Another year has come and gone.... which means personally, more time spent in Vietnam. I have come to develop an attachment for this country, despite it's imperfections.

I just wanted to get some feedback/opinions as to which areas (as a nation) Vietnam needs to improve in, to continue her growth, modernisation and development; out of 'developing nation' status.

Which areas need to be tweaked, tuned or revamped...............

Education, political accountability, freedom of speech and opinion, legal system.

"HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- Lacking quality educational resources nationwide, the Vietnamese government has been forced to surrender its monopoly on schools and appeal to both domestic and foreign private investors to help save the country’s schools, reports Nguoi Viet. As a result of the lack of quality schools, ambitious parents are turning to private institutions like the Australian International School that opened in Ho Chi Minh City in September. The Melbourne Development Institute in Australia estimates that by 2015, private middle schools in Vietnam will enroll 3.5 percent of students, up from 1.8 percent, while four in 10 high schools will be privately run. RMIT International University Vietnam, created in 2001 by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, now has 3,600 students and aspires one day to welcome 10,000 students on campus. A quality education does not come cheap in Vietnam. An RMIT diploma costs from $4,600 to $18,000. The British International School charges between $9,200 and $12,600 for annual tuition."

^^ it's so weird that most nguoi viet articles about vietnam are negative, while most foreign renown journals like New York Times, Washington Post, WSJ, and other majors news all showed that Vietnam had been the most impressive country in Asia in 2006.

but its so true. btw, Vietnam Hoa Hau(Thuy) goes to RMIT.

I wonder where those foreign news get their info, from the CSVN officials?

If you go to vnexpress.net ect...., you see many similar articles and worse about Vietnam education system - cheating, teacher "hiep dzam hoc sinh" etc...

It's not really a matter of VN newspapers/news reports are more negative than foriegn sources, it's that VN sources are more direct to the point and probably more informed.

For example, foriegn papers only report from numbers or indicators which are published by official sources, and don't really spend any time or real research into local issues. Only when you live here for a reasonable time do you really realise and hear the reality of what is happening on the ground.

Education here is bad. RMIT knows this, and that's why they are pushing hard into VN, cause they know they can take advantage of this.....

Private Education might not be such a bad thing. I'm living here in Japan at the moment and the best high schools and middle schools are private (though the best university are public). Anyhow, let the market economy do a quick fix on Vietnam in the education sector. Competition between schools will surely drive up their quality. However, there needs to be a financial aid system in place to aid those who are really talented but cannot afford a quality education; this would also address some of the disparities that results in a capitalist economy between the rich and the poor. This scheme to invest in the education of its citizen would also allow Vietnam to increase the value of its human capital like Singapore and the other East Asian Tigers to substain economic growth.

My question is with privatised education how will the communist regime make sure that students are educated "properly" according to communist ideology...does the government not feel threaten? I suppose they can continue to try to brainwash people in higher education like they're doing now. I did visit some universities while in Vietnam to tallk to students and do research, and it's apparent there's some propaganda effort being made to shape the minds of students. However, Students are aware that they're being manipulated and they're very much intune to what's going on in the outside world. However, these students are not against the system but seems to want to work for peaceful reform within the system. Over 50% of the population right now was born after the war so they will have a great role to play in shaping the country's future.

Well, I do hope the regime make the best decision for the country's future over short-term desire to curb potential dissension. Maybe in this way the regime will insure its long term survival ....if it continues it track record of economic growth and does bring prosperity to the nation maybe even in a semi-democratic/democratic system the CP will retains its domainance like in Sigapore or Japan where one party dominates.

cai gi dday may cha noi

I'm sorry this is non-news. Who wrote this article? For example private schools in Hanoi, already existed in 1988. They opened up long time ago.

I agree with you here that there should be something in check with the education. I'm more confident that Vietnam won't let capitalism take a serious hold in Vietnamese society that the disparity will increase as rapid as other Southeast Asian countries. However, I would want to say that sometimes there should be a curb in the amount of students should pay for private education. One of the reason that Japan's population is declining is because of the expensive school tuition.


That's the beauty of it. I just hope that they will cancel communist ideology to be a mandatory subject in the university but it will be soon. Now, Vietnam's cooperating with big school US names liek Harvard to help them to create "international standard" colleges.


That's what I want too.

This is going to be one of the Best generation for Vietnam. I feel as if we are going to enter a new golden age.

But one thing I would like to improve is education.

Since 1988 ? I'm astounded ! I don't think so since the first private schools were kindergartens which were allowed to be privately held not before the mid 1990. And now, in Saigon, there is no junior private high school yet (except those for foreigner's children).

By the way, what is the name of the private school created by 1988 in Hanoi you mentionned ? I will send my sister, who is living there, to check out.

uhh yes there are plenty of them

vietnam needs to provide free condom machines to fight off aids and other std's

High school Lương Thế Vinh.

Dude...