More than VND4.1 trillion (US$197 billion) will be spent on upgrading and building boarding schools in mountainous provinces during the 2011-15 period under a new decision signed by the Prime Minister on Wednesday.

A school in remote Na Co Sa Commune, Muong Nhe District, Dien Bien Province. Photo: Dan Tri/DTiNews

The project under decision 1604/QD-TTg aims at helping to provide at least one boarding school in each province and district with a large number of ethnic minority residents.

Vietnam will strive to have 317 primary boarding schools nation-wide serving 85,000 ethnic students with a view to registering about 7 per cent of total students at the junior and senior secondary levels by 2015.

The decision also calls for 30 per cent of new boarding schools to meet national standards. Teachers and managers at boarding schools will receive further training to improve the quality of teaching and learning as well as management at these schools.

A website about boarding schools and a journal on boarding education will also be published as part of the project.