However, expansion will require reforming the legal documents and guidelines relating to education for ethnic minority students to allow their MTs to be used with Vietnamese as a language of learning in the formal education system. Expansion and sustainability will also require supportive policies and permanent dialogue between education and other related legal agencies as well as scholars, academics and religious leaders such as the Central Buddhist Association.
Also, further assessment of individual components of the programme might be necessary to identify those parts that can be revised to improve the programme’ s economic feasibility.
Research from other parts of the world has identified specific medium and long-term benefits of strong MTBBE programmes. These are primarily in terms of reduced replication and dropout rates in primary school and a greater percentage of ethnic minority children in secondary school. Long-term tracking of students from this MTBBE Action Research programme will enable authorities to determine the relationship between programme costs and long-term benefits for individual students and Viet Nam in general.
References
UNICEF Viet Nam. June. 2010. Programme Brief. Action Research on mother tongue-based Bilingual Education. Creating Learning Opportunities for Ethnic Minority Children. http:// www. unicef. org / vietnam / Tomtatchuongtrinh _ Engl-final. pdf [ Accessed 7 September 2016 ]
UNICEF Viet Nam. March 2011. Programme Brief on Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education. Achieving Quality, Equitable Education. http:// www. unicef. org / vietnam / brief _ TA. pdf [ Accessed 7 September 2016 ]
UNICEF Viet Nam, May 4, 2011. Promoting South-South Cooperation in Bilingual Education. http:// www. unicef. org / vietnam / reallives _ 16329. html [ Accessed 7 September 2016 ]
UNICEF Viet Nam. June 2011. Programme Brief. Action Research on Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education. Creating Learning Opportunities for Ethnic Minority Children. http:// www. unicef. org / vietnam / Tomtatchuongtrinh _ Engl-final. pdf [ Accessed 7 September 2016 ]
UNICEF Viet Nam. September 2012. Action Research on Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education: Improving the Equity and Quality of Education for Ethnic Minority Children in Viet Nam. 8 pages. http:// www. unicef. org / vietnam / Edu _ Pro _ Brief _ 3 _- _ 8 _ pages. pdf [ Accessed 7 September 2016 ]
UNICEF, Viet Nam. 2015. Bilingual Education in Viet Nam. https:// www. youtube. com / watch? v = h5mdOl-t8lY [ Accessed 7 September 2016 ]
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