UPPSALA UNIVERSITET & UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS & BUSINESS,VNUH UPPSALA ¬ UNIVERSITET MASTER THESIS OF MPPM SITUATION OF SCHOOL NON-ATTENDANCE AND DROP-OUT OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS AREA- REALITIES AND SOLUTIONS” Authors Ms. Hoang Thj Thu Huyén Mr. Nguyén Van Duan Mr. Pham An Toan Supervisor: Dr.
Lennart Wikander, Uppsala University, Sweden University of Economics, Hanoi National University MPPM INTAKE 4B - Group 5 Hanoi, April ACKNOWLEDGMENT By the academic year 2010-2011, about 212,800 children did not attend school of which 21,127 children were in primary school age. Provinces that have high ratio of dropouts in primary schooling are in the mountainous areas in the North, Central Highland and South West Regions of Vietnam. These provinces have unique geographical characteristics, climate and a variety of ethnic minorities facing difficult socio-economic conditions’. According to assessments of some researches, apart from common issues such as poor school facilities, combined classes, shortage of teaching staff, children face obstacles as long distance from home to school, severe weather conditions, gender inequality, backward traditions or lacking household assets.
All those aspects contribute to dropout rate in the Northern mountainous areas. The research group studied available studies along with conducting a fieldtrip to Yen Bai province - a mountainous province in the area to provide more evidence with the research topic “ Situation of school non attendance and drop out of children in primary school in the Northern Mountainous area- Realities and Solutions” with the aim of minimizing the situation of children dropping out of school in this area. A short video showing interview in the case study in Yen Bai province is enclosed for your reference. We would like to sincerely thank to Dr Lennart Wikander and Dr Pham Vi Thang who supervised our group and gave us their constructive feedback in the process of writing this thesis.
Our team also would like to thank colleagues from the Primary School Department of MOET, Children Bureau of MOLISA and Policy Department of CEMA who assisted us actively to research this interesting subject area and provided with valuable information on the situation of dropout in primary school in the Northern mountainous area. We would like to express our gratefulness to ' MOET sstatistic report of academic school year 2010-2011 colleagues from Hong Ca Commune, Tran Yen District, Yen Bai province for their kind support and assistance when we conducted the case study. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the lectures in the Master Programme on Public Management. These teachers provided us with deeper professional knowledge as well as created good educational environment with the aim of finalizing this thesis as well as enable us apply to our daily work.
Nu ABSTRACT Title: “SITUATION OF SCHOOL NON-ATTENDANCE AND DROP-OUT OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS AREA: REALITIES AND SOLUTIONS” Level: Thesis of the Master of Public Management Authors: (Group 5) Ms.Hoang Thị Thu Huyền Mr.Nguyén Van Duan Mr.Pham An Toan (MPPM Intake 4B) Supervisors: PhD. Lennart Wikander, Uppsala University, Sweden. Pham Vũ Thắng, University of Economics, Hanoi National University Date of completion: 2 April 2012 Aim: Drop-out children in primary school and low quality of primary education will affect directly to other educational levels. The solution for prevention of drop-out is required in order to improve the education quality as well as assure full enjoyment and realization of human rights to education.
Therefore, we choose the topic of "SITUATION OF NON ATTENDANCE AND DROPOUT OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS REGION - REALTIES AND SOLUTIONS" because ofthe following reasons: - Firstly: At present, the highest ratio of dropouts belongs to most of provinces in the Northern mountainous region. These provinces have difficult socio-economic conditions and geographic and climate characteristics with many ethnic minorities. - Secondly: The previous studies only set forth the general causes of the situation of children’s dropouts without in-depth analysis and fully reflected the real situation of the dropouts in primary schools in the northern mountainous region. - Thirdly: Primary school is the basic educational level.
The problem of primary school dropout is always a hot issue because of its influence on the formation of basic knowledge and the forming of children’s personality.