Updated: 12/10/06 Vietnam Primary Education

Dr. Trinh Quoc Thai, Director General Primary Education Department

1. Introduction It is stated in the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that Education is the right and responsibility of every citizen. Primary education is compulsory and tuition-free to all children (Article 59). It is stated in the Education Law that primary education is compulsory to every child aged from 6 to 14; primary education lasts 5 years from Form 1 to Form 5. The schooling age is 6 years old (Article 22). Primary education is to provide pupils with initial and essential bases for proper and life-long development in terms of morality, intellectual capacity, physical assets, aesthetics and basic skills for their progress into secondary education (Article 23). Primary education must support children with basic understandings of the nature, society and the human beings. Primary education must provide them with basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and calculating, shape their habits of physical training, and provide them with basic insights into singing, dancing, music and arts. Essentially, it can be said that primary education, a fundamental foundation for the shaping and developing of a comprehensive personality, sets the ground for secondary education and for the whole national education system. 2. Facts and Figures In recent years, Vietnams primary education has achieved remarkable results in both terms of quantity and quality. By 2000, Vietnam succeeded in making primary education universa-lized throughout the whole country. The network of primary schools and classes has been broad based. There have been primary schools and classes in almost every ward in the country, even in remote, mountainous, island and boundary areas. Next to public schools are private schools, which have been increasing in number and quality thanks to the Governments policy of varying types of primary schools. The number of primary pupils increased since 1990 and peaked in the school year 1997-1998 of 10.5 million. Since that peak year, the number has reduced year by year and maintains a stable enrollment rate. The main reason for the reduction comes from the campaign of making primary education universalized and compulsory for everybody, particularly to every child in his/her schooling age and from the campaign of family planning.
School year 1989 -1990 Number of primary schools 12,296 Number of students 8,583,025 Number of primary education teachers 251,052

.......... 1994 - 1995 1995 - 1996 1996 - 1997 1997 - 1998 1998 - 1999 1999 - 2000 2000 - 2001 2001 2002

...... 13,540 13,778 13,888 14,240 14,507 14,815 14,968 15,090

......... 10,047,564 10,218,169 10,377,830 10,431,337 10,250,214 10,063,025 9,748,164 9,400,000

........ 288,173 298,407 310,264 324,431 336,294 340,871 347,833 353,804

In the whole country, the net enrollment rate of students keeps growing and the gross enrollment rate continues to reduce over the past decade. This achievement is thanks to the efforts made by provinces in reaching the standards of primary education universalization although the rate still varies from region to region.
1990-1991 GER NER (%) (%) 101.6 86.0 113.7 80.6 102.5 91.3 96.5 96.4 61.3 84.8 92.5 81.2 1994-1995 GER NER (%) (%) 109.3 91.3 114.4 86.4 107.5 112.4 111.4 94.7 90.4 92.1 90.7 87.5 1998-1999 GER NER (%) (%) 108.2 94.8 103.3 98.6 120.5 123.7 107.7 98.0 94.8 96.4 89.2 90.8 2000-2001 GER NER (%) (%) 106.6 97.54 97.8 110.3 108.6 121.9 108.1 97.56 91.56 97.6 99.08 96.71

Nationwide Red river delta Northwest region North of Central Vietnam Highlands Cuu Long river delta

The quality of primary education has also been nurtured as indicated by the increasing rate of passing pupils and decreasing rate of pupils dropping-out. The rate of pupils passing primary education to proceed to secondary education reached 97.3% in the school year 2000-2001, a high rate showing many opportunities that primary pupils have for secondary education. Primary teachers have been improved in terms of quantity and quality, although this fact cannot be completely applied to remote areas, where teachers have not yet met the required training standards.

Percentage of teachers meeting required training standards 1990-1991 1994-1995 1998-1999 2000-2001 (%) (%) (%) (%) 58.2 67.7 77.6 84.95 70.5 78.3 85.6 94.36 50.3 59.8 68.1 75.55 64.4 71.7 79.8 91.13

Nationwide Red river delta Northwest region North of Central Vietnam

Highlands Cuu Long river delta

50.1 51.4

65.9 62.8

70.8 73.8

71.83 82.29

3. Primary Education Programs Since the school year 2002-2003, the Government has instructed nationwide reforms in the primary education starting from Grade 1 and in the next grades in following years. The renovated primary education program is structured into two phases: - Phase 1 includes Grades 1, 2 and 3 with 6 subjects: Vietnamese Language, Mathematics, Morality, Nature and Society, Arts and Physical Education. - Phase 2 includes Grades 4 and 5 with 9 subjects: Vietnamese Language, Mathematics, Morality, Science, History, Geography, Basic Techniques, Music, Arts and Physical Education. The renovation of curriculum is accompanied by renova- tions of textbooks, teaching methodologies and assessment methodologies. In this renovated program, a school year is divided into 35 weeks with the average schooling time is 3.3hrs/day, equivalent to 660hrs/year, which is not high in comparison with those of other countries (average 1,000hrs/ year). For those schools that can meet all the requirements of teaching capacity the pupils can register in foreign language classes and computer classes with the agreement of their parents. These schools can also organize classes to foster students studying capacity or build up optional education programs pursuant with regulations of Ministry of Education and Training. Most of primary students are registered in half-day classes. Just over 10% are entitled to wholeday classes. The implemen-tation of whole-day classes are of great interest and popular in provinces such as Nam Dinh, Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City. 4. Difficulties and Challenges Analysis in the previous sections has shown the following difficulties and challenges for the current primary education level: - Although primary education was universalized nationwide in 2000, there still exists a number of children under schooling ages who cannot go to schools or complete their primary education programs; and some educational institutions have not met the primary education universalization standards. Consequently, how to maintain and increase the rate of primary pupils going and completing primary education, as well as how to keep the quality of primary education universalization, will be a great challenge that Vietnams education has to face.

- The gap of primary education quality between regions in the country can be clearly observed. How to erase this gap and how to maintain the equality of primary education to children of favorable regions and in-need regions can be considered as another challenge the Vietnams primary education. - The rate of teachers who are not yet qualified is rather high at 15%. In some provinces in North West and Tay Nguyen this rate amounts up to 30-40%. Teachers of Arts, Singing-Music, Physical Education and optional subjects such as Computer, Foreign Languages are strongly needed. Although the number of teachers meeting training standards is increasing, their professional skills and methodologies are still weak. Lecturers in the pedagogical institutions for training primary teachers have not yet been highly qualified and particularly lack practical experience. - Classrooms are insufficient, meeting only 50% of demand and the number of three-shift classrooms is 2,026. Most of them have not been well equipped. - The amount of average schooling hours for primary pupils is still low in comparison with those of other countries. The relevance of curriculum, teaching methodologies and assessment methodologies needs more consideration. - The system of education and finance management is still weak. There is a shortage of primary education managers and they lack high qualification. The education information management system has not been exact and updated. The method of allocating educational finance has not been satisfactory. 5. Priorities - To maintain and continue raising the rate of primary education universalization in the country, in particular to increase the rate of children under schooling age attending schools from 95% in 2000 to 97% in 2005 and 99% in 2010. - To renovate the curriculum and textbooks for primary education, aiming at comprehensive and unified change; Special attention will be paid to the renovation of teaching and learning methods, the renovation of teaching assessment and the improvement of infrastructure for teaching and learning activities. - To standardize and modernize primary education. Targeted Performance Indicators: - 50~60% of provinces will accomplish standards of primary education universalization for children of the right schooling age by 2005. - Rates of schools, classes and students who are entitled to whole-day classes will be gradually increased.

- Primary schools will be standardized by 2010. - Opportunities for upbringing will be opened to every child in need, with 50% of disabled children entitled to education by 2010. - There will be no temporary classrooms and 50% of students will enjoy whole-day classes by 2005. 6. Programs/Projects for Primary Education 6.1. National Objective Programs - To maintain achievements of primary education universalization through infrastructure building, supplying equipment and teaching materials, and improvement of teaching capacity for teachers. - To renovate curriculum and teaching methodologies through compiling textbooks, manuals and guidelines accompanying textbooks; improvement of equipment; training courses for teachers. - To stabilize schools and classrooms through building of new schools to replace three-shift/day classrooms; increasing whole-day teaching; building of libraries and laboratories. 6.2. Programs/Projects Funded by International Agencies/ Organizations - Program to Support Primary Education Development funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA): the Program aims at achieving a Master Program for Development of Primary Education, and at building a coordinating mechanism among donors to prevent clashes in supporting primary education. The Program also aims at improving planning capacity for education managers. The National Master Program for Primary Education Development was approved by the Minister of Education and Training in Decision No.28/2002/QD-BGD&DT dated 10 May 2002. The Program identifies areas that need support and resources, from which sustainable programs/projects can be developed for primary education improvement. - Primary Education Project for Disadvantaged Children using loans from the World Bank and official aids from CIDA, DFID, NORAD and AUSAID. The Project aims at raising the education quality of primary schools in in-need areas, increasing the access to primary education of families, reducing the number of children who are unable to go to school and improving the qualification of primary students. - Project for Development of Primary Teachersusing loans from the World Bank and official aids from DFID. The Project focuses on increasing professional teaching standards and training courses for teachers and management staff. The Project will concentrate in 10 selected provinces and cities from 2002 to 2005. - School Lunch Programfunded by Agricultural Department (USA). The Program aims at improving education quality through supplying nutrition to children, and at improving physical

fitness for children in unfavorable areas. The Program commences in September 2002 and completes in June 2003. The target groups of the Program are 33 districts of 6 provinces, totaling 613 primary schools with 2,120 school sites of 330,000 students. - Co-operation Program with UNICEFthrough flexible education projects (1995-2000) and Childrens Friends - Primary Education Project (2000-2005). The main components of the Program are developing teaching and learning materials for teachers and students in disadvantaged areas; training courses for teachers to improve teaching capacity; providing textbooks, notebooks, pens and pencils for students and teaching aids for teachers.