EDUCATION IN VIETNAM
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Between 2000 and 2013, the portion of college-age Vietnamese enrolled at universities rose from 10 to 25 percent.
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Vietnam currently has 234 universities, and 185 junior colleges, with combined enrollment of nearly 600,000.
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Nearly 29,000 Vietnamese students are currently studying in the United States, mostly at colleges and universities. In 2015 Vietnam surpassed Japan and Taiwan to become the sixth largest provider of foreign students enrolled here.
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In 2012, Vietnam launched a National Foreign Language 2020 Project, with a goal of greatly increasing the teaching of English at all educational levels by the end of this decade.
EDUCATIONAL TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS
Since committing itself to developing a market economy in the 1990s, the government of Vietnam has been investing heavily in education at all levels. Programs have expanded to encompass a large portion of the society. As a result, over 98 percent of Vietnamese children now attend primary school, and 77 percent high school. At the university level, enrollment has doubled since 1990. Instruction in English is a central component of Vietnamese education, starting with compulsory classes at the primary level. There are extensive programs in ESL at both the primary and secondary levels, but opportunities remain limited for Vietnamese college and university students to develop their English speaking and writing skills so that they can take advantage of study-abroad opportunities and participate fully in the global economy. Teachers in our program are making this possible.