Nov 24, 2011

Vietnam - Delta gets another mobile school



Dariu Foundation, a Switzerland-based NGO, yesterday held an inauguration ceremony in HCM City to launch its second mobile school.

The ceremony was held on the premises of the HCM City Union of Friendship Organisations which awarded Friendship Medals on the occasion to the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, foundation president Thomas Trub, and Michael Ringier, chairman of Ringier Media Company.

With an initial investment of VND800 million (US$38,000), the mobile school will offer training in basic and advanced computer and internet skills to poor students in the remote rural areas of southern Vinh Long Province.

The Sapa Mobile School is equipped with over 30 laptops, an LCD television, an air-conditioner, and can accommodate 30 students per training session. The school offers four sessions from Monday to Saturday.

The new mobile school, innovated from a container truck, aims to train about 1,200 students per year as it strives to improve students' computer and internet skills in disadvantaged communes in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province.

The first mobile school with 18 laptops offering free computer courses to students was launched in June this year in the province's Vung Liem District. The schools stay in an area for three months and move to other localities later.

The initiative to launch the mobile schools was taken by Nguyen Van Hanh, Country Director of the Dariu Foundation in Viet Nam, after he found that many children in rural areas could not access computer courses offered at a particular location.

By 2014, there could be four more mobile schools travelling and spreading computer knowledge among students in rural areas in the delta as well as Dong Nai Province, which neighbours HCM City.

Thomas Trub, president of the foundation, said that the mobile school model has attracted worldwide attention. One university in Europe planned to study the project in detail, he said.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and his wife Doris Schroder-Kopf last year funded a kindergarten school at Xuan Hiep Commune in the province's Tra On District.

The school was built on 3,400sq.m of land at a cost of VND800 million, towards which the Schroders donated VND600 million ($28,500). The school has been in operation since 2010, accommodating 100 kids in the commune.

VNA



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