The talks took place on October 31, prior to their coming visit to the region by early November.

In response to the New Zealand representative's concerns about specific difficulties for primary school pupils in the Central Highlands, members of the PEDC Steering Board said children in the region enjoyed more favourable conditions than their friends in other disadvantaged communities, such as the northern mountainous region.

The traffic system in the Central Highlands has been greatly improved, thanks to the Government's recent massive investment in economic development in the region and the northwestern and southwestern regions, paving the way for children to go to school smoothly.

Board executives said that children in different regions suffered their own difficulties in approaching high quality education, but those in northern mountainous communities had suffered the most.

A Swiss embassy representative raised a question about the teaching staff who specialise in ethnic minority languages and the project budget allocations to the Central Highlands. Dang Tu An, Head of the PEDC project steering board, said the educational services of different districts held either Vietnamese classes or bilingual classes for children of ethnic minority groups, who are on the threshold of the primary education, depending on their own circumstances.

Viet Nam is a nation of 54 ethnic groups, of them some have thin populations with only a small number of primary school pupils and some of the languages used by these groups are not written. Considering this, the educational service has published textbooks using languages of six ethnic minority groups only.

According to An, project budget allocations are based on the local government proposals with priorities given to communities that have more schools below the minimal educational standards. Budget allocations to the Central Highlands provinces have been treated the same way as other provinces.

Gia Lai had been allocated 8.7 million USD and Dac Lac 8.6 million USD while the northern mountainous province of Son La has been given 18.4 million USD and the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, 17.2 million USD, said An.

He also reported that the project had disbursed 18 percent of the construction budget, and six percent of the budget for other activities for this year. The figures are expected to increase to 70 and 33 percent by 2008, respectively.

The project, though large in size, could help rebuild 60 percent of makership classrooms of primary schools in 220 districts of 40 poorest provinces.

Viet Nam has 1.2 million disabled children, who are facing numerous difficulties in educational services, such as community integration and special education, and are in need of help./.