VietNamNet Bridge - According to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh, if Vietnamese people’s physical strength and height is not improve, they cannot meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization.

Vietnamese people's height was not improved much in the past 30 years.

On Wednesday, July 31, in the cabinet regular meeting, the government discussed the draft project on "Comprehensive innovation of education and training to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization."

Giving suggestions for the project, Minister Hoang Tuan Anh stated the alarming situation of physical stature of Vietnamese people. Accordingly, the average height of young men is 1.61 m, of young women is 1.53 m, respectively lower than the standard rate of more than 8 and 9 cm. For the last 30 years, the average height of the Vietnamese did not increase significantly.

"The Vietnamese people’s physical strength is at the lower average, not meeting the need of industrialization and modernization," said Minister Hoang Tuan Anh. He suggested that the educational innovation project to contribute to improve the physical strength and the height of Vietnamese people in the next 10, 20 years.

Sharing this point, Minister of Health – Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien also referred to the "discipline," the element that must be trained from childhood, citing that Vietnamese people do not like working in groups.

Another notable weakness of the Vietnamese, according to Minister Tien, is weakness in foreign languages. Without foreign languages, the Vietnamese will be stated unable to access to knowledge of the mankind. She said Vietnam should learn from Singapore’s secret to become a “dragon” of Asia: teaching English to students from the first grade.

Agreeing with Tien, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said that education reform must determine the importance of foreign languages and information technology. He proposed to define a compulsory foreign language for the entire education system, namely English.

Recognizing that education is the concern of the society and every family, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung instructed that the compilation of the plan must be close to the direction of the XI Party Congress.

During the meeting, the Government also listened to and discussed the reports on the draft laws and ordinances in the first half of the year and the mission in the second half. In the last months of 2013, ministries will collaborate with the National Assembly Standing Committee to revise eight bills and submit to the Government 10 bills.

Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing proposal documents to the National Assembly Standing Committee to add the draft ordinance on Vietnam’s participation in the peacekeeping forces of the UN to the law building program in 2013.

Tran Cham