Vietnam sees increasing investment in education over the past decade, according to a report by the Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences (VNIES)
The report analysing the education sector during 2011-2020 was released at a seminar in Hanoi on August 8, according to Vietnam News Agency.
According to the report, the investment in the education sector accounted for more than 18% of the total state budget expenditure, but was still lower than the set rate of 20%.
Talking about the outcomes of the analysis at the event, Prof. Dr. Le Anh Vinh, head of the institute, said Vietnam achieved impressive results in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international study that was launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1997. It now covers over 80 countries, the PISA survey provides comparative data on 15-year-olds’ performance in reading, mathematics and science every three years.
According to Vinh, in the 2012’s and 2015’s editions of the survey, the average score of Vietnamese students outperforms their OECD peers in all subjects, except reading comprehension.
On the quality of general education in Vietnam, the expert said primary education has been successful in equipping 5th graders with basic reading, writing and math skills. Specifically, 70-84% of grade 5 students met the minimum standards in mathematics (multiple choice test) and Vietnamese in the 2013-2014 academic year. However, secondary and high school students failed to maintain this ratio. In the same school year, only 45% of 9th graders met the math standards, with the rate being 53% for English. The rates for 12th graders in the 2014-2015 academic year were 52% and 40%, respectively.
At the undergraduate level, the number of students grew strongly in 2014, decreased slightly in 2018 and bounced back in 2019. In 2018, there were more than 108,000 students studying abroad, equal to 3.6% of Vietnam’s total. The percentage of university graduates also increased sharply in 2015 and 2016 and declined slightly in 2019.
In 2018, 65.5% students from 181 universities and 40 colleges secured jobs after graduation, Vietnam News Agency reported.