18 million students enter new school year This morning, September 5, about 18 million students enter the new school year and 4.7 million children enter kindergartens.   President Truong Tan Sang at the opening ceremony of the new school year of the Bui Thi Xuan High School in Da Lat City. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, in the 2013-2014 school year, Vietnam has more than 22 million students of all levels, including about 4.7 million of preschool children (up by nearly 220,000 over last year), more than 7.4 million of elementary students (more than 100,000 over last year), nearly 5 million of secondary students, over 2.7 million high-school students, 520,000 technical secondary students and nearly 2.2 million of college students. President Truong Tan Sang has sent a letter to teachers, students, their parents and staff working in the education sector on the occasion of the new school year. In this year's message, Sang applauded the achievements that teachers and students made during the last school year, especially those in disadvantaged remote areas and those who won prizes at international and regional contests. He emphasized that this academic year would be the first time the country had implemented the Party Central Committee's resolutions on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training to meet the demands of national industrialization and modernization in the context of developing a socialism-oriented market and global integration. He urged the whole sector to renovate managerial mechanisms, nurture a contingent of teachers and education managers and improve the quality of education.   The opening ceremony at Quang Xuong 1 High-school in Thanh Hoa province. Sang also asked authorities, organizations, families and students to give more care and investment to education and training while reminding them of President Ho Chi Minh's letters to students and teachers in the 1968-69 school year in which he urged them to overcome any difficulties to study hard and reach the peak of science and technology. Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien said this year's goals of education do not change compared with the previous years but the approach will be more innovative. Currently, a number of solutions have been implemented in education such as the model of high-quality primary schools, teaching Vietnamese with new techniques for the first graders, ... "Innovating methods of teaching and assessment as well as the concept of quality education will be taken seriously in the new school year. The education sector will also focus on improving the qualification of teachers, education managers and mobilizing resources to increase investment in infrastructure for education," said Hien. This year, the public school system appears the high-quality school model. According to Hien, all children are guaranteed equal access to educational opportunity but equality of educational quality is difficult and no country in the world has achieved it. In 2013, the state budget for education and training is more than VND194.4 trillion, an increase of more than VND24 trillion compared with 2012, including nearly VND42.2 trillion for the central level and VND152.22 trillion for the local level, VND30.015 trillion for basic education is and VND164.4 trillion for recurrent expenditure for education. In Vietnam, the school year usually starts in September and ends in May. Le Ha, VietNamNet Bridge