Young Lives Policy Brief 4. Education for All in Vietnam: high enrolment, but problems of quality remain
Abstract
Vietnam recognises the need to improve both access to education and quality. It has adopted the Dakar Education for All (EFA) Framework for Action - an initiative with greater focus on quality than those set out in the Millennium Development Goals. Vietnam's National EFA Action Plan sets out a pathway to advance key components of the education system by 2015: early childhood care and pre-school, primary, lower-secondary and non-formal education.
The Young Lives project - a long-term study tracking the well-being of 3,000 children in Vietnam and three other countries, over a period of 15 years - has identified the following challenges in improving education quality and ensuring equity:
- low basic skills acquisition
- a narrow focus on scholastic achievement by teachers who have been trained using traditional teaching methods which fail to encourage interactive learning
- over-reliance on private tuition
- under-investment in education 'software' - curricula, teacher training, classroom resources and educational materials
- limited early child development (ECD) coverage
- unequal access to education for poor, disabled and ethnic minority children
- children failing to perform well due to inadequate nutrition.
These challenges are discussed in this policy brief.
Citation
Young Lives, Oxford, UK, 8 pp.
Links