Vietnam’s approach to educational improvement: an analysis of national policy and perspectives from four provinces

• In Event: Tiger school: successes and challenges of the Vietnamese education system

Proposal

Vietnam has experienced dramatic economic growth since the 1990s. During the same period the Vietnamese government has made school education a priority. While it is impossible to measure how far education reform has been a ‘driver of economic growth’ it is important to understand better educational change in Vietnam and the way that the school system in Vietnam functions. The country’s schools attracted a great deal of attention following the results of OECD-PISA tests administered in 2012 and 2015. Vietnamese students participating in PISA did particularly well in science, although Vietnam was the poorest participating jurisdiction in terms of per capita income. The significance of the PISA results has been contested, with some commentators suggesting that there are considerable inequities within the Vietnamese school system. The PISA debate is another reason why Vietnam is worthy of investigation.

Education Development Trust and the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences have documented the long-term development of educational policy in Vietnam and analysed the functioning of the school system in four provinces. Our study took place over two years, using a mixed-methods approach. We conducted an extensive analysis of Vietnamese education policy over three decades, a survey of parental views and qualitative fieldwork in four contrasting provinces (Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Dinh and Ha Giang). Our qualitative fieldwork involved interviews and focus groups with education officials at national, provincial and local level, school principals, teachers, lecturers in pedagogical colleges and other education experts.

This presentation will explore the following key themes:

• Policy: We analyse the focus and the level of consistency of policy over the last three decades. We consider the way that international ‘best practice’ models have been interpreted by the Vietnamese authorities, and consider how national policies have been mediated at local level.
• Accountability: A marked characteristic of the Vietnamese system is the high level of professional accountability through different forms of in-school and external monitoring. We seek to explain how this works from the perspective of teachers and parents.
• Teachers and teaching: We describe teachers’ views about the nature of teacher professionalism and their unhappiness about pay levels. We discuss the way teachers and others perceive government attempts to change classroom practice in order to encourage more ‘student-centred’ pedagogical practice.
• School leadership: We consider the role of the school principal as the interface between the school community and the external authorities. We compare and contrast the concept of leadership in Vietnam schools with ‘western’ assumptions about empowered, autonomous school leaders.
• Parents: Government regulations give, at least in theory, a prominent role to parents in school governance. Under the terms of the controversial ‘socialisation’ policy, most parents are expected to make a financial or ‘in kind’ contribution to the resourcing of schools. We analyse stakeholder perceptions of the role of parents and the policy of socialisation.

Authors

• Tony McAleavy, Education Development Trust

• Thai Ha Tran, Vietnam Institute for Educational Sciences

• Rachael Fitzpatrick, Education Development Trust