Education in Vietnam has 5 levels: preschool, primary school, secondary school, high school and higher education. Formal education consists of 12 years of basic education -5 years of primary education, 4 years of intermediate education and 3 years of secondary education.
Vietnam's main educational goal is improving its people’s general knowledge, training quality human resources and nurturing and fostering talent. Vietnam is looking at revamping its education system to prepare students for the increasing role of English as the language of business and the importance of internationalizing the education system to maintain the rapid economic growth of the last 20 years.
There are 4 types of educational establishments:
- Public education, established and monitored by the State, which appoints the administrators, decides staff quota, invests in infrastructure and allocates funding.
- Semi-public education, set up by the State on the basis of mobilizing organizations and individuals in the society to jointly invest in infrastructure.
- People-founded education, where social or economic organizations apply for State permission to set up an institution with non-State budget capital.
- Private education, where individuals or groups of individuals apply for State permission to set up and invest in the institution by themselves.
A school year has two semesters - the first semester begins in late August and ends some time before Tết, the Vietnamese New Year occurring in late January or early February, while the second semester begins right after the first one and lasts until June.
Children normally start primary education at the age of 6. The primary level grades and the typical ages of the students are as follows:
1st Grade - 6 to 7 years old
2nd Grade - 7 to 8 years old
3rd Grade - 8 to 9 years old
4th Grade - 9 to 10 years old
5th Grade - 10 to 11 years old
The country's literacy rate is over 90%. Vietnam has some 15,200 primary schools and more than 600 combined primary and lower secondary schools. The total enrollment is more than 7 million pupils, of whom close to 50% were girls.
The primary education curriculum in Vietnam is divided into two phases as follows:
- Phase 1 includes Grades 1, 2 and 3 with 6 subjects: Vietnamese Language, Mathematics, Morality, Nature and Society, Arts and Physical Education.
- Phase 2 includes Grades 4 and 5 with 9 subjects: Vietnamese Language, Mathematics, Morality, Science, History, Geography, Basic Techniques, Music, Arts and Physical Education.
