HÀ NỘI – President Trần Đại Quang has expressed hopes that Vietnamese students and teachers would make even more fruitful achievements in the new academic year that officially starts today.

In a congratulations letter sent a day prior to the traditional nationwide school opening day on September 5, the President wrote that he was glad to see the dedication of teachers and educational officials for the sake of students over the last year, as well as the success of many Vietnamese students who gained high results in regional and international Olympiad competitions.

In the coming academic year, the educational sector should effectively carry on comprehensive educational and training reforms to develop high-quality human resources, he wrote.

It should invest more in education in remote areas, like in the mountainous border region and on islands, while also focusing more on students’ studies in soft skills, morality and citizen responsibilities.

“I hope that the students will continue the studious tradition of our people, nurture the desire for a better life for themselves, their families and society, as well as strive for fruitful achievements in their studies and research to follow their ancestors’ footsteps in making our country more and more prosperous,” Quang wrote.

Scholarships for Chăm students

Four hundred young students of Chăm ethnicity in HCM City were awarded 200 scholarships worth more than VNĐ600 million (US$26,600) and another 200 bicycles on the eve of the school opening day.

“The amount of scholarships and the bicycles is not big, but it is the love from the community and the donors to the struggling Chăm students so that going to school is more affordable to them,” Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình said at the scholarship award ceremony on Saturday morning.

He asked the local authorities and religious leaders to keep supporting poor Chăm families in the area and help the students who might be forced to quit school due to poverty.

The Chăm ethnicity currently ranks third in terms of population in HCM City with around 10,000 people. – VNS