- Education in Vietnam has its roots in Confucianism and traditionally focused on creating good citizens rather than personal advancement. French colonial rule from the late 19th to mid 20th century replaced the Confucian system with one focused on serving colonial interests. - After independence in 1945, Ho Chi Minh prioritized fighting illiteracy and the new government established many literacy programs. Reforms in the 1950s aimed to rebuild the post-war economy and reunite the country. The 1986 Doi Moi economic reforms increased education funding and allowed more private schools. - Today, Vietnam has a 6+3+3 education structure of elementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary school. The Ministry of Education and

1. Education
in Vietnam
Reporter: Ms. Micah B. Enero

2. – Southeast Asia country
– Population: 97 million people
– 54 ethnic groups
– 90% Vietnamese majority group
– Official Language: Vietnamese

3. Feudal and Colonial Periods
(up to late 19th Century)
French Colonization
(late 19th- mid-20th century)
Independence to
Reunification (1945-1975)
After the War, Pre-reform
(1975-1985)
The Doi Moi Reform
(1986- present)

4. – The roots of education come from the country’s belief in Confucianism
(Mongabay, 1987).
– Vietnam was therefore constructed to be a collectivist country, meaning that
individuals are less important than the whole (Yee, 2002). Community is
extremely important, so education is seen as a way to create a community of
good citizens instead of a way for one to advance personally.
– The Vietnamese believe that One of the traditional values of the Vietnamese
people is the promotion of learning and the respect for teachers. In the Feudal
and Colonial periods, teacher’s were seen to have more importance than
parents; their position was “only lower than the king” (Worldbank, part
1.paragraph 1, 2010).

5. – For about one thousand years, the
Vietnamese people learned Chinese
characters and used them to write but
pronounced them in a Vietnamese way.
This was done in order to preserve a
certain national independence from the
Chinese.

6. -With this change in power, the Confucian-oriented education
that had been built and maintained by the Vietnamese was
replaced with French-Vietnamese education, with the goal of
training people to serve the colonial system.
The French built elementary schools, primary schools, primary colleges,
secondary schools, and three universities, all with French as the dominant
language of instruction. However there were not very many schools built,
so there was extremely limited access to education during this period in
Vietnam’s history. “With such an education system, 95% of Vietnamese
people were illiterate” (WorldBank, part 1. paragraph 6, 2010). Growing
frustration led to the country’s independence in the mid-20th.

7. - On September 2, 1945, Vietnam gained independence from France.
President Ho Chi Minh decided that the three key priorities of the
new, independent government would be “fighting against poverty,
illiteracy, and invaders” . His new driving philosophy for education
was “an illiterate nation is a powerless one” and, in October
1945, he issues a “Call for anti-illiteracy”.
- The president’s call was a success: within one year 75 thousand
literacy classes were established with about 96 thousand teachers
to help 2.5 million people learn to read and write.

8. – They stopped teaching in French and created
curriculum in Vietnamese. The government passed
an education reform in 1950 with the goal of
reducing the years of general education and
concentrating on reading, writing, and calculating
skills.
– The government began preparing for a new
education reform in order to help rebuild the
economy and to reunite the whole country (Kelly,
2000). The focus of the new reform was to train
young people to become “future citizens, loyal to
the people’s democracy regime, and competent to
serve people and the resistance war.

9. – The government took on two focuses in regards to
education: (1) the removal of leftover influences from the old
education system and (2) the implementation of anti-illiteracy
activities for people in the age group of 12-50 years old.
– Though the goal of these acts was to improve education.
The government wanted to universalize and nationalize
curriculum to have all schools accept a centralized
educational system. As the country was trying to unify in
other areas as well.

10. o “renovation” or “reconstruction”
– As far as education is concerned, the Doi Moi reform
means more funding for institutions and a higher
percentage of government funds allocated to the
education system (Kelly, 2000). It has also allowed
for more privatization of institutions: “semi-public”
and “people-funded” institutions are rising in
popularity especially at the pre-school level as well
as the technical and vocational training level.

11. – A new, amended education law was passed in
2005. This law cut out the use of “semi-public
schools” and allows for public, people-funded,
and private schools. It also made education
universal for the primary education and lower
secondary education, where the 1998 law
only had universal primary education. Later,
in 2012, upper secondary education was also
made universal.

12. Educational
GOALS
 Educational development in Vietnam is aimed at improving
general knowledge, training the workforce, and fostering
talented people while broadening the scope of education and
improving its quality and results, in order to contribute to
the State goal of “rich people, strong country, and civilized
and equal society.”
 More specifically, the goal of education is to train
independent and creative persons who can use their
professional skills and knowledge to work hard and meet
the needs of national construction and defense, while
being sensitive to the genius of Vietnamese culture, fully
combining the inheritance of national traditions and the
broader human civilization.

13. Educational
GOALS
The education and training policy is aimed at raising
the people’s intellectual level, training manpower,
nurturing talent, and forming a pool of workers
with knowledge and skills, practical ability, a
dynamic and creative mind, revolutionary virtues,
patriotism and love for socialism. Schools should
train young people in the direction of
comprehensive knowledge coupled with
specialization, and the awareness and capacity for
self-employment in a mixed commodity economy.

14. – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is the highest
managing authority for the entire national education system. The
Department of Vocational and Technical Education, an executive
branch of the MOET, is responsible for vocational and technical
education throughout the country. The Centre for Curriculum
Development and Methodology of General Education, under the
National Institute for Educational Science, is the main agency
responsible for curriculum research and development in the country.
– In every other ministry there is an Education and Training Board
responsible for vocational and technical education of that ministry,
following the guidelines and under the supervision of the MOET.
– At the level of the 61 provinces, Departments of Education and
Training are in charge of supervising pre-school, general, and
vocational/technical education in their provinces. These departments
are under the joint supervision of the MOET and the provincial
People’s Committee.

15. – At the district level (there are 600 districts in the country), a separate
division of the People’s Committee takes responsibility for educational
management in the district. This body directly supervises lower secondary
schools and vocational training centres in the district.
– The government has also established the National Council of
Education as an advisory body for policy making and to collaborate in
the definition of plans for educational development.
– The Ministry of Education and Training, the National Committee for
Literacy and the Committee for Child Care and Protection co-ordinate the
implementation of the National Plan of Action on Education for All
(MOET, 1999)

16. – Education is the largest expenditure item on the state budget and stood at 20
percent of total government expenditures in 2015 (USD $10 billion), a far
higher percentage than the global average of 14.1 percent (2013).
– Increased funding notwithstanding, public schooling in nominally Socialist
Vietnam is not entirely free and getting increasingly expensive. Even though
elementary education is officially provided free of charge and the government
covers most costs, elementary schools charge a variety of supplementary fees,
ranging from maintenance levies to fees for the acquisition of books and
uniforms. Secondary public schools, meanwhile, are allowed to charge small
tuition fees. In addition, it is not uncommon for parents to pay school
teachers for extra private lessons to ensure the academic success of their
children – an often corrupt practice that increases costs and inequalities in
public education.

17. – In higher education, tuition fees averaged between USD $262 and USD $385
annually in 2015/16, but are bound to increase. Several public universities have
already been exempted from caps on tuition.Top universities like the Ho Chi
Minh City University ofTechnology are currently charging annual tuition fees
of USD $ 1,000 for bachelor’s programs.
– To ease the financial burden on the state and modernize the education
system, the government also seeks to advance the privatization of education,
an objective that could further drive up costs for students.The goal is to
increase the share of private funding sources at public universities and ensure
that up to 40 percent of the student population will be enrolled at private
institutions by 2021.

18. FORMAL EDUCATION
SYSTEM

21. – Elementary education(tiểu
học) in Vietnam begins at
the age of six and lasts five
years (grades 1-5, until age
11). Subjects taught include
Vietnamese, mathematics,
moral education, natural and
social sciences, arts, and
physical education, as well as
history and geography in
grades four and five.
– The curriculum
emphasizes rote
memorization and the
language of instruction
is Vietnamese. Textbook
learning increases in
higher grades.
Promotion is based on
continuous assessment
and year-end exams.

22. Lower Secondary
Education
– Admission to general lower-
secondary education is open to all
pupils who have completed
elementary education. It lasts from
grade six to grade nine and
concludes with the award of a Lower
Secondary Education Graduation
Diploma .
– Students attend up to 30 45-minute
classes per week, and annual
promotion is based on teacher
assessment and examinations.
Upper Secondary
Education
– Access to non-compulsory upper-
secondary education is competitive and
examination-based.
– Entry into public upper-secondary
education nevertheless depends on
rigorous entrance examinations.
Competition is particularly fierce for
coveted spots at prestigious “high schools
for the gifted,” which only admit the very
best students. Other highly selective
institutions include specialized high
schools that offer programs focused on
subjects like foreign languages.

23. – Long-term vocational programs (up to three years)
offered at vocational schools typically require completion
of at least lower-secondary education for admission.
These longer programs lead to the award of
a Vocational Training Diploma (Bằng Tốt nghiệp Nghề)
– a credential that qualifies for employment in a number
of trades.
– Lower secondary graduates can also enroll in more
academically oriented vocational/technical high school
programs, referred to as professional secondary or
intermediate professional education, that combine
vocational training with general education. These
programs lead to the award of a Professional
Secondary Education Graduation Diploma (Bằng Tốt
nghiệp Trung học Chuyên nghiệp), last three to four
years, and usually require passing an entrance
examination.

24. – At the post-secondary level, VET is typically
provided at junior colleges (Cao đẳng).
– Programs last between two and three and a
half years and lead to the award of an Associate
degree (Cử nhân Cao đẳng), or a Junior
College Graduation Diploma (BBằng Tốt Nghiệp
Cao Đẳng). Programs are geared towards
employment and include a practical training
component of up to 30 percent. Fields of study
include business administration, banking,
accounting, tourism, information technology, or
health care. Admission is based on the upper-
secondary school graduation examination.

25. – As far as higher education is concerned, under the new
structure of the education system approved in 1993,
four diplomas were established: for undergraduate courses,
the Certificate of Higher Education (three-year of higher
education after upper secondary school) and the Diploma of
Higher Education (four- to six-year cycle of higher education
after upper secondary school); for graduate courses, the
master’s degree (in general, two years after the Diploma of
Higher Education) and the doctoral degree (in general, two to
four years after the master’s degree).
– The school year consists of thirty-five working weeks.

26. – Using the competence approach for examination and assessment is also an important
measure to innovate general education in Vietnam. Assessment is measured through
learning (increasing the formative assessment rather than focusing primarily on the
summative assessment), involving identifying and solving, in a variety of contexts, problems
that are characteristic for a specific domain of knowledge and field of activity (No.
22/2016/TT-BGDDT, Circular, 2016).
– The Ministry of Education and Training issued guiding documents on student assessment
(No. 30/2014/TT-BGDDT, Circular, 2014; No. 22/2016/TT-BGDDT, Circular, 2016) that
demonstrate the application of the evaluation philosophy “assessment for learning” and
“assessment as learning.” According to these documents, teachers need to focus on both
formative assessment and summative assessment. In addition, students are involved in the
assessment process through self-assessment and peer assessment activities. This is

27. – The government intends to lessen the importance of
examinations and has announced that national graduation exams
will, in fact, be abolished altogether after 2020, at which point
admission will be based on overall student performance during
senior high school, rather than one final high stakes examination.
The content of the final examinations will be incorporated into
the high school curriculum. Given the frequent changes in
university admissions in recent years, it remains to be seen,
however, if and when these changes will be realized.
– It should also be noted that the MOET has given public
universities the freedom to determine their admission
requirements beyond graduation exam results. Since average
scores and pass rates in the national graduation exams held in
2017 were much higher than in previous years, growing
numbers of universities may start using their own, more selective
admissions tests.

28. – For teachers accustomed to traditional practices,
changing teaching methods and fostering new skills can
be a complex endeavor. Developing higher-order skills
requires teachers to have a deeper mastery of their
subjects and a wider pedagogical repertoire than what
is needed for knowledge transmission.
– In addition, creating mechanisms for professional
learning and collaboration among teachers and clusters
of schools would allow educators to learn from one
another and continually refine their practices.
– Building instructional capacity also
requires meaningful, ongoing support. Establishing
appropriate support structures is vital for enabling
teachers and principals to implement new pedagogical
models in schools. In addition, creating mechanisms for
professional learning and collaboration among teachers
and clusters of schools would allow educators to learn
from one another and continually refine their practices.

29. Educational
Research
- Researchers recognize that education needs to
create “a learning environment that encourages
students to develop both physically and mentally in
harmony” and help students to become “active and
confident learners who engage in career-oriented
and lifelong learning” (Nguyen, 2017).
- In the Fourth Industrial Revolution context,
Vietnamese education faces challenges and negative
effects. The Prime Minister indicated that to address
these challenges, it is necessary tochange the
policies, content, and methods of education and
vocational training in order to generate human
resources that a re able to follow new technological
production trends, including a focus on promotion
of training in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM), foreign languages, and
universal information technology.

30. One of Vietnam’s strategies to achieve further economic growth is
the modernization of its education system. The five resolutions for education
reform are improving the institution and promoting administrative reforms,
enhancing the management capacity of educational administrators,
increasing investment resources for education, strengthening educational
quality assessment, and increasing promotion (General Secretary, 2013). Like
other parts of Vietnam’s education system, teacher education is changing.
The MOET seeks to strengthen teacher training while simultaneously trying
to respond to teacher shortages.