According to a Vietnamese news resource, the financing of heart surgery for Vietnam’s needy children is entirely contingent upon contributions given by organizations or private individuals. As a result, only a small portion of Vietnam’s low income heart defective children are given free heart surgery.

A Vietnamese charitable organization also partnered with the Vietnam Youth Federation last month to implement a program titled: “Connect millions of hearts for Vietnamese poor children.” The program aims to gather financial resources for free heart surgery and other charitable causes for Vietnam’s lower income children. About 2,000 children are anticipated to receive free heart surgery between the 2013 and 2015 period, while offering 1 million additional medical examinations and heart disease screenings for children. The project will also provide nutrition support to 3,000 poor children, 50 charitable houses and 10 day boarding houses for needy children and adults. 

International charity organization Global Giving, one contributor to the country’s needy children, contends that heart disease is the most common birth defect around the world with 90% of children in developing countries having little access to necessary health care services.

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Azmil explained to Malaysian press, “there are many Vietnamese students in Malaysia, especially in private institutions of higher learning. However, there are virtually no Malaysian students here, except for a few from the Defense Ministry who are here to learn the language. Last year, we received about 500 visa applications from Vietnamese students. At the moment, there are about 2,800 Vietnamese students in Malaysia.” The memorandum of understanding is aimed to increase the number of Vietnamese students in Malaysia’s private higher learning institutions.

Muhyidden’s three day visit to Vietnam also addressed strategies to boost trade and “provide an opportunity for the business representatives to share their views on enhancing Malaysia-Vietnam economic ties,” and “currently, investment is largely from Malaysia to Vietnam, mostly in property development, oil and gas, and manufacturing,” said Azmil. Defense and security, and manpower and agriculture was also discussed.

Bilateral trade increased from US $6.6 billion in 2010 to over US $9 billion last year. The visit was scheduled during the 40th anniversary of the established diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Vietnam. 

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Released last week, the report consists of more than 70 articles commissioned from experts in the fields of corruption and education, from universities, think-tanks, businesses, civil society and international organisations. The aim is to show governments and civil society across the globe that corruption in education – from the primary school level to university – affects schooling at every level and in multiple ways.

According to Xioqing Yu, the Human Development Sector Director for the World Bank in East Asia and Pacific Region, social, behavioral, and critical thinking skills begin to form during childhood’s early stages of development; strengthening these areas provides the foundation for Vietnam’s social and economic progression.

Yu said “If you want to make education more equitable, if you want to enhance everyone’s chances to take advantage from Vietnam’s growing economy, if you want to tackle poverty – early childhood development and education is one of your most promising tools.”

The World Bank will provide $100 million USD to the project, meeting one of three breakthrough areas in Vietnam’s Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2011-2020.

A survey released during the project’s commencement revealed that almost half of Vietnam’s five year old children are lacking skills in at least one subject needed to begin schooling. Furthermore, the percentage of children who are not ready for school is highest in children from ethnic minorities and/or disadvantaged backgrounds.

The project will fund lunch subsidies for disadvantaged children aged 3-5 years to encourage classroom participation and attendance. Salaries and health insurance contributions will additionally be given to contracted preschool teachers to assist the existing staff. The project will also finance technical assistance, training costs, and operations to improve school facilities and future development. 

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The new GiapSchool will allow students to listen to lectures online, take tests, talk to instructors, and participate in group discussions. Anyone with internet access will be able to attend, and the system would potentially allow tens of thousands of students to access courses at the same time.

According to Dr. Duong, he founded the school in order to bring the latest education tools used in developed countries to Vietnam. He has said that the MOOC will be “open to anyone who loves to learn,” and will not provide a degree or certificate program.

The founding of GiapSchool has raised questions about the future of education among stakeholders in Vietnam. Some have suggested that the school should charge tuition in order to continue to fund the project. Several teachers have voiced concerns that the rise of MOOCs would eventually affect their jobs.

Still others have raised the issue of how to assess the quality of the online lectures, and whether the potential for copyright infringement exists.

Responding to questions about copyright, Dr. Duong stated that the instructors who produce the lectures would also own the copyrights. As far as the quality of the lectures, he said that there would be no third party to verify that, and instead students “would make their own assessment.”

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Child marriage is often tied to poverty and gender inequality. According to Tanushree Soni, a gender specialist with Plan International, child marriage usually affects girls more deeply than boys.

“Child marriage is closely associated with lower education and economic status of girls. Child brides are less able than older or unmarried girls to access schooling and income-generating opportunities,” says Soni.

In addition to robbing them of an education, child marriage often endangers girls’ health and lives due to early childbearing. Girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die from childbirth and pregnancy-related complications as older women.

In the rural Ha Giang province of Vietnam, 12-year-old May is already married. Nuan, 18, living in Bokeo Province in Laos, says she got married at age 15. In Timor-Leste, Isabel is married with a child at age 17.

Due to their changes in marital circumstances, none of the girls attend school any longer.

Research from Plan International found that in Ha Giang province, where May lives, only 17% of married girls complete their secondary education. 67% of married girls have never enrolled in school at all.

May says that she misses school and used to have dreams of becoming a teacher.

“I’m not happy, but because I am a girl, I cannot do anything to change this,” she says.

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Government standards limiting classrooms to 35 children were expanded to allow 60 students per class in Hanoi nursery schools due to overcrowding and demand. In the last three years, the government recruited approximately 31,000 teachers for nursery schools.  Local governments are required to finance any additional teacher salaries and school expenses from their limited budget.  There were 1300 semi-owned state schools that were transformed into state owned schools on the local state budget. Teachers accuse schools of Labor Code non-compliance, citing lack of periodic promotions, low wages and overtime work hours. Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Nyguyen Vinh Hien reported that “a high percentage of nursery school teachers now work under short term labor contracts.”

The Project of Universalizing Pre-school Education for Five-Year-Old Children was passed by the Vietnamese Prime Minister in the year 2010. The project sets the overall goal of enrolling 5-year-old children throughout Vietnam in two classes a day for a full school year in order to prepare them the first year of grade school.

According to a report by The Early Childhood Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, 298 out of 698 districts are under the universal preschool education plan in 63 cities and provinces. The government has made an investment of VND 14,660 billion (US$6.95 million) to build 11,600 classrooms equipped with toys, educational equipment, and trained teachers, in 86 national-standard pre-schools in disadvantaged lower income districts nationwide. However, the project, with a total estimated cost of VND480 trillion (US$22.8 billion), is in jeopardy due to “a shortage of funds.”

Currently, the number of pre-schoolers is 4 million.  There was an increase of 278,247 students from 2012.  A Vietnam Education Ministry report identified approximately 13,000 kindergartens with a need for 400 more classrooms. Recently, the Minister of Education and Training admitted before the National Assembly that, in the past, pre-school education received less attention than general education, a fact which, resulted in the current lack of teachers and classrooms.

The success of the Vietnam’s Project of Universalizing Pre-school Education for Five-Year-Old Children will depend on the government’s ability to meet current and future needs.

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The new program would set the same standards for the same professions in each country, so that vocational graduates could easily move across borders to find work. The move is part of a larger effort to prepare for the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

Dr. Chaiprug Sereerak, of Thailand’s Vocational Education Commission, said that eventually the new program should include all ten ASEAN member countries.

He noted that the plan would help solve many problems vocational colleges face in ASEAN nations. Currently vocational colleges are often underfunded and understaffed, and have a hard time attracting students. The proposed cooperation program, however, would mean that vocational programs in different countries would be able to share equipment and resources. In addition, the prospect of being able to use one’s degree to work abroad would entice new students.

Nouphanh Outsa, director general of the Department of Technical and Vocational Education in Laos, told The National that vocational education was important for all developing nations. He encouraged Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam to promote vocational training, increase the budget for vocational programs, and reduce tuition for students.

Better funded and expanded programs would mean that the thousands of vocational students in the ASEAN region would have increased chances of finding a good job after graduation.

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Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) together with UNESCO and Samsung have recently launched the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Initiative.

Deputy Minister of Education Nguyen Vinh Hien noted the challenges to Vietnam’s national development at a ceremony celebrating the launch of the program. He mentioned that Vietnam faces vulnerability to climate change, natural disasters, and biodiversity loss. As a response, this program will incorporate a training program with its content made into textbooks on sustainable development. This program is one way the Ministry is raising awareness on the issue: by engaging students’ interest and integrating the material into school curriculum, so that the future problem solvers have a strategic advantage on the problem.

The US$ 1 million two-year program is designed to develop, pilot, and distribute multimedia teacher-training material on Education for Sustainable Development. The initiative has three main objectives; one of them is to develop and implement “e-learning teacher training courses to strengthen teachers’ understanding of ESD and enhance their capacities to integrate it into classroom activities for primary students’ benefit and to lead the school community to develop disaster preparedness plans”.

Primary schools in Hue region, a part of the country that experiences detrimental effects of climate change, will pilot the teacher-training materials. 133 teacher training institutions and 63 provincial Departments of Education and Training will have access to the training material that is developed through initiative. The end goal is to have a disaster risk reduction and climate change response program for each of the participating pilot schools. Collaboration with international environmental agencies, national universities and other interested entities of the Vietnamese government is expected.

Vietnam is the first beneficiary of the Samsung-UNESCO ESD project. “We would like to share our experience in overcoming challenges and innovations in creating a bright and sustainable future with those children who will shape tomorrow,” said In Yong Thee, President and head of Samsung’s Communication Team.  Samsung will lend its technical expertise to the program as well. This development project, created by UNESCO and funded by Samsung, aims to improve Vietnam’s response to the effects of the environment for future generations.

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The Vietnamese government has decided to allocate 50 billion VND (US$2.35 million) for programs, policies, and projects which make education more accessible to Vietnam’s 53 ethnic minorities.

Son Minh Thang, Deputy Minister-Vice Chairman of the Government’s Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, says that the funding will be used for programs that aim to bring educational development training to ethnic minorities.  Officials also recognized the need to preserve the cultural identities of the nation’s rapidly growing ethnic groups while also providing equal educational opportunities to this portion of the population. They hope these programs will provide the resources necessary to support the economic development of minority groups and produce an well-educated student body.

Ethnic minorities like the Hmong, whose native language is Hmong, have found it difficult to keep pace with students’ whose first language is the national language: Vietnamese.  “The children could understand only about 60 percent of what I was saying,” one teacher explains. “The children did not enjoy school. They did not like to come.”  As a result, these students dropped out of school opting to enter the workplace at low-wage income jobs.  Many ethnic minorities continue to live in poverty.

Other initiatives have worked to improve the standards for Vietnam’s ethnic minorities.  A bilingual experiment has revealed  “remarkable differences in the learning outcomes,” announced Misue Uemura, chief of UNICEF Vietnam’s education section.  An increase in average scores of ethnic minority students in core subjects indicated the importance and benefit of “mother-tongue-based education”.

National officials have agreed that improving living standards and investing in the education and resources for its nation’s ethnic minorities will help resolve economically depressed sectors of the nation.  The government has reportedly issued many policies and measures to support ethnic minority communities and continues to use education to close the poverty gap between ethnic majority and the ethnic minority populations.

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