(VOVworld)- Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan on Tuesday met with acting Russian Minister of Education and Science Alexander Pogalko. During their meeting, the Russian Minister spoke highly of Mr. Nhan’s visit saying that it contributes greatly to the strategic cooperation in education, training, research and scientific and technological application. The Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister praised the role of the former Soviet Union and Russia in high-level official training. He briefed his host on education development in Vietnam and Vietnam’s cooperation in this field: “The Vietnamese education sector has contributed greatly to national development, but weaknesses remain. Only half of the labor force is trained and of these, only 10% are university graduates. The quality of teachers of universal education is meeting the demand, but tertiary education is still limited. Therefore, we have a plan from now to 2020 to send staff to study overseas to improve their foreign language skills and tertiary education”.

The Deputy Prime Minister said Vietnam hopes to expand education cooperation with Russia. He proposed to upgrade the Pushkin Academy to a Russian Language Training Center for the region.