EDUCATION REFORM IN
VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL:HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND
CHALLENGES

Nguyen Chi Thanh, VNU Hanoi, Vietnam
Visiting professor at CICE, Hiroshima University

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Presentation Outline• History of Educational Development – Milestones• First education reform: 1950
• Second education reform: 1956
• Third education reform: 1980
• Some remarks• Discussion

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• Promotion of learning and respect for teachers are one of

the traditional values of the Vietnamese people：The firstexam for civil administrators was conducted in 1075
• For nearly one thousand years, Vietnamese people learnt
Chinese characters and used them for writing, but
pronounced them in a different, Vietnamese way andbesides the use of Chinese characters, the Vietnamese
people adapted such characters to invent an ancient
Vietnamese script for writing and expressions• Thanks to this, a number of valuable works of literatureand history in ancient Vietnamese script have been kept
for future generations.

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History of Educational Development - Milestones

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• At the end of 19th and first half of 20th centuries, the French forciblycolonized Vietnam and the entire Indochina. The traditional Confucianoriented education, which had been built and maintained by Vietnamese
people, was replaced by French-Vietnamese education aimed mainly attraining people to serve the colonial apparatus.

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• At the most prosperous period of French - invaded Indochina, Vietnam had- 2,322 elementary schools (first 3 years of primary education) with anaverage of one elementary school for every three villages, and the number ofstudents accounted for 2% of total population;- 638 primary schools (2 last years of primary education) with thenumber of students making up 0.4% of total population;- 16 primary colleges (for 4 years of post-primary education) withstudents accounting for 0.05% of population;- 6 secondary schools of which 3 were public with only 0.019% of the
population as state secondary students.
• The whole of French-colonized Indochina (Vietnam, Lao and Cambodia)

had only 3 universities (of Law, Medicine-Pharmacy and Sciences) locatedin Hanoi with 834 students, of which 628 were Vietnamese;• Under the French-Vietnamese education system, French was the dominantlanguage and the language of instruction at the higher education level• With such an education system, 95% of Vietnamese people were illiterate.

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• On 6 December 1945, President Ho Chi Minh sent an

open letter to students on the occasion of the opening of
the 1945-1946 school year, confirming the birth of a new
education system with its mission to preserve
independence and rehabilitate the country• Then, on October 1945, President Hochiminh issued the“Call for Anti- illiteracy”• Within less than a year, 75 thousand literacy classes withnearly 96 thousand teachers to help 2.5 million people getout of illiteracy.

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History of Educational Development - Milestones

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• Two important decrees, namely Decrees No.146-SL and No.147-SL in

1946 wich defined principles and system of Vietnamese education• Three fundamental principles: national, scientific, and popular• Aime: serving the national ideals and democracy• System:- First level, the basic education level, in 4 years- Second level, with two sub-sectors: (i) general, including two
sub-levels of 4-year general education and 3-year specialized
education; (ii) specialization, including two sub- levels of 1year experiment and 1-3-year vocational education(depending on each stream)- Third level, with universities (including literature, sciences,laws, etc.) and specialized colleges of at least 3 years. Next touniversities were “research institutes”.

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• From 1950:- Basic education level would be compulsory.
- All subjects would be taught in Vietnamese• During the years of resistance war (1946-1954), schools
continued to operate in demilitarized areas. In temporarily
occupied areas, schools taught a 12-year curriculum which
was based on one adjusted by several patriotic scholars at
the beginning of 1945.
• First education reform project in 1950

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History of Educational Development - Milestones

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• Years of Temporary Separation(1955-1975)- In the North, the Vietnamese
Government took over the education
system in the newly liberated areas
and actively prepared for a new
education reform in the context of
economic rehabilitation, building theNorth and the fight for thereunification of the whole country.
- The second education reformproject in 1956

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• Years of Temporary Separation (1955-1975)

In the South during 1954-1975 period, within Saigon
Government-controlled and subsequently liberated areas:- In Saigon Government-controlled areas, education graduallytransitioned from Europeanand French-influenced education to
North American-dominated education. General education
experienced several changes with the components of primaryeducation (5 years), lower secondary education (4 years), andupper secondary education (3 years) including many streams.
- In liberated areas students followed 12-year curriculum with
textbooks that were very different from those used in
temporarily occupied areas, demonstrating patriotic andresistance spirits.

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History of Educational Development - Milestones

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History of Educational Development - Milestones• 10 Years of Pre-Reform (1975-1985)

Two tasks:- Removal of leftover influences from the old education system;- (ii) implementation of anti- illiteracy activities for people in theage group of 12-50 years old.
- the Government prepared for an education reform to put inplace a unified national education system started in 1981-1982
school year with a 12 years system• 1975-1986: Centrally planned economy• 1980: the third education project• 1986: Policy ‘’Open the door’’The 158th CICE Open Seminar

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Presentation Outline• History of Educational Development – Milestones• First education reform: 1950
• Second education reform: 1956
• Third education reform: 1980
• Some remarks• Discussion

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3 Education reforms: a closer look
• In 1950• In 1956• In 1980

Three projects are related to political and ideologicalraisons accordingly to the historic and important victories of
the country (1945, 1954 and 1975).
• Project of the 4th education reform: going on

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First education reform: 1950
• The education system was proclaimed of the people, by

the people and for the people• Characterstics was an education system national,
scientific and mass character• Training objective for schools was defined as educating
and fostering the younger generation to become future
citizens, loyal to people’s democracy regime, andcompetent to serve people and the resistance war• The main contents of the reform were to transform thestructure of general education (reduced number of years
from 11 to 9) and to adjust the relationship between
various components of the education system in order tomake it consistent with such a transformation.

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First education reform: 1950
• Education direction: study going along with action, theory being

closely combined with practice• Content of general education: to concentrate on a number ofsubjects such as Vietnamese language literature, mathematics,
physics, chemistry, biology; and to introduce new subjects like
new-policy, civices, and production, several subjects weresuspended (such as foreign languages, music, drawing,housework)• General education consisted of three levels with a total of 9
years: primary education of 4 years, exclusive of Vietnamese
language reading and writing class; lower secondary educationof 3 years; and upper secondary education of 2 years.
• Promotion of popular education (elementary, preparatory andcomplementary levels respectively with 4 months, 4 months
and 8 months), vocational education (elementary andsecondary levels)

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Remarks on First education reform: 1950
- Facilities and textbooks problems- Lack of qulified teacher and school manager- Curriculum not appropriate to war context- Education content in ‘’popular education’’ and ‘’vocational

educaion’’ programs and of low quality- Under development of vocational schools

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Second education reform: 1956
• After the Liberation and the Restoration of peace in the

North (1954) there was an urgent unification of the two
education system• 1956: a new education reform in the context of economic
rehabilitation, building the North and the fight for thereunification of the whole country• Purpose of education: training and fostering young people
to become “people who had all- round development in all
aspects, and were good citizens and officials to theMotherland”• Educational content: more comprehensive (with anemphasis on moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic
aspects) with the motto of “linkages between theory andpractice, and school and social life”

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Second education reform: 1956
• The education content had a comprehensive characterand included 4 aspects: ethics, intelectual knowledge,
physical culture ans aesthetic• Abolishment of the command education system, began amore equitable relationship between teachers andstudents, introduction of extra-curricular activities, andgradually of production activities into schools as animportant way to shape personalities.
• The 12-year and 9-year general education systems in
newly liberated and freedom areas respectively werecombined into a 10-year system (primary education: 4years, lower secondary education: 3 years, and upper
secondary education: 3 years). This system wassomewhat similar to the USSR’s education system.

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Third education reform: 1980
• After the great victory of spring 1975, in order to upgrade

the education quality in the North and to unify the two
education systems (10 years duration in the North and 12
years duration in the South), the Politburo of theCommunist Party of Vietnam decided in 1979 on anothereducation reform• In 1981-1982 school year, the government started the 3th
education reform to put in place a unified national
education system that was appropriate to the national
construction strategies and development of the country

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Third education reform: 1980
• The structure of the education system was revised; the12-year system in the South and 10-year system in the
North were replaced by a new 12-year general education
structure, in which primary and lower secondary schools
were combined and preparation was made for streaming
in upper secondary schools. A number of specialized
universities were established and developed.
• The replacement of textbooks at all school levels -themost important task in the third education reform andcompleted in 1996 - brought consistency to general
education across the nation.

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Third education reform: 1980
• Educational objectives: the provision of care and education forthe younger generation from early childhood to adulthood withthe aim of laying the initial foundations for all-round humandevelopment; implementing universalization of education tofacilitate carrying out three revolutions (of productive
relationships, science and technology, and culture andideology); training and fostering -in line with the requirementsof labor division- an increase in the size of the working staff.
• Education content: focus was placed on “Improving the qualityof comprehensive education, and producing a new type ofworker who were masters and able to shoulder the cause ofpeople’s socialism construction.”- Educational principles: included learning together with practice,education and work, and the school and society linkages were
strengthened.

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Remarks on the third education reform: 1980
• This reform faced a number of challenges and revealed several

limitations during implementation.
• The biggest limitation was the unrealistic, non-feasible, objectives andsolutions, e.g. very large expansion of the size of the system,
educational subsidies for all, universalization, etc. Meanwhile, there wasa lack of adequate resources due to the border war and economic
recession.
• The general perception was one where large subsidies and education
welfare support were expected by all. But this led to the educational
underdevelopment as, having been influenced by such perception, theexpenditure for education only accounted for small proportion in thestate budget in comparison with other sectors.
• The expectation of subsidies was totally inappropriate in a poor andunderdeveloped country like Vietnam, especially in the context of postwar period and economic crisis.

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Remarks on the third education reform: 1980
• The biggest challenge faced by Vietnamese education inearly 1980s was that the State was not able to provide
financial resources while it dismantled the importance ofthe collective economy.
• Education like other social sectors, faced a serious
shortage of resources. Schools had little or no operating
funds and finances for teacher salaries were insufficient.
• As a result both teachers and students left schools, andthe size of the education system and its quality declined.

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Remarks on the third education reform: 1980

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Remarks on the third education reform: 1980
• In order to overcome the economic crisis, Vietnameseleaders planned, in 1986, for a major national reform tomove from the centralized planning system to socialistoriented market mechanism.
• The education sector also needed to reform:- to change past inappropriate perceptions and solutions- to forcefully propose and implement new solutions so as
to halt the recession, stabilize and strengthen the system,
and bring about a situation with the resources needed forcontinued development.
• To meet this objective required changes in the areas ofsocialization, democratization, diversification, andmobilization of social, family and school resources for the
younger generation.

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Remarks on the third education reform: 1980
• Solutions to 1986 education reform- collection of tuition fees at all levels (with the exception ofprimary education as this sub-sector has a target ofuniversalization);- permission was given to open private kindergartens, and semipublic and people-founded classes/schools at all levels.
• establishement of specialized schools at lower and upper
secondary levels for gifted students; and selective classes forexcellent students in normal/teacher-education lower andupper secondary schools• pilot work on streaming the upper secondary curriculum wasstrengthen;• preparation for streamed curriculum expansion to allow
classification of learning activities according to student’s
abilities and expectations, and to different pathways.

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Presentation Outline• History of Educational Development – Milestones• First education reform: 1950
• Second education reform: 1956
• Third education reform: 1980
• Some remarks• Discussion

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Remarks on three education reforms• Data on school and enrolment (MOET, 1998)

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Remarks on three education reforms• Achivement- on the HDI, Vietnam improved from 122 (out of 174

countries) in 1995 to 109 (out of 175 countries) in 2001
- For basic education, Vietnam has achieved goodoutcomes for a long time: the adult illiteracy rate in Vietnam
steadily declined from 20% in 1985 to 13.4% in 1990 and
6.3% in 1995, 7.3% in 2000 (Indonesia: 12.7%; China:
14.2%; Philippines:4.9%; UNDP 2003).

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Remarks on three education reforms• Worring trends- Low all-level-enrolment: in 2001 64% (80% in thePhilippines, 64% in Indonesia, 64% in China and 64% in
the world, UNDP 2003)- enrolment rate at university level in Vietnam did notincrease: around 2% between 1980 and 1993 (1% to 4% in
China, World Bank 1997)- Adult illiteracy: 7.3%

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Remarks on three education reforms• the enrolment rate drops at all levels;• the gender enrolment disparity at university level is fairly

high and has widened in recent years;• children of high-income families enjoy some advantages
over children of lowincome families in secondary anduniversity education

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Challenges for the 4th education reform• Lack of resources for education• Low efficiency of resource utilization in the education

sector• Weakness of, and constraints on, teaching staff• Outdated and irrelevant syllabi, textbooks, and teaching
and assessment methods• Inappropriate management and organization in
universities for teacher training and educational research
institutes• Shortage of skilled teachers
One essential question
How to renovate the way of thinking, to escape from the socalled traditional ways of thinking and doing things, andespecially to avoid a piecemeal management style ?