August 2007

Primary school girls from Thap Cham, Viet Nam. (Photo by Anupma Jain, 2006)

Improving the quality of secondary education requires extensive support for teacher education. ADB's project on Upper Secondary and Professional Teacher Development aims to improve the quality of upper secondary and professional secondary education in Viet Nam. Improved quality will produce better qualified and motivated teachers. The Project will improve access and equity, and enhance training quality, efficiency and management. It will sponsor a nationwide teacher development system to integrate pre-service and in-service training.

A Gender and Ethnic Minority Development Action Plan captures the key actions required for ensuring that women and ethnic minorities have access to in-service teacher training and teacher development courses. Targeted support will be provided to: (i) teacher training institutes in ethnic minority areas and in areas of rapid economic growth; and (ii) ethnic minority students, particularly ethnic girls.

A gender action plan is included in the project design that includes provision for at least 50% scholarships to be awarded to girls from ethnic minorities to train as teachers. Monitoring mechanisms are included in the loan design and the gender action plan indicators are included in the design and monitoring framework to ensure gender targets are monitored.