Global Education Executives

VIETNAM

 

Vietnam, situated in Southeast Asia, is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, falling closely behind the “tiger” powers of Asia such as Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. Despite its long-standing history with colonization and the adaptation of the colonizing countries’ cultures, Vietnam has also retained its own language and culture to this day. After the remerging of North and South Vietnam in 1975, Vietnam is now established as a communist state under one ruler. The government since then has made tremendous efforts to reform its education system following the reclaiming of its independence, evident in the improvement of educational accessibility recently. However, improvements are still to be made.
 

Education in Vietnam is divided into five stages: preschool, primary, secondary, tertiary, and higher education. Enrollment is compulsory until grade 9, and students are encouraged to pursue higher levels of education, which includes vocational training. Following the established education systems of China and South Korea, students in Vietnam are expected to take an exam at the end of grade 12 that determines the university they attend; the higher their score, the better the school. The government has been emphasizing the importance of higher education recently, jumping the number of attendees from 133,300 in 1987 to over 2 million in 2015.
 

Recognizing the importance of education’s impact on social standing, the government has allocated up to 20% of its spending on improving the curriculum, adapting teaching methods that follow overseas models, and even making education more accessible for disadvantaged or impoverished children in rural areas. However, despite their efforts, one problem remains: enrollment is rising faster than quality. No one can deny Vietnam’s rise in educational status recently, but much like other poorer countries, illiteracy rates are still a problem in poorer areas of Vietnam. As Vietnam grows in power in global and economic status, basic skills taught in the classroom will no longer suffice; the government must find ways of bettering accessibility in the poorest areas, streamlining the existing curriculum, and providing incentive and raises for teachers in order to improve the overall quality of their education and keep pace to the global scale. Nevertheless, they have made great progress in the past few years, and are on the path to quality education for all.

References:

1. Shadoian-Gersing, Vanessa (n.d.). Education in Vietnam: Strengths, Challenges, and Opportunities. Asia Society.  https://asiasociety.org/global-cities-education-network/education-vietnam

2. Lan, Phan Thi and Nicola Jones (n.d.). Education for All in Vietnam: high enrolment, but problems of quality remain. Young Lives Policy Brief.  https://web.archive.org/web/20120705215845/http://www.younglives.org.uk/files/policy-papers/education-for-all-in-vietnam-high-enrolment-but-problems-of-quality-remain

3. Trines, Stefan (November 8, 2017). Education in Vietnam. WENR.  https://wenr.wes.org/2017/11/education-in-vietnam