Programme preserves Cham language (fwd)

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Programme preserves Cham language

(07-03-2005)
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02SOC070305

[photo inset - Cham people tend their  grapes in the province of Binh
Thuan. — VNA/VNS Photo Ngo My]

HA NOI — The southern province of Ninh Thuan, home to half of the ethnic
Cham population, has announced a plan to strengthen the Cham language
teaching staff of schools in the Cham communities.

Over the past 20 years, the Cham language teaching programme has
contributed to the preservation of the ethnic minority group’s language
and has created a foundation to research the culture, said director of
the provincial Education and Training Service, Pham Hong Cuong.

Ninh Thuan was the first in the south to launch Cham language classes. A
Cham language board was set up in June 1978 and has written over 80
textbooks so far.

The board has opened a number of Cham language training courses for 510
local teachers, who have been sent to primary schools to teach at the
first and second grade levels. Refresher courses are also available
regularly for teachers of Cham origin at the provincial Teachers’
University.

The Cham language is taught at all 23 primary schools in the Cham
community in Ninh Thuan province, far more than the two that were
taught in the 1978-79 academic year in the former Thuan Hai province
(Thuan Hai was split into two provinces, one of which is Ninh Thuan).
Almost all of the 10,000 Cham pupils attend Cham-language classes.

Ninh Thuan is now home to some 60,000 Chams, which makes up 11 per cent
of the province’s population. — VNS