Dr Tăng Văn Thòn (right) teaches a Khmer language class at Trà Vinh University's School of Southern Khmer Language, Culture and Arts. — VNA/VNS Photos Thanh Hòa

TRÀ VINH — More than 32 per cent of the southern Trà Vinh Province’s one-million strong population is of Khmer ethnicity. To preserve their language and script, multiple classes teaching the language have been held at schools and Buddhist pagodas in the locality.

According to Director of Trà Vinh’s Department of Education and Training Nguyễn Thị Bạch Vân, Khmer language courses are widely available in the province.

In an average academic year, the locality counts more than 100 general education facilities teaching the language with over 800 classes and 19,000 students in total.

In the 2023-24 school year alone, 125 schools are offering Khmer classes to nearly 36,000 students, including 80 elementary schools, 41 secondary schools and four high schools.

The province has set the goal that by 2030, Khmer classes will be offered at 100 per cent of schools, and all Khmer language teachers will meet the pedagogical requirements.

Trà Vinh also organises supplementary Khmer classes at Khmer Theravada Buddhist pagodas, which are led by monks and achars - senior monks who take on the role of the master of ceremonies in religious rites.

Over the past 10 years, Trà Vinh Department of Education and Training also offered pedagogical training classes for more than 2,000 monks and achars, along with financial support for Khmer language teachers at the province’s pagodas.

One of the notable educational facilities is the School of Southern Khmer Language, Culture and Arts under Trà Vinh University, which was assigned the key national target of human resources training in this sector by the Government.

Dr Tăng Văn Thòn, a Khmer himself, has taught nine language classes with around 200 full-time and 300 part-time students in total.

Many graduates are now working to continue the Khmer language legacy by working as teachers, translators or at government agencies across the Mekong (Cửu Long) Delta.

Since 2020, Dr Thòn has also served as the Vice President of the National Council for the Evaluation of Ethnic Minority Textbooks for the Khmer language.

His aspiration to become a Khmer teacher began when he was ordained at Mé Láng Pagoda in Trà Cú District, according to the customs of the Khmer people, where he learned Khmer writing and speech from the monks.

After completing the Pali Khmer Intermediate Programme by the Association for Solidarity of Patriotic Monks in Trà Vinh Province, he left the monkhood and continued his general and undergraduate education.

In 2013, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Minority Cultures in Việt Nam from Trà Vinh University with excellent academic performance and became a specialist at the school’s Gender and Community Department.

After successfully defending his doctoral thesis under a Việt Nam-Cambodia scholarship programme in July 2023, he returned to the school as a lecturer for Khmer classes, continuing to instil in his students a passion for the ethnic language.

In the 2023-24 school year alone, Khmer classes are offered at approximately 125 schools in Trà Vinh Province.

Deputy Chairman of Trà Vinh People’s Committee Lê Thanh Bình said that preserving and promoting ethnic cultures is one of the focuses of the Government and the Party, especially ethnic minority languages.

Trà Vinh also shares this perspective, as a locality with a substantial population of Khmer people.

The province therefore has amped up communication and awareness-raising activities regarding Khmer language teaching and the community's responsibilities in preserving the language legacy, including script and speech.

The local education and training sector has also drafted plans to offer capacity training for Khmer language teachers, as well as infrastructure and technology investment for language classes.

Not only contributing to Việt Nam’s cultural identity, the preservation of the Khmer language and its values also strengthens the solidarity between ethnicities, acting as a sound premise for Trà Vinh Province’s growth, said Bình. — VNS