HANOI, October 30. /TASS/. From the beginning of next year, Russia will start implementing a pilot project to send Russian language teachers to Vietnamese schools. Russian First Deputy Education Minister Pavel Zenkovich, who had visited Vietnam to attend the 22nd session of the Russian-Vietnamese Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, told TASS.
The official said that the Russian side places great importance on promoting the Russian language along with support for its study in Vietnam. "The Russian Ministry of Education plans to send its first group of instructors to Vietnam next year, who will teach the Russian language there and help organize training courses for local Russian language teachers," Zenkovich explained. The deputy minister said that more than 40 applications from Russian educators wishing to work in Vietnam were submitted for the first five job vacancies. Moscow will also help in preparing Russian language textbooks for Vietnamese schoolchildren and students.
The education official was confident that he would continue to expand cooperation in the sphere of education into new areas, including the organization of recreation for Vietnamese children and distance learning, in the near future. "The potential of our educational teamwork is much wider than it is now. We are confident that in the coming years we will be able to build up cooperation not just in the sphere of higher education. We’ve got good opportunities for secondary vocational education, and we’ve got something to share with our Vietnamese colleagues," the official said.
Touching on the impending bilateral cooperation plans, he said that a series of seminars and open lessons for schoolchildren studying the Russian language would be held in Vietnamese cities in November. In addition, a Russian mathematical week will also be held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in November and December, during which professors from Moscow State University, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) and other leading Russian higher educational institutions will conduct master classes in mathematics for local children.
The Russian deputy education minister pointed to the expansion of contacts in the sphere of organizing leisure activities for Vietnamese kids in Russian children’s centers, such as Okean (Ocean) and Orlyonok (Eaglet). He said that both nations’ younger generations should be given the opportunity to communicate with each other, since it helps preserve friendly relations and continue cooperation between Russia and Vietnam. "We will increase the number of Vietnamese children who annually come to Russia to our children’s centers in the summer, spend time there, relax, learn Russian and communicate with their Russian peers. We see great potential for further fostering relations between our countries in the future," the deputy minister concluded.