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7 Facts About Education in Vietnam

Education in Vietnam
Since the late 1980s, Vietnam has taken various steps to make good on its constitutional promises of free, quality education for all. However, there is still much work to be done for the southeast Asian country to ensure that every citizen has an opportunity to earn a quality education. These seven facts demonstrate the challenges and improvements made in regards to education in Vietnam.

7 Facts About Education in Vietnam

  1. In recent years, the Vietnamese government prioritized quality education nationwide. According to UNESCO, in 2010, the government spent 19.8 percent of its state budget on education alone. This number is significantly higher than the 13.7 percent spent on education across all of East Asia. However, Mitsue Uemura, chief of UNICEF Vietnam’s education section, calls for the government to ensure they are spending their education budget in the most efficient ways possible in order to reach the most vulnerable.
  2. About 95 percent of Vietnamese children are enrolled in primary school by the age of six. However, only 88.2 percent of those children complete their primary education. Historically, primary schools would often charge parents fees for textbooks, sanitation, traffic guards and even building maintenance. These fees made it near impossible for children in disadvantaged and rural communities to stay enrolled long enough to complete primary school. According to a CIA World Factbook evaluation, in 2001, only two-thirds of children were able to complete the fifth grade due to monetary challenges.
  3. Vietnam is successfully closing the enrollment gap between rural and urban regions. Specifically, the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta areas increased their net elementary intake of 58 and 80 percent in 2000 to 99 and 94 percent in 2012. In the same 12-year span, the intake rates for lower-secondary education in these areas grew from 69.5 percent to 92 percent.
  4. Despite various challenges, the percentage of children pursuing a secondary education in Vietnam has grown considerably over the years. In the early 1990s, only 1.7 percent of students 15 years of age and older completed at least a junior college education. That number increased to 4.4 percent within two decades.
  5. The number of students enrolled in institutions of higher education in Vietnam, such as universities, colleges and vocational schools, is increasing. In 2015, 2.12 million students were enrolled in these institutions, a large increase when stacked against 133,000 student enrollments in 1987. 
  6. Literacy among young adults in Vietnam is on a steady upswing. In 1989, Vietnam’s literacy rate for students aged 15 and older was 87.2 percent, and by 2015, the literacy rate for the same demographic was 94.5 percent.
  7. In 2012, Vietnam participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for the first time. The results demonstrated that education in Vietnam has a strong focus on instilling basic cognitive skills in its students, such as numeracy and literacy. Vietnamese students not only performed with the same success as countries like Austria and Germany, but they also outperformed two-thirds of the other countries who participated in PISA that year, ranking 17th out 65 countries. 

Educational reform, closing enrollment gaps, active teaching practices and the like have played major roles in the evolution of Vietnam’s education system over the last two decades. While there is still work to be done, Vietnam has taken large steps in recent years to prove its willingness to make quality education for all a top priority. 

– Ashlyn Jensen
Photo: Flickr

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9 Facts About Education in Taiwan

Education in TaiwanAlthough Taiwan produces some of the most accomplished students in the world, its educational system is not without shortcomings. Education in Taiwan continues to be a subject of discourse; these nine facts can help you better understand the situation.

  1. Tensions over statehood manifest at every level of education in Taiwan. Because Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China, the central educational authority in Taiwan is the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China.
  2. The education system is run by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. It consists of basic elementary education, junior high school and senior secondary education.
  3. The official language of instruction is Mandarin Chinese.
  4. The literacy rate among Taiwanese people age 15 and above was 98.5 percent as of 2014.
  5. Compared to the rest of the world, students who graduate from the educational system in Taiwan achieve some of the highest scores on an international level. Comparatively, these students excel in mathematics and science. However, it has been proposed that there is too far great a focus on memorization in the educational system and a lack of creative instruction.
  6. Taiwan has a testing-oriented education system, which also poses several issues. Standardized test results have recently demonstrated the shortcomings of this system. In 2006, only 4.7 percent of Taiwan students were reading at the highest level, according to the Program for International Student Assessment. The studies suggest that students are without the ability to read or think critically.
  7. In 2014, the Ministry of Education implemented reforms that included adding three years of compulsory education in secondary schools. This was in response to the aforementioned criticisms of the previous system.
  8. The reforms included “exam-free” pathways to secondary schools, a less restrictive curriculum, subsidies for students from disadvantaged homes and making arts education available to all students, among others.
  9. Population decline poses a real threat to the Taiwan’s higher education sector. By 2023, the number of predicted student enrollments in higher education is projected to drop by a third. This will also have implications for the higher education sector of Taiwan in the globalized education market.

Education in Taiwan continues to progress, especially towards targeting areas that it is less proficient in. With the added focus on reading, arts and creativity, along with less pressure to score high on exams, Taiwan is working to ensure that its educational system meets the needs of all its students.

– Melanie Snyder

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Singapore

education in singapore
Singapore is the most developed country in Southeast Asia and one of the most developed countries in all of Asia. Its education system is an accurate reflection of that development as Singaporean students consistently rank as some of the best scoring students on international assessments.

In the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an annual global study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Singapore ranked second in mathematics, third in reading, third in science and second overall for student performance.

And the students excel in more than just test scores.

Singaporean students won numerous international science and mathematics competitions in 2014. At the 27th International Young Physicists’ Tournament, for example, the Singapore team took first place. At the 25th International Biology Olympiad, the 46th International Chemistry Olympiad, the 55th International Mathematics Olympiad, the 26th International Olympiad in Informatics and the 45th International Physics Olympiad, the Singapore team consistently won multiple gold and silver medals.

Singapore undoubtedly has high quality education and exceptional student performance due to the structure of its education system. For children between the ages of 6 and 15 years old, education is compulsory, but there is also a social norm to proceed on to tertiary education and to succeed.

Singapore currently has four universities and five polytechnic institutions that focus on practical degree programs in disciplines like tourism, biotechnology, engineering, business, communications and hospitality management. The quality of Singapore’s primary, secondary and tertiary institutions is so high that 86,0oo international students come to Singapore to study.

Findings from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey by the OECD explain how and why Singapore succeeds in providing quality education. According to the survey, teachers receive not only extensive training before they reach the classroom, but also professional development throughout their careers as instructors. School culture is reported to be collaborative and teachers are highly respected in Singapore.

Ho Peng, Director-General of Education, says the quality of education in Singapore starts with creating quality teachers. “Ensuring that our teachers are competent and professional is critical, to bring out the best in every student and prepare him or her to meet future challenges,” Peng said. “We will continue to look for ways to support our teaching force to enable them to do their best for our students.”

Singapore’s education model is successfully rooted in core ideologies, pragmatic approaches and societal norms. Students have for many years performed unparalleled in academic competitions and test scores, and the country will continue to see successful development because of its superlative approach to education.

– Joseph McAdams
Photo: The Real Singapore