General Secondary
Education in Vietnam
Structure of the Education System in Vietnam
Doctor of philasophy
24 yrs old
Higher Education
21 yrs old
(4 - 6 yrs)
JuniorCollege (3 yrs)
18 yrs old
Vocational Training
18 yrs old
UpperSecondary
Education (3 yrs))
15 yrs old
Secondary technical and
Vocational Education (3-4 yrs)
Lower Lo Lower Secondary Education (4 yrs)
Lower Lo
11 yrs old
6 yrs old
Primary Education (4 yrs)
Lower Lo
Pre-school Education (4 yrs)
3 yrs old
3 months
Cccccb Creche
Long-term (1-3 yrs)
Short-term (<1 yr)
Nonformal
Educa
tion
Current structure of the National Education
System
• A 12 year system made up of a 5-4-3-4 structure.
• Primary education is compulsory, has a nominal duration of
•
•
•
5 years has an official entry age of 6 years.
Lower (basic) secondary education, with a duration of four
years, is followed by either:
Upper (high school) secondary education lasting 3 years;
or
Vocational and technical education of three main types:
Senior vocational education (3-4 years) open to lower
secondary graduates and sometimes also to primary
graduates; and secondary technical, education (or
professional secondary education) lasts 2-4 years.
Short programs (less than two years) open to graduates
from primary and lower secondary schools.
Higher education consists of college (3 years) or university
(4-6 years).
Pupils/students by levels
9000000
8000000
7000000
6000000
5000000
4000000
3000000
2000000
1000000
0
Pri E
LSE
USE
20032004
20042005
Teachers by levels
400000
350000
300000
250000
Pri E
LSE
USE
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
20032004
20042005
International Olympic Results
(Medallist/Participants)
Subjects
2004
2005
2006
Mathematics
6/6
6/6
6/6
Physics
5/5
4/4
4/4
Chemistry
4/4
4/4
4/4
4/4
4/4
Biology
Informatics
4/4
Russian
7/7
4/4
Main Issues on Secondary Education
1. Universalization of Lower Secondary
(ULS)
Goal:
To provide compulsory education to all children
aged from 11-18 yrs old.
To promote general knowledge & develop
human resources for the industrialisation
and modernisation of the country.
To achieve the completion of ULS by 2010.
Current achievement:
30 out of 64 provinces completed ULS
Criteria for ULS:
a. For individual students:
Lower secondary students aged from 11-17 yrs old have
completed the national curriculum for lower secondary
education (9 yrs).
b. The community:
At least 90% of the children aged 6 go to primary schools;
Over 80% of primary students got enrolled in Lower
secondary;
Over 85% of children aged from 11-17 complete national
lower secondary curriculum either formal or non-formal
education.
2. Innovation of national curriculum and
textbooks for secondary schools
- Preparations for after school-life with more focus
on vocational education, civic education, foreign
language and IT studies;
- Development of streaming and gifted schools;
- Toward modernization in content/knowledge, methodology.
3. Equity in education
•
•
Support children in disadvantage areas and needy
students (provision of textbooks, scholarship, …).
Improvement in the equity aspects of education Provision.
MOET has broad policy responsibility for education,
operational and management responsibility is widely
dispersed both vertically and horizontally.
4. Emphasis on education for ethnic minority
children
Develop boarding schools for minority students
both for lower and upper secondary schools
(one/two boarding schools each province).
5. Informatic Communication Technology
(ICT)
- one of selective subjects for second. Schools;
- one of compulsory module for school subjects:
Technology;
- Over 96% of upper secondary schools got access
to the Internet.
Obstacles and problems
• School population growth;
• Lack of schools and facility;
• Success in quantitative expansion has also
masked persistent problems of low quality
and inadequate management systems.
Thank you!
Le Quan Tan
Director, Secondary Education Departmet
Ministry of Education and Training
VIETNAM
E-mail: lqtan@moet.gov.vn
lqtanbgd@yahoo.com