic minority languages. Consequently, a number of ethnic minority children struggle to understand their teachers and hardly participate in active learning. This contributes to their poor school performance, school dropout and limited opportunities for development throughout their lives.

With support from UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has been implementing an initiative on mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) since 2008 at selected pre-schools and primary schools in the provinces of Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh. This approach is one of five different solutions5 defined by the Ministry of Education and Training (Decision 8114/BGĐT-GDTH dated 15 September 2009) to improve quality of education for ethnic minority children. The experience has generated positive results where ethnic minority children who use their mother tongue as the language of instruction perform better than their peers who start formal education in Vietnamese – the national language. Lao Cai and Gia Lai provincial authorities have decided to expand the approach and other provinces have committed to apply the methodology. These commitments, combined with stronger national policies and public investment to support wider application of the project across Viet Nam, will allow the country to further embrace its linguistic and cultural diversity, contributing to its equitable and sustainable socio-economic and human development.

2. Action Research on Mother tongue-based bilingual education

2.1 Objectives and expected results: Implement a valid and feasible design of bilingual education in ethnic minority languages and Vietnamese in re-school6 and primary schools; and

Contribute to the development of policies and practices, including legal frameworks, that will promote

5 Five solutions include (i) Strengthening Vietnamese for 5 year children to prepare them for Grade 1; (ii) Strengthen Vietnamese for children of Grade 1, 2 and 3; (iii) Increasing time allocated for teaching Vietnamese in Grade 1 from 225 to 375 hours; (iv) Teaching Vietnamese to Grade 1 students using the material developed by the Education Technology Centre; (v) UNICEF-assisted mother tongue based bilingual education.

6 The Action Research on MTBBE commenced in the final year of preschool with five year old students. As of May 2010 both cohorts have completed the pre-school component.

the use and development of ethnic minority languages as a means to improve access, quality education, learning outcomes and equity of other social services.

• Implement a valid and feasible design of bilingual education in ethnic minority languages and Vietnamese in pre-school7 and primary schools; and

• Contribute to the development of policies and practices, including legal frameworks, that will promote the use and development of ethnic minority languages as a means to improve access, quality education, learning outcomes and equity of other social services.

The MTBBE Approach in Viet Nam:

• Pre-schooltoPrimaryGrade2:mothertonguesusedasthelanguageofinstructionwithVietnamesetaughtasasubject;

• Grade3to5:mothertonguescontinuetobeusedaslanguageofinstructionandVietnameseisintroducedasalanguageofinstructionalongwithMothertongues.

• BytheendofGrade5,studentswillhavedevelopedbilingualismandbiliteracy,andmasteredthecompetenciesexpectedasperthenationalcurriculum,includingtheVietnameselanguage.

3. Progress from 2008-2013

In order to improve quality of education in ethnic minority areas, the Ministry of Education and Training with UNICEF support has been implementing the Action Research on Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education since 2008. The use of three ethnic minority languages Mong, Jrai and Khmer in selected schools has helped facilitate learning and teaching activities and contributed to the consistent progress of ethnic minority children’s learning outcomes. On-going adjustments of teacher training based on findings from regular monitoring and assessment contributed to the effective implementation of the approach.

The approach has been assessed annually and has confirmed that MTBBE approach is appropriate to ethnic minority education. Ethnic minority students learning in their mother tongue (first language) were able to quickly transfer skills to grasp Vietnamese (second language) and improve overall learning of

7 The Action Research on MTBBE commenced in the final year of preschool with five year old students. As of May 2010 both cohorts have completed the pre-school component.



other subjects. 487 children of Mong, Jrai and Khmer ethnic minority groups (241 students in Grade 5 and 239 students in Grade 4) in Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh respectively, continue to demonstrate better learning outcomes, compared to other ethnic minority and Kinh students studying only in Vietnamese.

3.1 Results during the fifth year of implementation

Academic performance of two cohortsAn assessment of students’ learning outcome at the end of the school year 2012-2013 showed that the outper-forming capacity of MTBBE students in all assessed subjects according to the official criteria, 70 to 89 per

cent at Good level. The outcome differed from Grade 3 to Grade 4 is in line with the learning curve of students from Grade 3 to Grade 4, where they turn from basic knowledge to more abstract concepts. In Mathematics, Grade 3 students reached 89.49 points, while Grade 4 students reached only 70.97 points. Comprehensive reading capacity of Mother Tongue subject reached 79.44 points in Grade 3 while this capacity in Grade 4 only reached 61.36 points.

Lao Cai

Hue

Tra Vinh

Gia Lai

Lao Cai province with Mong ethnic minority • 5classesofGrade4in3Primaryschools• 5classesofGrade5in3Primaryschools• TotalofCohorts1and2:177students

Gia Lai province with Jrai ethnic minority • 4classesofGrade4in3primaryschools• 4classesofGrade5in3primaryschools• TotalofCohorts1and2:142students

Tra Vinh province with Khmer ethnic minority • 5classesofGrade4in2primaryschools• 5classesofGrade5in2primaryschools• TotalofCohorts1and2:161students

Location: Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh.


Math. 3 Math. 4

Weak 2 3

Average 6 35

Good 38 51

Excellent 42 1

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Num

ber o

f stu

dent

sMathematics Capacity of MTBBE Students' 2012-2013

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

G3L1 G4L1 G3L2 G4L2

Language Capacity of MTBBE Students' 2012 - 2013

Comprehensive Reading

Listening - Speaking

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Math. 3 Math.4

Mathematics Capacity of MTBBE students' 2012-2013



In terms of Comprehensive Reading capacity in Viet-namese subject, there was difference between the two grades. Grade 3 scored 81.87 points while Grade 4 scored 77.11 points. Listening-speaking capacity im-proved in the higher grades. In Mother Tongue subject, Grade 3 scored 89.37 points in listening-speaking capac-

ity while Grade 4 scored 93.06 points. Similarly, this ca-pacity in Vietnamese subject in Grade 3 was 80.73 points but in Grade 4, it was 85.04 points. In general, listening-speaking capacity of MTBBE students was higher than their comprehensive reading capacity as summarized in the following chart:

International Mother Language Day 2013 in Viet Nam International Mother Language Day, was proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999 and commemorated annually since 2000. On 21 February 2013, MOET, UNICEF and UNESCO jointly celebrated for the first time, Viet Nam’s linguistic, cultural diversity and promoted the use of mother lan-guages to improve ethnic minority education.

The event brought together a wide range of participants from MOET, National Assembly, Committee for Ethnic Minorities, three provinces of Lao Cai, Tra Vinh, Gia Lai, National Institute of Linguistics, UNESCO, Embassies of Norway and Canada, Belgian Development Coopera-tion, and mass media. Participants shared experience on

the use of mother tongue for improving the education and well-being of children and the community at large. Mong children from Lao Cai interacted with Kinh children of specialized primary school Dong Thi Diem in Ha Noi. Their self-confidence, broad understanding of socio-cultural aspects and good communication skills greatly impressed participants at the event.

“Mother tongue is a vital resource for each person and for community development. Through language, people communicate, learn and share the meaning and experi-ence of their sense of individual and community iden-tity”, said the representative of the Ministry of Education and Training at the event.

Litsening -Speaking G4L1 Math. 3 Litsening -

Speaking G3L1Litsening -

Speaking G4L2ComprehensiveReading G3L2

Litsening -Speaking G3L2

ComprehensiveReading G3L1

ComprehensiveReading G4L2 Math. 4 Comprehensive

Reading G4L1

Series1 93.06 89.49 89.37 85.04 81.27 80.73 79.44 77.11 70.97 61.36

0102030405060708090

100

Capa

city

Inde

x

General Capacity of MTBBE students' 2012-2013


Vang Thi Thu Ha, 9 years old, Mong student of Ban Pho primary school, Bac Ha district, Lao Cai province. “I want to share with my friends the wonderful experiences I have as I learn using my mother tongue. I feel proud because I am able to write and speak in the same language as my parents”.

Mr Nguyen Manh Quynh, Vice Director of Ethnic Minority Department, National Assembly Office “I worked in ethnic minority areas for 22 years but when I recently visited MTBBE classes Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh, I was very surprised to see their level of confidence and communication. It is very important for ethnic minority students to use their mother tongue and it not only contributes to enhancing their educational perfor-mance, but also their active attitude and self-confidence, their well-being and inclusion in the wider community and society.”

Language mapping in Lao Cai – a tool for planning and managing bilingual education

One of the critical needs for expanding bilingual education is to have a tool that helps education officials understand the specific language needs of ethnic minority students and resources within the current teaching staff. Language Classroom mapping is an approach where each student in every class is surveyed to know their strongest language, academic performance and identify the ethnic group of the teacher and her/his second language (Vietnamese) abilities. All of this information is analyzed and graphically available to administrators to evaluate the following: monolingual sites where mother tongue based education can be expanded; the number of teachers with potential bilingual education capacity; where students are performing well and where are students with low performance.

The maps provided administrators a way to visually evaluate the potential sites for mother tongue based bilingual education expansion. Education managers at provincial and district levels shared that language mapping is a tool that would benefit many aspects of the education planning process. It helps the implementation of bilingual education, improve ethnic minority education with strengthened annual school year planning and proper recruitment and deployment of teachers in ethnic minority areas.

All the results were analyzed and key messages were

presented graphically to provincial authorities. The results used to evaluate monolingual sites where bilingual education can be applied, to identify teachers who are potential bilingual education teachers and how MTBBE can help Mong children close their learning gap compared with other ethnic minority groups. The tool also contributes to develop a more relevant education system to respond to the multilingual nature of the province and to support education planning and policy implementation that helps realize the right to education and other basic social services of ethnic minority children.

This initiative supported by UNICEF was jointly imple-mented by the Lao Cai Department of Education and Training, MOET Primary Education Department, and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).

Joint efforts to promote mother tongue based bilingual education approach

The ongoing implementation of MTBBE approach in three provinces is strategically and continuously comple-mented by high profile advocacy events such as school visits by Government leaders at central and subnational levels, National Assembly Ethnic Council, Committee for Ethnic Minorities, UNICEF representatives and experts, leaders of provincial People’s Committee, Education and Training Departments and various sectors in Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh. Regular information is shared with a broader audience within the Ministry, in scientific workshops and for a, monitoring of classroom and school experiences. This is conducted not only at grassroots level but also at central level and clearly improves under-standing on the benefits of MTBBE. The recognition of these policy and decision making bodies contributed to the increased political support for the effective imple-mentation and possible expansion of MTBBE initiative. Subsequently, Lao Cai and Gia Lai provincial authorities are expanding the approach within their provinces. Eth-nic minority areas in An Giang province have committed to apply teaching and learning methodologies of this ap-proach from preprimary education level. Other provinces with high ethnic minority population want to apply the



approach of teaching Vietnamese as second language to ethnic minority students in respecting the principles of child language development.

Implementation of Lao Cai provincial action plan on MTBBE expansion continues to progress well. In addi-tion to the students participating in the Action Research, another 344 Mong students are learning in their mother tongue and Vietnamese in MTBBE expansion schools. The provincial plan for MTBBE expansion 2013-2016 was refined in 2013 in order to be more responsive, including the engagement of Lao Cai Teachers’ Training College in the development of two modules on how to facilitate and organize MTBBE activities. These modules will be integrated in the existing training programme of Lao Cai Teachers’ Training College to ensure the availability of trained pre-primary and primary teachers as the MTBBE programme expands. During a Government high level monitoring visit, Mr Giang Seo Phu, Minister Chairper-son of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities praised the students and teachers of MTBBE programme for the positive achievements in ethnic minority children’s learning and participation through their mother tongue.

The MTBBE orientation and planning workshop in An Giang province marked the strong commitment and action of the provincial authorities to quality education for ethnic minority children. It followed a discussion between An Giang People’s Committee leader with Vice Chairperson of the National Assembly’s Ethnic Council and UNICEF Representative. The workshop brought together a high level participants, including MOET representatives, the National Assembly, the National Committee for Ethnic Minorities, leaders of provincial and district authorities and related sectors, and media. An Giang authorities proposed and committed to imple-ment MTBBE in order to improve quality education for ethnic minority children.

Another MTBBE planning and implementation work-shop was conducted in Gia Lai in late 2013. The pro-vincial authorities have made MTBBE a priority activity as part of their cooperation with UNICEF in the Gia Lai Provincial Child-friendly Programme in 2014. The UNICEF Deputy Representative visited Ly Tu Trong and Ngo May primary schools. He stressed that lessons learned from the implementation in Gia Lai should be well documented and shared widely so that more ethnic minority children in Gia Lai and other provinces would benefit from this good practice to ensure equity and quality of education. The province has developed its action plan on MTBBE expansion, focusing on the two districts Ia Grai and Chu Pah where the Action Research is being implemented. During the 2013-2014 school year, four new kindergarten classes in Ia Grai and Chu Pah districts began implementing MTBBE teaching and learning activities.

4. Lesson learned:4.1. Strengths

• Initial results of the Action Research demonstrate a significant improvement in the quality of ethnic minority education and confirm the relevance, effectiveness and feasibility of the MTBBE approach.

• Learning on a mother tongue foundation is a favourable pathway for ethnic minority children to master the national language (Vietnamese) and at the same time to strengthen and consolidate their communication skills and information receiving capacity in their mother tongue (ethnic minority language).

• Through in and out of classroom activities, the MTBBE approach contributes to build a child-friendly learning environment in which teacher and students speak the same language – significant advantage of education effectiveness through this approach.

• Active learning methodologies such as asking questions, problem solving, and critical thinking in mother tongue have strengthened students’ knowledge and understanding capacity and helped them become more active in daily communication both in their mother tongue and in Vietnamese. MTBBE contributes to maintain and promote ethnic minority languages and cultures and helps forge closer links between school, family and community.

• Regular assessment and documentation of the learning outcome results of MTBBE students are critical to evidence generation and to advocacy with stakeholders at all levels as well as to identification of discrepancies in order to adjust the curriculum delivery and action research design in a timely manner.

• MTBBE is aiming at a more effective implementation of the policies of ethnic minority education, especially policies and good practices of language use in school for ethnic minority students. Together with other approaches, the Action Research continues to receive support of the National Assembly’s Ethnic Council and its other departments, Committee for Ethnic Minorities, leaders of Communist Party and authorities at different levels.

• MTBBE motivates other provinces in ethnic minority areas to advocate their authorities to expand MTBBE approach including the development of provincial plan and allocation of budget. For example, Lao Cai province included MTBBE expansion in its 2011-2015 Education Development Plan. Trà Vinh, Gia Lai, An Giang provinces committed to expand and adapt MTBBE approach while other ethnic minority provinces expressed their will to apply various methodologies of the MTBBE Action Research.

• Cooperation is on-going with Teachers Training Colleges and universities in provinces to develop locally relevant bilingual education modules and build capacity of education managers and teachers.

• MOET leaders recognize MTBBE as one among five effective solutions for strengthening Vietnamese language skills of ethnic minority children. MTBBE has been highlighted and continued to be included as a policy dialogue agenda of the Government between MOET and Committee for Ethnic Minorities, with special attention of National Assembly members, members of the National Assembly’s Ethnic Council, central line Ministries and agencies at various fora, dialogues, National Assembly’s explanatory sessions on the Government policies on ethnic minorities and on improving legal framework, etc.

• A high level Steering Committee meeting in April 2014 to review and endorse the Terms of Reference for evaluating the MOET-UNICEF initiative on MTBBE confirmed the Government’s interest for this approach.

4.2 Challenges

• Specific difficulties of ethnic minority areas in terms of inaccessibility, difficult transportation, poor basic infrastructure, poverty and limited socio-economic conditions… are also difficulties and challenges for ethnic minority education.

• Availability of teachers (either ethnic minority or Vietnamese) who can speak and use children’s languages in teaching and facilitating learning of the ethnic minority students remains as a key challenge. Inconsistency between demand for bilingual ethnic minority teachers and capacity of Teachers Training Colleges remains an issue.

• There is a consistent lack of quality pre-service and in-service training in the language(s) of instruction and bilingual education techniques as well as follow-up support, monitoring and supervision to ensure the effective delivery of mother tongue based bilingual or multilingual education at school level.

• It is time consuming as well as it requires political commitment, proper investment and society’s agreement to create enabling conditions within the existing education system at all levels to support the implementation of mother tongue based bilingual or multilingual education.

• Not all the decision making people have proper understanding and conviction into the use of mother tongues in education. There is different understanding on the benefits of MTBBE which is

a good approach to improve reading and learning outcomes as educating children in a language they understand facilitates both improved reading acquisition and subject-based knowledge.

• MTBBE approach has been implemented only in monolingual classroom settings. Multi-language dimensions and teaching settings have not been considered.

5. Future steps:• Provide technical support and capacity to improve

quality of learning and teaching activities in three provinces especially in schools within Lao Cai and Gia Lai, An Giang. Consider the cooperation and technical support on MTBBE approach to those prov-inces that have demand and enabling conditions to implement this initiative, focusing on the learning outcomes of multi-language class settings.

• Constant monitoring of the rolling out of the evalua-tion of MTBBE approach in 2014 to generate substan-tive evidence and knowledge that will inform nation-al policies on mother tongue bilingual education and the subsequent reduction of education inequities in Viet Nam as well as strengthen the sub-national com-mitment in implementing the MTBBE approach.

• Strengthen the engagement of departments in monitoring, supervision and evaluation within MOET and other relevant agencies at the central level in regular monitoring and supervision to provinces implementing MTBBE approach.

• Further advocate for supportive policies on the use of mother tongues in bilingual/multilingual educa-tion with support of the National Assembly’s Ethnic Council and its other departments as well as the Committee for Ethnic Minorities, MOET and other line ministries (Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Min-istry of Finance) on mother tongue-based bilingual and multilingual education.

Food for thought – international research evidence

OneWorldBankstudyinMalifoundthatmothertonguebasedprogramscostabout27%lessfora6-yearprimarycyclethanFrench-onlyprograms(Benderetal.,2005).Anotheranalysisshowsthata4–5%in-creaseinacountry’seducationbudgetwouldcovertheimmediatecostsassociatedwithmothertongueinstructionandsubsequentlygreatlyreducetheeducationsystem’scostsinthelongrunduetoimprovedinternalefficiency(Heugh,K.inAlidouetal.,2006)

This Programme Brief 4 is produced by the MOET with support from UNICEF, outlining the approach and results after five years of implementation, particularly the results of Grade 3 and 4 MTBBE annual assessment from the 2012-2013 school year.

Photos: UNICEF Viet Nam/2012-2014/Truong Viet Hung, Bui Viet Hung, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga

Contact info: UNICEF Viet NamAddress: 81A Tran Quoc Toan street, Hoan Kiem, Ha Noi, Viet NamTelephone: + +84 4 3 942 5706-11. Fax: +84 4 3 942 5705Email: [email protected]. Website: http://www.unicef.org.vietnamFollow us: facebook.com/unicefvietnam | youtub.com/unicefvietnam

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Education programme brief 4