A little Vietnamese girl's cheerful face on the first day of a new school year. (Photo: VNA) The article noted that Vietnamese children go through one ofthe best schooling systems in the world, a status reflected in outstandingperformances in international assessments of reading, maths and science.
It cited the latest data from the World Bank which showsthat, on aggregate learning scores, Vietnamese students outperform not onlytheir counterparts in Malaysia and Thailand but also those in the UK andCanada, countries more than six times richer. Even in Vietnam itself, studentscores do not exhibit the scale of inequality so common elsewhere between thegenders and different regions.
The author assessed that the distinctive secret of Vietnam’sstellar performance lies in the classroom: its children learn more at school,especially in the early years.
The article cited a 2020 study by Abhijeet Singh of theStockholm School of Economics, which gauged the greater productivity ofVietnam’s schools by examining data from identical tests taken by students inEthiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. Accordingly, between the ages of five andeight Vietnamese children race ahead. One more year of education in Vietnamincreases the probability that a child can solve a simple multiplicationproblem by 21 percentage points; in India the uplift is six points.
Vietnamese schools, unlike those in other poor countries,have improved over time, said the paper. The biggest reason is the calibre of localteachers, it noted, adding that they are not necessarily better qualified but simplymore effective at teaching.
“Vietnam’s teachers do their job well because they arewell-managed. They receive frequent training and are given the freedom to makeclasses more engaging. To tackle regional inequality, those posted to remoteareas are paid more. Most important, teacher assessment is based on theperformance of their students.”
In addition, it wrote that provinces are required to spend 20% of their budgets oneducation, which has helped regional equity. That the Communist Party of Vietnam pays such close andrelentless attention also ensures that policies are adjusted to updatecurriculums and teaching standards.
“All this has reaped rich rewards. As schools have improved,so has Vietnam’s economy,” concluded the article./.
VNA
