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Vietnamese parents spend over 10 hours weekly with child’s homework: survey.

Vietnamese parents spend on average 10 hours each week helping their children with homework, only second to Indian parents who put in 12 hours, a new global survey revealed.

The Global Parents’ Survey found that half of Vietnamese parents asked said they devoted more than seven hours each week to their child’s education, more than any other country surveyed apart from India at 62 percent.

Overall, parents in emerging economies generally devoted much more time to homework than their counterparts in richer countries, Varkey Foundation, which surveyed 27,380 parents across 29 countries concluded.

In addition, Vietnamese parents are the most satisfied, joint with Mexico and Argentina, of all those surveyed with the amount of help they’re giving their children, with 67 percent saying the hours they’re putting in are about right.

The phenomenon reflects the widely known fact that most Vietnamese parents prize their children’s education , considered a ticket to a successful career, above all else.

“Vietnamese parents can sacrifice everything, sell their houses and land just to give their children an education,” Vietnam’s education minister Phung Xuan Nha said at a conference in 2016.

And the statistics are telling. Academic pressure is the top anxiety 54 percent of Vietnamese parents have about their child at school, the second highest in the world after Singapore (56 percent) and much higher than the global average (30 percent), the report said.

Other top concerns for Vietnamese parents are their children’s personal safety (43 percent) and mental wellbeing (42 percent).

But when it comes to improving Vietnamese schools, most parents, 57 percent, want additional funding directed to extra-curricular activities, the third highest in the world, followed by buildings and other facilities (49 percent).

Interestingly, while only 41 percent of Vietnamese parents would want additional funding to go to teachers’ pay, 58 percent consider quality of teaching the most important factor when choosing their child’s school, the third highest among the surveyed countries.

Overall, Vietnamese parents appear to be optimistic about their child’s future. Seventy percent of them believe their child’s school is preparing them well for the world of 2030 and beyond, well above the global average of 64 percent, the survey said.

That is in stark contrast to the bleak picture painted by the World Economic Forum, which named Vietnam among countries least prepared for Fourth Industrial Revolution as it ranks low in terms of education, among other factors like human resources, innovation and technology.

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Insider’s guide to studying in vietnam as international students.

Vietnam is one of the kinds of countries that have emerged strongly on the world map in the last decade. Its growing economy, vast industrialization, incredibly increasing per capita income, and substantial investment inflows into the country make it a fascinating destination for students to study.

Studying in Vietnam as an International Student

The country’s breathtaking landscapes, tropical weather, and friendly environment make this country a top study-abroad destination. You don’t want to miss out on such an affordable, student-friendly, adventurous study-abroad country for sure. Here is why studying in Vietnam will be one of the best decisions of your life. Additionally, different online academic assistance services are there for students needing less-than-an-hour services, look up “ write my essay in one hour ”. The top-notch facilities became the reason for scholars to study in Vietnam. Let’s uncover the same in detail and underpin our decision to study abroad.

Why International Students Should Study in Vietnam

Different individuals have different reasons for choosing this country to pursue their higher education, such as:

• Fascinating heritage and breathtaking views: Whether you’re a fan of living in the countryside or enjoying the city’s active life, this country has it all. The mesmerizing coastlines and the beautiful plantations reaching the borders of Cambodia and China are a treat to every eye. Regarding friendly people and vibrant cultures, Ho Chi Minh is at the top of mind. The city’s extravaganza skyscrapers and botanical gardens are something you can’t ignore to admire. So, if you ever want to chill out and wonder who can write your essay in one hour, remember professional writing help is just a few clicks away.
• Making new friends: One of the many reasons for studying abroad is to learn new customs and languages and make friends who have an entirely different background than yours. When it comes to student exchanges in Vietnam, people are known for their friendliness. So, the chances of making great local friends are pretty high. Making international friends allows you to learn new things. From fresh food choices to a new language, you learn quite a few exciting things.

Educational Institutions in Vietnam

Want to study foreign trade? The Foreign Trade University (FTU) is one of the top universities in Vietnam. Besides, its satellite campus also offers Logistics, International Finance, Economics, and International Business Management studies. This university has not only received recognition within the country but also in Asia. Apart from FTU, there are other recognized universities that offer a range of educational programs.

Other universities, medical institutes, engineering colleges, and law colleges are well-known in the educational and academic communities. The country has a list of public and private state-of-the-art universities and colleges. Most of the programs are designed in the English language. Furthermore, Vietnamese study abroad in different exchange programs from these national and regional institutions

The famous national universities include Hanoi University and The Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. At the same time, the regional universities include Da Nang University and Hue University.

Read more about Vietnam’s Education System

Studying in Vietnam Is an Inexpensive Solution

The first thing that comes to mind with studying abroad is the high expense. However, not many people do enough research to find out the reality. The cost of living in Vietnam in US dollars is surprisingly affordable. The traveling expenses are also very cheap as compared to other educational destinations, especially for international students. Whether you would like to stay under a budget and lavish on some necessities such as housing and shopping, most major cities in Vietnam, like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, can cover all of your needs.

Cultural Vibrancy in Vietnam is Full of Wonders

Vietnamese culture is a beautiful amalgamation of the old and new exciting traditions. Its rich cultural spectrum explains why it’s appealing to many students to study abroad in Vietnam. The influence of Chinese culture is dominant, yet the core Vietnamese cultural patterns remain incredibly vibrant. Foreign cultures are also prevalent in the lifestyles of the people in this country.

What’s most remarkable is the food culture, which blends their traditional kitchen recipes with the influences of both Western and Asian cuisines. It is safe to say that you can observe the beautiful background of Vietnam and get to taste and smell its culture via its exquisite dishes.

If you’re curious about Vietnamese food, read more about the Best Vietnamese Dishes You Must Try When in Vietnam

Vietnam Is a Dream Travel Destination

Semester breaks are going to be exciting. Another aspect that makes this country unique is its scope of travel, regardless of whether you’re a resort aficionado or an adventure enthusiast. The long and narrow terrain that borders the South China Sea has a lot of travel opportunities to offer from north to south. The traveling perspective includes fascinating beaches and trekking through rural villages and ancient towns like Hoi An and Hue. There is a wide range of cuisines to offer that change with the place where you are. If you’re looking for a change of scenery, visit other South Asia tourism hubs from Vietnam, namely the nearby hotspots, including Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and so on.

See How to Spend Your Gap Year in Vietnam

Moreover, the country’s tropical weather makes it even more attractive to visit and stay. It is mostly defined as two monsoon seasons, i.e., summer monsoon and winter monsoon. The southern part usually remains calm all the year, whereas the northern side witnesses seasonal variations.

Yes, it is that exciting. Haven’t you fallen in love with Vietnam yet? We’re sure this Vietnam information for students will be useful when you arrive. So, don’t miss out on this lifetime opportunity to concomitantly explore and study. Surely, this place will leave you mesmerized for the rest of your life.

More Vietnam Travel Guides

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Washington Monthly

What I Learned Teaching Students In Vietnam

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April marks the 46th anniversary of the last Americans’ desperate escape from Saigon. The helicopter used to prosecute what the Vietnamese call the “American War” became the iconic vehicle of our ultimate retreat, as it ferried diplomatic and military personnel off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), escaping the North Vietnamese in 1975.

I have been honored, along with many colleagues from my “Hardball” years, to be engaged in recent weeks in a very different endeavor in Vietnam. It’s to tell the young people of that country what we can about our democracy. My new role is that of a Visiting Professor at Fulbright University Vietnam. The topic of my recent series of lectures is “American political communication.”

Many of you may be aware of the much treasured and coveted Fulbright grants for Americans to study abroad. The late Senator William J. Fulbright of Arkansas was an early skeptic of the Vietnam War who took on his own party’s president, Lyndon Johnson, to use the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to reveal the mess U.S. intervention had become.

Fulbright Vietnam University is based in Ho Chi Minh City and is the nation’s first nonprofit, independent college. As Barack Obama put it in 2016, “Students, scholars, researchers will focus on public policy and management and business; on engineering and computer science; and liberal arts—everything from the poetry of Nguyen Du, to the philosophy of Phan Chu Trinh, to the mathematics of Ngo Bao Chau.”

Teaching this wide-ranging class by Zoom has given me the chance to bring together a broad array of well-known U.S. professionals whose words comprise our country’s 24/7 conversation. This is not an exercise in memory or contrition. Vietnam is a huge country, bigger than most Americans realize. Its population approaches 100 million, far greater than Germany, Iran, or South Korea. Our two countries need to understand each other not only because of our shared past but because of the present and the future, where an assertive China raises challenges to us both.

The group of guest lecturers has included reporters, opinion columnists, TV commentators, ad writers, speechwriters, pollsters, and political show producers. Most of them are familiar voices on political discussion programs. Each of them has joined the Fulbright class to describe what they do, how they do it—and why.

What’s struck me most these weeks has been the generosity of my guest lecturers, most of whom became my colleagues during my twenty-plus years hosting “Hardball.”

Just as impressive has been the curiosity the Vietnamese students have shown toward what these Americans have had to share with them, how a vibrant democracy like ours actually functions.

I have been surprised again and again by how attuned the students are to American topics. One wanted to know more about why James Bennet was removed as editorial page editor by the  New York Times  for running a column by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton. (Frankly, I do, too.) Another student raised the Times ’s “1619 Project” that places America’s founding at the introduction of African slaves in Virginia rather than at the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Heading up the lectures, it quickly became clear to me that members of my class were keeping up with the U.S. on a steady, real-time basis and not just cramming before class. Several wanted to know what I and my guest lecturers thought about Twitter’s decision to ban Donald Trump. Many had concerns about stories of violence against Asian Americans.

I had one goal from my first meeting with the class: There was to be no pro-American propaganda. We were to tell what we knew of American democracy the same way Abraham Lincoln wanted his story told: warts and all. And on the other side, I was glad that the course wasn’t punctured by Communist agitprop. The truth was that the students, most of whom were born 20 years after the end of the “American War,” had no interest in relitigating it. They wanted to understand America not as a mortal enemy or cause of a deep national scar, but as what is still the most powerful nation on earth.

It’s for this reason that I chose as our first lecture the American emotional reaction to the events of January 6 rather than some stars-and-stripes boast of how great we are. Here I was following the Bobby Kennedy rule to “hang a lantern on your problem.” It would offer an honest picture of our country’s democratic vulnerable condition, maybe our own equivalent to the helicopter on the roof as our leaders like Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi had to be rushed to safety. I wanted to do that by showing a pair of journalists’ deeply personal feelings as they watched the U.S. Capitol being invaded.

For this reason, I picked Howard Fineman and Margaret Carlson to serve as guest lecturers. I thought they would do the best job, as magazine writers, to get across the national emotion of that day, the mix of shock and sadness that, even after the Trump years, they, like the rest of us, didn’t have the tragic imagination to see coming.

What I loved most about the course at Fulbright University Vietnam, which was founded with the strong backing of veterans of the war John Kerry, John McCain, Bob Kerrey, and others, was the chance to bring Americans along as guest lecturers.

Jon Meacham spoke about the history of political communication from Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” to today’s social media. He offered a good reminder that incendiary tracts aren’t something new. He had great stories of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 when reporters hit the railroad, then lucky if it went 30 mph, to get transcripts back to their papers.

Frank Fahrenkopf, who co-chairs the Commission on Presidential Debates, talked about the role modern presidential debates have played in our culture. In 1960, for the 100 th  anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas presidential race, the debates were resurrected, and we’ve had them steadily since 1976. The idea of open jousting between candidates of different parties was a very American idea that the Vietnamese students devoured. Pollster Fred Yang told of how the debates can sway an election.

We had a great panel to discuss what constitutes “the news.” It included Joy Reid, Yamiche Alcindor, Jonathan Allen, and former “Hardball” executive producer Ann Klenk.

In Vietnam, this is decided by the government. How does it work in a democratic country? Why, for example, does the latest on the British royal family get top billing while little is reported on the horrors in Myanmar? One Vietnamese student suggested it was Americans’ interest in news from its “mother country” as opposed to that from “inferior, incomprehensible” cultures. There’s something to that, perhaps, but the attention lavished on Meghan and Harry also showed that we have the luxury of following every tidbit of gossip from the rich and glamorous.

Joe Scarborough talked about the nature of morning news programming. Charlie Cook explained how the Cook Report conducts its unique, essential work on elections.

Journalists Chuck Todd, Michael Schmidt, Heidi Przybyla, and Eli Stokols were excellent in a class on objective reporting. A student raised concern about politicians who make charges against “fake news.” “What can we do to restrain powerful leaders from using the same strategy, such as when Trump says that the media is lying or when Putin and Xi Jinping censor the media?” Keep telling the truth, they said, and I agree.

A number of students said our lectures encouraged them to be more critical in their reading of the news, better able to avoid buying into conspiracy theories. If that’s some of what they took away, I’m glad. The students seemed genuinely open-minded about what worked in our system and what didn’t.

I wanted to show how social media could be used positively in today’s politics. As an example, I had my Fulbright University teaching assistant, Katie Cunningham, describe Senator Edward Markey’s upset primary victory over Congressman Joe Kennedy III and how he used viral messages to become, as a septuagenarian, the cool candidate in the race.

To talk about political advertising itself, we had Steve McMahon, a noted Democratic media consultant, and Gerald Rafshoon, whose TV ads were credited with bringing Jimmy Carter to the White House. American TV political ads are the wild west, not only for countries like Vietnam but also in Europe where there’s much more regulation on how and when ads can be used, so the idea of the Daisy ad implying Barry Goldwater would drop a nuclear weapon or a spot introducing an unknown former Georgia governor to a national audience was new terrain for my students.

For a class on opinion, I assembled colleagues I knew to be outspoken commentators—Ron Reagan, Michael Steele, Donna Edwards, and Jonathan Capeheart. Ron was especially compelling when he described how he first realized he saw things differently than his famous presidential father. I tried to imagine Ho Chi Minh’s progeny turning to capitalism.

The historians Michael Beschloss and Douglas Brinkley joined me to discuss the lessons of history or the lack thereof. What did we learn—or fail to learn—from the American war in Vietnam? Why didn’t this protect us from the decision to invade Iraq? And were we the only ones with collective amnesia?

Why, after the disgrace of interning Japanese Americans in World War II, did an American president scapegoat the Chinese for the coronavirus? Asked and answered, I suppose. We’re still a country that can meet crises with prejudice as well as heroism.

We ended the month with speechwriting. Having been one myself, I wanted to discuss the role of speeches in directing American politics. We looked at Lincoln’s second inaugural, FDR’s “fear itself,” Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic convention and the power of words, the elegant simplicity of a leader, and a microphone.

What are the tasks in writing a speech for a political leader? It’s not easy, even if it looks that way. For this, we had seasoned professionals. Rick Hertzberg (President Carter), Bob Shrum (Senator Edward Kennedy), Mary Kate Cary (President George H.W. Bush), and Washington Monthly Editor-in-Chief Paul Glastris (President Clinton). It was a real reminder to me that for all the changes and developments in American politics, fundraising, and micro-targeted media and data analysis, the speech still matters.

Teaching these classes to Vietnamese students, with fellow Americans, has been an education in itself. The great irony is that we were once at war. Today, we are engaged in a cause far more hopeful: to understand each other.

Chris Matthews

Chris Matthews has worked as a political aide, author, broadcast host, and journalist. He is the author of This Country: My Life in Politics and History and Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked . He is a senior fellow at The Charles F. Kettering Foundation.

An Emerging Dragon: Vietnamese Education After Resolution 29

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• First Online: 09 February 2022

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• Anh Vinh Le   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8100-9303 5 ,
• Puyuan Han 5 ,
• Maw Maw Khaing   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4907-7941 6 &
• Olivia Farrar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7823-5083 7  

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In the years since its independence in 1975, Vietnam has experienced much political, social, economic, and educational change. Multiple comprehensive reforms over the past few decades have served to transform Vietnam from a country of war into an “emerging dragon” across all social and economic sectors, including education. In 2013, Vietnam passed one of the most significant pieces of education legislature in the country’s history: Resolution 29, a fundamental and comprehensive education reform that put the development of Vietnam’s education system at the top of socioeconomic development plans. This chapter accounts for the major changes of Vietnam education system after Resolution 29, including the country’s “success formula” as well as its lapses. It makes further recommendations for educational policymakers and educators in Vietnam regarding the role of the education sector in the coming ever-disruptive social and economic context.

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Overview of Education in Vietnam

The Education System of Venezuela

5.1 Introduction

The developmental progress of Vietnam has evolved from an education system struggling with the long, brutalizing post-war conflicts to one that made the headlines in worldwide newspapers for leading other countries in international academic contests and assessments. In its first attempt to participate in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012, Vietnamese youths topped those from OECD countries, ranking 17th in mathematics, 8th in science, and 19th in reading out of 65 participating nations. Three years later, in the 2015 PISA, the average score of Vietnam was 32 points above the OECD average (while staying in top 10 worldwide in science)—equivalent to about one full year of schooling. Overall, given its top position in the PISA average score ranking and international academic competitions, Vietnam represents an impressive success story for the effects of efficient investment in education (Kataoka et al., 2020 ).

On November 4th, 2013, Vietnam passed one of the most significant pieces of education legislature in the country’s history: Resolution 29, a fundamental and comprehensive reform of the education system. Resolution 29 was guided by the principle that investments in education result in long-term investments in economic development, and thus put Vietnam’s education system at the top of socioeconomic development plans. Beginning in 2013, national and local governments unrolled a series of reforms based around a small number of linked key policy levers: targeted investment, a changed curriculum and pedagogy, and a focus on teacher quality.

This chapter provides an analysis of the reform implementation through Fernando Reimers’ five perspectives of educational changes (Reimers, 2020 ), as well as its outcomes and challenges.

The analysis utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data, including several primary sources directly obtained from the Vietnamese government. Our interpretation of the stated goals and objectives of Resolution 29 derives largely from the official document. We have also summarized data derived from the reports of international organizations (including UNESCO and the World Bank), and academic papers about the results of Resolution 29. The most recent 2020 Vietnam Education Sector Analysis report (MOET, 2020 ) has informed the bulk of our findings regarding statistical measures of educational attainment and performance in Vietnam since Resolution 29, as it is the most current and comprehensive review of the relevant data.

To supplement our analysis of these papers and findings, we conducted interviews with five leading officials from the Vietnamese education system, including Director/Vice Director Generals of several departments from Ministry of Education and Training and formal Director General of Vietnam Insitute of Educational Sciences. Although we had access to a great deal of information, the lack of quanitative data for ethnic minorities and students with special needs was inevitable. Interviews with senior managers in the education system will help us to fill in this missing information. Besides, these interviews provide invaluable reflections on the implementation and effectiveness of Resolution 29 and inform future directions for educational policy in Vietnam.

5.2 Country Context

To fully understand the impact of Resolution 29, it is first necessary to contextualize our discussion within the political, geographic, demographic, social, macroeconomic, and labor market environments which have affected the Vietnamese education sector over the last two decades. These factors, while external to the immediate education system, shape the development of education demand and supply.

Historically, Vietnam has gone through five waves of education reform in the last several decades. In the first wave, which lasted roughly from 1945 to 1954, Vietnamese education reforms were framed around fighting poverty and illiteracy. Before the country’s liberation in 1945, the educational system was under French colonial control, and only 5% of the population was literate (MOET, 2020 ). The second wave of reform took place during the Vietnam War, when the country was temporarily divided; the main objectives during this period of conflict were to expand the school network and to establish modern universities (Duggan, 2001 ) . Following the end of the war in 1975, the third major educational reform focused on curriculum unification between the North and the South of the country (MOET, 2020 ). The literacy rate rose to 84% by 1980, and rates continued to increase throughout the 1980s as the government approved new textbooks for all grades over the country through an intensive anti-illiteracy campaign (MOET, 2020 ).

Until the mid-1990s, Vietnam’s national education system was divided into a four-tiered system. This system consisted of (1) pre-school education; (2) general education; (3) vocational education; and (4) higher education (Duggan, 2001 ). This system was highly fragmented and has since been revised to enable significant growth in general secondary education. Primary schools and lower secondary schools were combined, and these systems have now become separate. Despite many improvements to the education system during this period, severe funding shortages constrained the size and quality of the education system. The fourth wave of reform began in 1986, with the passage of the major national reform ‘Doi Moi,’ a major national reform that switched the country’s economy from a centrally planned system to socialist-oriented market. The biggest achievement in this period was the general expansion of universal education; within the first nine years of the reform, general education grew to 98% enrollment for primary schools and 84% for lower secondary schools (MOET, 2020 ) .  Higher education also witnessed a period of growth, with the number of postsecondary students tripling from 1998 to 2011 (Duggan, 2001 ) .

Politically, Vietnam is a socialist country. Central legislative authority rests with the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and executive authority rests with line ministries and agencies. At the local level, each tier of government has People’s Councils and People’s Committees for the conduct of provincial legislative and executive authority. The implementation of Resolution 29 was significant in terms of unifying the objectives of Vietnam’s central governing body, the National Assembly. Fundamental and comprehensive changes in education often require changes in political viewpoints, and require coordination between ideas and people, stakeholders and resources, politics and political implementation. Since educational change impacts all levels of society, reform also often results in changes in political leadership and/or administration. As stated in the Resolution 29, “Education is the top priority, the cause of the Communist Party, the Government and the people.” Despite this stated emphasis, the Resolution also acknowledged the government’s shortfalls in reaching its stated mission.

Indeed, the Resolution attributed weaknesses in the existing educational system to political and administrative shortfalls. The Resolution emphasized that strengthening political leadership goes hand in hand with effective policy execution and called for stronger involvement of the Communist Party in the education system. Politically, the reform represented a unifying force between government and society, connecting the aims of education with both the State and the people.

The current economic climate in Vietnam is robust, and favorable for sustained investment in education. Since the Doi Moi era in the 1980s, strict commitment to macroeconomic stability and extensive market reforms have helped the country to achieve rapid and inclusive economic growth (IMF, 2017 ). To facilitate modernization, there has been a labor market shift towards high-skilled jobs. As we will see, Resolution 29 sought to expand economic investment in Vietnam’s education system and to suggest policies for training the labor force. In the lead-up to Resolution 29, education was reprioritized as essential for both social and economic development and as a vehicle for supporting  Doi Moi .

Geographically, the size and shape of Vietnam has had a substantial impact on its demographics. The population is unevenly distributed from one region and province to another, with the greatest number of people living in the cities. Urbanization is on the rise, primarily fueled by migrations in the population cohorts of students and working age individuals, who move to the cities in search of education and job opportunities in more dynamic economic zones. The average annual population growth rate in urban areas from 2009 to 2019 was 2.6% per year, over twice as high as the average annual national population growth rate, and nearly six times higher than what was observed in rural areas (MOET, 2020 ). These disparities in population density across the country have a direct impact on school organization and related operating costs (MOET, 2020 ).

Furthermore, migration trends in the country are currently balanced by population shifts, including a demographic transition and declining population .  From 2009 to 2019, the percentage of total population within the 15–65 age-group declined by 1.1%, accounting for 68.0% of the total population. Based on the same 2019 data, the proportion of the population under 15 years old and 60 years and older represented 24.3% and 7.7%, respectively (MOET, 2020 ). While these relative cohort sizes create a demographic window of opportunity for the country (one working age person for half a dependent) it also results in a ‘thinned’ population pyramid at the lower tiers—meaning that, alongside increased life expectancy rates and lower fertility rates, the country will have a large aging population to care for in the future. While a shrinking population eases the overall pressure on the education system and allows Vietnam to benefit from a positive demographic dividend in the immediate context, the shift presents major challenges for the future.

Socially, Vietnam has experienced significant improvements in key social indicators over the last decade, creating a particularity conducive environment for educational demand. However, stark regional, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities prevail, ultimately affecting schooling systems. Rates of poverty in the country dropped precipitously from the period of 2002–2018, falling from over 70% to less than 6% (MOET, 2020 ). Literacy rates have been on the rise, with the most recent censuses indicating that around 96% of all Vietnamese people aged 15 and over can read and write (MOET, 2020 ). Vietnam has also made remarkable achievements in health care and disease prevention, especially for children; this is reflected by infant and maternal mortality rates, which have rapidly decreased in the last two decades (MOET, 2020 ). These markers of increased quality of living have created a fertile environment for the Vietnamese education system.

5.3 The Reform

We can identify five major problems when assessing the Vietnamese education system before 2013. This analysis is based largely around internal reports obtained from the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training.

The first problem is that Vietnamese education is still heavy in theory, and there is a lack of practice. This is true across grades and subjects, in which teachers and students focused more on rote learning rather than actual understanding. In addition, high-stake exams have led to teaching and learning that revolves almost entirely around exams, rather than imparting skills and lifestyle ethics to students. The concept of “comprehensive education” has not translated into school practice. Ineffective career-guidance programs have also led to a high dropout rate in high schools.

The second problem conerns equity. Vietnam has done a great job in improving equality in education but there are still many things that remain to be done. Vietnam has achieved the goal of universal primary education since 2000 and universalization of lower secondary education since 2010. There is no gender inequality in access to basic education (primary and lower secondary education department). Enrollment rates for ethnic minority students and children with special needs were quite good at the primary level but fell sharply at the secondary levels. In provinces with difficult conditions, the percentage of students continuing to study after lower secondary school is very low, affecting the quality of local human resources.

The third problem is that Vietnam’s education system is fragmented and poorly connected. The lack of linkage between levels and levels of education makes it difficult to separate flows. Formal education and continuing education are also disconnected. The national qualification framework between training levels has not yet been established.

The fourth problem is the outdated teaching and assessment methods. Teaching and learning methods are mainly on transmission of knowledge, which cannot promote initiative and creativity in teachers and learners. The existing forms of assessment only focus on results and knowledge, rather than assessing the progress and capacity of learners. Students are participating in plenty of summative assessments but not so much on formative feedback.

The fifth problem is the administrative mechanism of education. Provisions on decentralization between central and local levels are not clear. Educational institutions, especially higher education institutions, do not have appropriate mechanisms for autonomy.

The final issue is the lack of quality teachers and administrators. In recent decades, the supply of teaching staff in Vietnam has been insufficient in both quantity and quality to keep pace with the demand of institutions and students. Given the size of the sector in 2012, it was estimated that the system had a shortfall of ten thousand teachers. Besides, the quality of teachers and administrators also shows signs of decline. For a long time, teacher education did not attract good students. The cut-off for entering universties of education are relatively low, leading to poor quality new teachers. Quality was an even greater issue within high education facilities, with less than 20% holding a doctorate in the same year.

The shortage in quantity and quality of teaching staff can be explained by the consistently low income in the education sector. Even though the largest share of government expenditure on education is put towards staff compensation—which is common in the education sector, where teachers make the biggest percentage of state officials and are prioritized by the Government in terms of welfare and benefits—the average monthly salary of educators in Vietnam were not competitive when considered against workers from other sectors.

Given the transitional context of the Vietnamese economy within worldwide movements towards globalization, another comprehensive reform was pivotal to the country’s socioeconomic development. Thus, a theory of action for the 2013 educational reform addresses these five problems, building off weaknesses to create opportunity. The fundamental and comprehensive education reform in Vietnam thus creates an environment for positive change in Vietnam generally, equipping the young generations with the tools to advance socio-economic development into the future.

5.3.1 Key Solutions

Broadly, Resolution 29 proposed eight key solutions to address the challenges affecting the Vietnamese education system: (i) Enhancing innovation in education management; (ii) Promoting teachers and education managers’ development; (iii) Innovating content and teaching methods, examination, testing and education assessment; (iv) Increasing investment of resources and renewing education finance distribution mechanism; (v) Strengthening the linkage between universities and the labor market as well as scientific research and technology transfer to meet societal needs; (vi) Fostering educational development for disadvantaged areas, ethnic minorities and social policy beneficiaries; (vii) Promoting education science; and (viii) Expanding and improving the effectiveness of international cooperation in education.

5.3.1.1 Enhancing Innovation in Education Management

Resolution 29 implemented several key reforms in state and educational management. Some of the main policies included administrative decentralization, especially by allowing local educational agencies to participate in deciding the personnel, finance, and administration of institutions of preschool education, compulsory education, and vocational education.

5.3.1.2 Promoting Teachers and Education Managers’ Development

To keep pace with the demand of institutions and students, Resolution 29 determinedthat the teaching force should be increased at all levels, and teacher professional development should be emphasized. Since most teachers in Vietnam were undertrained to practice the changes in curriculum, pedagogical methods, and testing that were put in place with the educational overhaul of Resolution 29, Vietnam has developed various teacher training programs via in-site training courses as well as online platforms (WB, 2016 ).

5.3.1.3 Innovating Content and Teaching methods, Examination, Testing and Education Assessment

Resolution 29 made important statements regarding the purpose of education, especially in terms of aligning Vietnam with twenty-first century goals. The reform emphasized the importance of educational innovation at all levels, from system down to individual. It addressed social and emotional learning (SEL), soft skills, and civic learning, and promoted policies to develop “personality, ethics, lifestyle, law, and citizen’s awareness.” Social and emotional learning is an integral part of effective schooling at all levels and has become a cornerstone of educational reform worldwide in the last decade. Resolution 29 recognized and emphasized the importance of SEL, attempting to orient education towards valuing learners’ capacity and personal qualities. Cultural learning was stressed in the reform, especially in terms of aligning educational goals with fundamental cultural values (including Marxism and the ideology of Ho Chi Minh) and traditional customs and morality. Provisions for physical education, civic education (national defense and security), and practical education (career advice and financial knowledge) were also reaffirmed.

Resolution 29 prioritized revamping educational assessments at all levels of education. Some of the policies included within this general reform effort included: (1) Reducing pressure for exams in secondary schools, especially those designed for admission to vocational schools and universities; (2) Improving the assessment methods associated with vocational education institutions, including by enabling employers to participate in the evaluation of training; (3) Changing the structure and content of university admission examinations, especially by combining entrance exams with school records and incorporating measurements of SEL, technical skills, and organizational abilities within admission papers; (4) Using international programs of assessment to help gauge the success of the education system, from the level of the country as a whole down to each locality.

5.3.1.4 Increasing Investment of Resources and Renewing Education Finance Distribution Mechanism

In many parts of the country, especially impoverished and rural areas, schools were under-resourced. Resolution 29 emphasized the importance of improving resourcing and increasing government expenditure in education across all levels. For preschools and compulsory secondary education, the State committed to raising investments in the development of public educational institutions and encouraging the development of non-public schools to satisfy demands.

The Resolution called to increase funding for higher education and vocational training as well, setting targets for investment based on economic-technical norms and quality standards of education services. Beyond increasing government expenditures, the Resolution called for intensifying private sector educational involvement, especially for vocational education and higher education. By increasing economic competition in education, all learners, employers, and educational institutions would be held to higher standards.

5.3.1.5 Strengthening the Linkage Between Universities and the Labor Market as Well as Scientific Research and Technology Transfer to Meet Societal Needs

Since the Doi Moi era beginning in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid and inclusive economic growth (IMF, 2017 ). To maintain this growth, Resolution 29 emphasized the importance of keeping education in step with economic development. As such, the reform instituted policies to connect education with labor market demands. Some of these policies included rearranging and connecting the network of vocational and higher education institutions, choosing uniform standards for training levels and qualifications, and orienting institutions of higher education towards scientific and technical research, application and practice.

5.3.1.6 Fostering Educational Development for Disadvantaged Areas, Ethnic Minorities and Social Policy Beneficiaries

In large part due to the geography and demographics of the country, educational disparities along socioeconomic, ethnic, and regional lines persist in Vietnam. Ethnic minorities, children living in underdeveloped areas, poor families, families with many children, and families whose parents have a background of lower educational attainment tend to be more vulnerable or at risk to fall into the educational wayside. Children from disadvantaged at heightened risk of not being ready for primary school than their better-off peers, and often do not have the same resources to succeed once within the system. Resolution 29 sought to address these educational inequities by promoting investment, expanding educational access, and developing specific policies for the vulnerable groups.

5.3.1.7 Promoting Education Research

To help Vietnam meet the demands of modernization and industrialization, Resolution 29 emphasized the importance of promoting research into educational best practices. The reform implemented policies to raise the quality and effectiveness of scientific and technical research on education, especially in the context of pedagogy and administration. On the budgetary side, these policies centered on increasing investment for institutions of higher education, combining training and research, connecting institutions with businesses, and prioritizing the development of laboratories/technological centers/experimental facilities. To encourage the development of attitudes conducive to a scientifically minded society and education system, Resolution 29 suggested introducing “policies [that] encourage students to do scientific research.

5.3.1.8 Expanding and Improving the Effectiveness of International Cooperation in Education

International cooperation in education is becoming increasingly important and prevalent in today’s globalized world. In recognition of this, Resolution 29 implemented policies to help Vietnam exchange best practices with other nations, and to connect the Vietnamese education system with the resources of an interconnected world. Among these policies, Resolution 29 provided for more government-funded overseas training in the sciences and in research, encouraging the increased use of foreign training institutions for higher education and vocational education.

5.3.2 Major Goals

Beyond these eight major policy directions, the Resolution also targeted specific aspects of reform at each level of the education system.

For preschool education , the major goals of the reform were to help children develop their physical, mental, and emotional health, and to prepare children for the early demands of primary education. The reform also set several benchmarks, including universal completion of primary education for all five-year-old children by 2015, exempting all tuition fees by 2020, and standardizing the system of preschools.

For secondary education , Resolution 29 emphasized SEL and healthy physical habits, the formation of personality and civil capability, and early career advice. The Resolution also looked towards improving social and cultural education in secondary schools, with an increased focus on teaching ideals, traditions, ethics, lifestyles, foreign languages, information technology, practical skills and ability to apply knowledge to life. In terms of concrete benchmarks, the Resolution set several interconnected goals: ensuring that all enrolled students graduated from junior high schools by 2015, the quality of secondary education was raised and made compulsory (for at least 9 years) by 2020, and that 80% of adolescents over 18 years of age completed secondary education or equivalent by 2020. Finally, the reform emphasized that all high school curricula incorporate some aspect of vocational guidance, to help prepare students for careers post-graduation.

For vocational education , the reform not only focused on developing a more skilled labor force, but also emphasized “Cultivating the gifted, and developing learners’ personal qualities, creativity, and ability of self-learning Furthermore, it sought to expand the network of occupational and vocational schooling within institutions of higher learning, and to diversify technology and training for all professions. Finally, in terms of continuing education, Resolution 29 made an explicit effort to increase educational opportunity across all demographics and regions of the country—especially for those in rural and low SES areas, and for the beneficiaries of incentive policies. The reform emphasized the importance of lifelong learning and helping older cohorts to develop knowledge via continued education (in all forms) and improve professional skills and life quality. These goals were held as essential to enable workers to change career paths, and to ensure continued national and regional economic development.

5.4 Implementation Analysis

In this section, we will analyze the implementation of Resolution 29 to identify the strengths and weaknesses of education policies in the post-resolution period of Resolution, through the lens of Professor Fernando Reimers’ Five Perspectives: Cultural, Psychological, Institutional, Political, and Professional (Reimers, 2020 ).

5.4.1 Cultural Perspective

The educational approach through a cultural perspective will be realized by comparing educational goals with social needs, focusing on the role of education in socioeconomic development, as well as expectations of how schooling fits into larger societal contexts (Reimers, 2020 ). Vietnamese society has a tradition of attaching importance to learning. Vietnam has always been appreciated for creating a positive learning environment, ensuring school discipline, and helping students have good learning attitudes. The participation and encouragement of young people from parents and students are also positive factors in forming a learning society (WB, 2020 ). Besides, Vietnamese society always has high expectations for education. Although Vietnam's education has made achievements that are highly appreciated by the international community, comments on the level of people's satisfaction with education on the mass media are still not commensurate. With such cultural characteristics, Resolution 29 has received the attention and support of the entire society.

From another angle, education in Vietnam is still very heavy on exams and academic achievement. As it stands, entrance exams for transfer classes, entrance exams for selective schools, and university entrance exams are reported to be quite stressful. In general education, the race and competition take place right from the moment children prepare for Grade 1. Throughout subsequent levels of education, the competition only becomes fiercer, often requiring auditions among candidates and schools. Consequently, students are overloaded with academic assignments and filled with pressure (Hoang, 2018 ). For such reasons, in the system of very comprehensive solutions for Resolution 29, assessment reform is chosen as the breakthrough solution. This solution is expected to be the trigger to solve the bottlenecks of the system (CCCP, 2013 ). However, the innovation of exams and assessment also faces many challenges when it directly affects the interests of many people.

As a result of these intense pressures to achieve, there is considerable dishonesty rooted in the education sector. The phenomenon of cheating in the high school for higher grades in graduation exams is cause for societal worry and frustration. Innovations in testing methods and technology application have helped detect large-scale score fraud in 2017. With the determination of the Ministry of Education and Training and authorities, many educational administrators in some localities were disciplined and some were criminally convicted. However, we did witness that the exams in the following years were held stably and transparently, regaining trust from the society and people (MOET, 2020 ).

5.4.2 Psychological Perspective

We now look at education through a psychological perspective and attempt to evaluate student learning using science (Reimers, 2020 ). Vietnam has performed well in increasing access to education through universal education at the primary and lower secondary levels. The quality of education is also praised from the perspective of international assessments and international science Olympiad results (Kataoka et al., 2020 ). However, there are concerns about how teaching and learning at schools in Vietnam tend to convey knowledge through rote learning. Students are said to be taught to memorize knowledge, instead of being shown how to apply knowledge. It has been stated that Vietnam Education is very good on paper, but good exam results alone will not prepare pupils for the next industrial revolution (Reed, 2018 ).

These issues have been clearly identified by Resolution 29, which aims to educate Vietnamese people with characteristics and competencies that match Vietnam’s rapid development (CCCP, 2013 ). An important component of the innovation is to build a new general education curriculum, moving from a knowledge-based curriculum to a competency-based curriculum. The process of building a new curriculum has been implemented since 2016. By the end of 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training has officially issued a new general education curriculum that fundamentally changes the approach from “according to content” towards “developing characteristics and competencies”. The new curriculum is also well-built based on the application of educational science, ensuring vertical connectivity between the levels in the same subject, horizontal connection between subjects in the same class level, and is aligned to the physiological development of learners.

Another point to note in this reform is that the new policy “one curriculum—many textbooks” is applied for the first time. For the past 45 years, Vietnam has pursued the policy of a unified national textbook. This approach helps to ensure the background quality of the education system, but also perpetuates some inadequacies; specifically, teaching and learning remain too attached to textbook materials, rather than encouraging new knowledge or skill acquisition. The new policy is implemented with two goals. The first is to encourage teaching and learning in schools without textbooks, thereby unleashing the creativity of teachers and students in teaching. The second is to prompt schools and localities to actively build practical teaching plans which are suitable to their own needs and expectations (Le, 2020 ).

Although the curriculum was officially applied in the 2020–2021 school year, the elements of educational methodology, teaching, and assessment have been partially applied at all levels, bringing impacts to teaching and learning in general education (Nguyen et al, 2020 ).

5.4.3 Institutional Perspective

An institutional perspective requires identifying the norms, structures, organizations, and elements of the system that can enhance education (Reimers, 2020 ). Determining of the role of existing institutions is an important step in the implementation of Resolution 29. The Ministry of Education and Training is the key player in reform implementation, alongside all relevant departments. Because the scope of Resolution 29 is very wide, with many large projects implemented synchronously, it also reflects limitations in the management capacity of the relevant departments. For example, work of the Renovating General Education Project (GREP) funded by World Bank has been postponed for nearly 2 years, with many tasks cancelled due to limited capacity of the Project Management Board (Duong, 2020 ).

Considering these limitations, a very strong decentralization mechanism is essential for ensuring consistency in implementation. The provincial Department of Education and Training has a very significant role to play in ensuring the success of the reform equitably. It should be noted that many levers are decentralized to localities—including the management of teacher and the allocation of resources for education—to ensure that the conditions for implementation are met. For example, in primary education, the new general education school requires that all elementary schools offer 2 sessions per day. This direction is suitable to meet the real needs of families. However, only about 65% of localities can meet the conditions for teaching 2 sessions per day. The remaining localities should have a reasonable budget allocation plan to meet the minimum conditions soon (IMF, 2017 ).

Pedagogical universities also play important roles in curriculum development, teacher training, and preparation. Pedagogical universities are beneficiaries of the Enhancing Teacher Education Project (ETEP). The ETEP project is sponsored by World Bank, with a total investment of up to 100 million USD and the aim of strengthening capacity for 8 pedagogical universities in point (ETEP, 2019 ).

The commitment to coordinate a range of key stakeholders from central to local in education and related disciplines demonstrates a strength of the Ministry of Educational and Training. However, further studies also suggest that this perspective was challenged because of the limited capabilities of enforcement agencies, as well as the ability to effectively connect between different agencies, even within the Ministry of Education and Training. This restriction will present a major challenge to the long-term goals of the reform.

5.4.4 Political Perspective

The political perspective describes how various groups’ interests must be addressed and considered in the development and implementation of reform (Reimers, 2020 ). Comprehensive reform through Resolution 29 comes from the highest level, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, followed by Resolution 88 of the National Assembly of Vietnam on innovation. programs and textbooks. In many cases, however, political interests will have strong effects on the implementation of reform and may override the educational interests of students and parents (Reimers, 2020 ). This is unavoidable and must be carefully analyzed to minimize conflicts of interest during implementation.

Further analyzing the implementation of the “one curriculum—many textbooks” policy, we can clearly see the difficulties in this perspective. This policy affects the textbook industry, which has been monopolized for more than 50 years in Vietnam. After the curriculum was approved in late 2018, the competition between textbook publishers increased. The original plan was that the RGEP Project would undertake the construction of an official set of textbooks for the Ministry of Education and Training, and publishers would build other series of textbooks to expand the choices for students. However, there are conflicting opinions regarding this implementation. On one hand, there are many concerns that the Ministry of Education and Training should not be related to the compilation of the textbooks. This work should be left entirely to the publishers. This approach will create a fair game among publishers. On the other hand, there are also many concerns about the need for an official set of textbooks disseminated by the Ministry of Education and Training. In the early years of implementing the new policy, this is a safe solution to ensure the quality of textbooks that prevents reliance on commercial publishers. In the media, lawmakers are constantly putting pressure on the cancellation of the “one curriculum—many textbooks” policy. These pressures have significantly affected the implementation process, as the RGEP project failed to fulfill its initial mission of building an official textbook set (Ha, 2020 ).

Despite many such difficulties, the process of reforming curricula and textbooks has had initial successes. By the end of 2019, the Minister of Education and Training has approved 5 sets of Grade 1 textbooks, with a total of 46 books in 9 subjects and educational activities allowing use in the school year 2020–2021. The selection of textbooks is implemented openly and transparently by localities (MOET, 2020 ).

5.4.5 Professional Perspective

The professional perspective assesses how well teachers and administrators prepare for innovation, in terms of both conceptual and procedural knowledge.

In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training issued professional standards for teachers and principals of schools and lecturers at pedagogical universities, to improve the quality of the workforce in the education sector. The Enhancing Teacher Education Project has built 9 training modules for teachers at each grade level (elementary, middle, high school) to develop professional competencies, to meet the professional standards of teachers and to meet the requirements of the new general curriculum (DTA, 2019 ).

With respect to qualification standards, most teachers and educational administrators at all educational levels have met the standard or higher (the percentage of teachers meeting the standard and above standard for kindergarten is 96.6, 99.0% for teachers at junior high schools, 99.6% for teachers of high schools, and 82.7% for university faculty) (MOET, 2020 ). This is an important basis for the Ministry of Education and Training in proposing raising training qualifications for teachers in the new Education Law 2019.

From an interview with Associate Professor Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director General of Secondary Education Department, for the Ministry of Education and Training, we can see that the biggest obstacle that teachers must overcome in reforming the education system is psychological in nature—after all, the core information teachers impart remains basically unchanged, and while teachers have been instructed in new pedagogical methods they still lack specific knowledge and skills that are subject specific, that provide appropriate pedagogical competencies within each subject, and allow them to implement instructional tasks and approaches to assess students’ knowledge. These should be the focus of professional learning communities for teachers in the coming period. The Director General of Secondary Education also mentioned that the “MOET will also be issuing guidance on professional learning communities and renovating teaching methods and assessment according to the competency-based approach. Our purpose is to raise the quality of professional learning communities at schools, particularly innovative teaching and assessment methods, as well as helping school leaders and teachers to actively select and develop topics and materials, taking the competency-based approach.”

5.5 Reform Outcomes

In the last seven years since the implementation of Resolution 29, Vietnam's education has seen many encouraging results. The results can be categorized in terms of the eight main policy thrusts mentioned earlier.

5.5.1 Enhancing Innovation in Education Management

Since the 2013 reform, the Education Ministry of Vietnam has implemented several additional reform laws, which are outlined in the 2020 report Evaluation of implementation of the 2011–2020 education development strategy (VNIES, 2020 ) Since one of the major thrusts of this chapter is exploring the impact of the Resolution 29, noting these recent amendments is necessary for us to mark the changes in the Vietnamese education system.

The National Assembly promulgated the Education Law (amended) in 2019 and the Higher Education Law (amending and supplementing several articles) in 2018. The Prime Minister issued the National Education System towards openness, continuity and lifelong learning. The Prime Minister promulgated the National Qualification Framework to ensure the equivalence of training levels and qualifications. However, the system of legal normative documents on education is not consistent. There are still contradictions and overlaps between sub-law documents (VNIES, 2020 ).

McAleavy, Ha, and Fitzpatrick identified a policy delivery challenge in Vietnam education system. Primary schools and lower secondary schools are supported and monitored by a district-level Bureau of Education and Training, whereas government high schools are supervised in a similar way by a provincial-level Department of Education and Training. Education department officials are expected to explain policy to schools and provide both support and monitoring to ensure fidelity of implementation. According to the regulations, the process is simultaneously both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up.’ Under the circumstances, management in schools becomes rigid, inflexible, and inactive (McAleavy et al., 2018 ).

In a recent policy note (WB, 2020 ), the World Bank also offered an in-depth analysis and assessment of Vietnam's higher education system, thereby giving recommendations on policies to promote higher education system governance. They stated that the higher education system in Vietnam is highly fragmented across many dimensions, including: (1) Vietnam does not have a single body responsible for the entire tertiary education and research system, (2) the existence of several hundred public research institutes operating independently from the universities, (3) multiple by-laws issued in recent years are seen as contributing to the complexity, fragmentation and inconsistencies of the regulatory framework, (4) the role played by MOET in initiating reforms and setting the long-term vision is undermined by inadequate capacity, resources and information, (5) no unified higher education information management system (HEMIS), which hinders evidence-based decision-making from all stakeholders.

5.5.2 Promoting Teacher Professional Development

At the time of Resolution 29, most teachers in Vietnam were undertrained to practice the changes in curriculum, pedagogical methods, testing, and management put in place with the educational overhaul. In the hopes of addressing these issues, Vietnam has developed various teacher training programs via in-site training courses as well as online platforms (WB, 2016 ). However, after the first semester of implementation, there are still many shortcomings. Currently, teachers do not fully understand the innovation objectives and are not given preparation time (VNIES, 2021 ). To that end, we believe that the ideology around teacher training needs to be restructured.

As it stands, the MOET has enacted professional standards for teachers, school principals, and lecturers at pedagogical universities. MOET also proposed raising training qualifications for teachers in the new Education Law 2019. Specifically, primary school teachers will have to have a four-year university degree instead of a three-year degree as before (VNIES, 2020 ).

Some elements of teacher professional development have been successful because of Resolution 29, however. Teacher conditions remain quite favorable, with relatively low pupil to teacher ratios (PTRs) and class sizes that are lower than set standards, especially compared with OECD averages (MOET, 2020 ). National averages hide regional and provincial disparities. Teacher shortages are not evenly distributed across the country, with some shortages affecting disadvantaged regions more than other regions. Teacher shortage is particularly striking in primary schools offering 2 sessions a day and in upper secondary schools. There is also evidence that teachers are in short supply in kindergartens (MOET, 2020 ). As reported in an interview with Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Permanent Member of Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education Youth, Adolescents and Children, there have been substantial efforts in Vietnam to promote the guidance, implementation, and preparation of teacher professional development policies by the Ministry of Education and Training.

5.5.3 Innovating Content and Teaching Methods, Examination, Testing and Education Assessment

Major milestones during this period of education include the approval of a new competency-based curriculum, supported by The World Bank Group and launched in 2016. The curriculum was officially approved in 2018, and will be officially implemented from 2020 (MOET, 2018b ). This new national curriculum aims to alter the outdated teaching and learning methods—which were formerly structured around the transmission of knowledge and memorization of facts—with technology-based education to equip students with hands on skills necessary for the twenty-first century. Compulsory subjects were reduced and complemented with optional and integrated subjects and theme activities (CPTC, 2018 ).

This is also the first time that Vietnam allowed the application of the policy of “one curriculum—many textbooks.” However, the implementation in the first year met many difficulties. From the fact that teachers have not been fully trained, leading to incorrect understanding of the role of textbooks in the new program. After only 8 weeks, one of the textbooks was rejected by the public, and later discontinued. Content aside, the main cause identified was the inability of teachers to respond to reforms (VNIES, 2021 ).

Assessment reform at primary level is considered a highlight in the period 2013–2020. The MOET issued Circular 30 in 2014 and Circular 22 in 2016, which guide schools and teachers in innovating the assessment of students. Instead of evaluating the students based on the results, the comprehensive assessment aims to encourage and motivate students. The participatory assessment process is not meant to be compared to other students, but rather focuses on the progress in each student's performance. When launched in 2014, the process has been challenged due to concerns about the feasibility by public opinion, schools, and teachers. However, after two years of implementation, there have been obvious changes in primary education. The guiding principles of learning and teaching at primary schools now are what the students learned and what they could do, rather than their grades (VNIES, 2017 ).

The high school graduation examination and the university entrance examinations have also been radically renovated in the period of 2013–2020. To begin, the high school graduation examination and the university entrance examination have been combined, to become the national high school examination. The examination is held locally, to reduce, the burden of candidates who must travel to major cities to take university exams, thus reducing financial pressure on parents and society generally (Nguyen et al., 2020 ).

5.5.4 Increasing Investment of Resources and Renewing Education Finance Distribution Mechanism

One of the key elements of achievement in the Vietnamese education sector is the consistently high expenditure on education, and the focus on primary and basic literacy education to ensure universalization, which specifically benefits the less advantaged regions. Such investment has yielded positive outcomes, with the overall rate of return to schooling in Vietnam surpassing those of most nearby countries (Thanh et al., 2018).

The share of total public expenditure in the education sector has always been among the largest of social and economic sectors for Vietnam; the country also ranks high among East Asia countries, with top sharing of public expenditure on education, approximately equal to Malaysia’s. Meanwhile, the figures for Singapore and The Philippines are about 2.5–3%, under 4% for Indonesia, Hong Kong and Japan, and 4.5–5% for Thailand and South Korea. It is worth noting, however, that these figures refer to the public expenditure as proportion of GDP only, and the total amount of education investment in Vietnam remains relatively low (Kataoka et al., 2020 ).

In recent years, the Vietnamese government's investment on education has been increasing, maintaining around 20% of total budget expenditures (GSO, 2016 , 2017 ). However, the government expenditure on education, usually high at governmental central level, proved to be ineffective when spending autonomy was granted to local authorities. This is the result of the decentralization movement, whereby much of the responsibility of education decision making is shifted to provincial level authorities. In the recent higher education policy note by World Bank (WB, 2020 ), as of 2013, 64% of total expenditure on education was distributed by local government, whose spending priorities vary substantially across the country. This figure was not improved much in recent years (Viet et al., 2020 ).

5.5.5 Promoting Science, Technology and Innovation Performance

Despite remarkable progress in the quantity of research output, Vietnam remains at the bottom of benchmarking country list in the recent policy note by World Bank (WB, 2020 ). In terms of quantity, the number of citable documents per one million inhabitants of Vietnam is higher than that of the Philippines, but lower than that of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. In terms of quality and impact, Vietnam ranks bottom in the list.

Measures of technology transfer indicate that the contribution of Vietnam’s universities to the national innovation system is also very low, at 1.24 patents per million of population, lower than that of Philippines (1.35), Thailand (3.16) and less than even 1% of China (233). On innovation capacity, Vietnam ranked 45th among 126 countries in 2018. This is an improvement of Vietnam from the rank of 64th in 2008.

According to World Bank report on Science, Technology and Innovation in Vietnam, this low performance is identified because of inadequate and inefficient financing, insufficient research talent, limited links to the global research frontier, low level university-industry linkage, and under-developed research/ICT infrastructure (WB, 2019 ).

5.5.6 Fostering Educational Development for Disadvantaged Areas, Ethnic Minorities and Social Policy Beneficiaries

To ensure equal access to educational opportunities, promoting universalization of general education matters. Vietnam achieved universal primary education in 2000 and universal lower secondary education in 2010. One of the greatest achievements of Vietnam's education over the past five years is the universalization of preschool education for all 5-year-old children. As of 2017, profound effects on the development of preschool education have been documented. Comparing to 2010, the school’s retention rate has expanded rapidly, with the enrollment rates of 5-year-old children rising by 13% to reach 99.96% in 2017 (MOET, 2018a ).

Vietnam has made impressive strides regarding gender equity in education. While participation rates by female students have always been approximate to male counterparts at all study levels, over the past few years, researchers have found a reverse gender gap in enrollment and attainment rates, particularly regarding upper secondary level completion rates. However, there are still disparities in the quality of education between students in different target groups, especially, for students of ethnical minorities and students with disabilities (Vinh, 2019 ).

Improving educational access for ethnic minority children is the first policy priority, to be implemented by strengthening current government initiatives. One major leverage point is improving high-quality early-childhood education programs, especially by assigning teaching assistants proficient in the local mother languages in the beginning years of primary school to help facilitate the transition for children who do not speak Vietnamese at home. Another major factor is providing financial support—including cash transfer programs to households, subject to school attendance—to encourage children to attend upper secondary school. The enrollment numbers of ethnic minority students decreased dramatically from primary to tertiary level. These low educational attainment rates towards higher levels of study also seemed to be more potent for some specific groups of ethnic minorities (Dang & Glewwe, 2018 ).

Despite efforts to support students with disabilities, the outcomes have not been improved, because of lower enrollment population at higher education. According to statistics from 2016 to 2017 by UNICEF and GSO, only 1% children with disabilities are in a special school/classroom (UNICEF & GSO, 2018 ). The percentage of schools with suitable infrastructure and sanitation facilities for students with disabilities are 2.9% and 9.9%, respectively. Even though a quarter of children with disabilities aged 2–17 live in poor households with schooling opportunity of 21% lower than those without disabilities, only 55.5% benefit from tuition fee reduction or exemption.

5.5.7 Promoting Educational Research

Moving forward, the question Vietnamese policy makers and educators must ask themselves should be how to prepare learners for a fast-changing context and required skills sets. An education environment that favors innovation and creativity, particularly focusing on the role of lifelong learning and sustainable development of learners, is fundamental. The evolution of such a system must be based on research-informed policies, particularly research in the field of educational sciences. According to a bibliometric analysis from Clarivate Web of Science database between 1991 and 2018 (Hoang et al., 2019 ), even though academic research output in education is rather underdeveloped, we can still observe an upward pattern over the last ten years, which signifies a fertile prospect for education in the country moving forward.

The Government has assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to lead the national research program on educational science in the 2016–2020 period. According to reports, 49 national tasks have been identified to support the implementation of the objectives of Resolution 29. These assignments have made an important contribution to a wide range of legal normative tasks. According to the report of the Office of Educational Science National Program (ESNP, 2020 ), dozens of monograph book and hundreds of scientific articles have been published, and hundreds of conferences and seminars have been held. The program is expected to continue implementing phase 2 from 2021 to 2025.

5.5.8 Expanding International Cooperation in Education

International cooperation in education has been strongly promoted in the period 2013–2020. The number of overseas students has steadily increased, about 8–10% annually. The number of foreign students in Vietnam also doubled during this period, from 11,000 international students in 2013 to 21,000 international students in 2018. The number of Agreement scholarships awarded by Governments of other countries to Vietnamese students has also nearly doubled, from 862 scholarships granted in 2013 to 1446 scholarships granted in 2019 (Ly & Marginson, 2019 ).

The size of affiliate programs is also constantly expanding, with about 35,000 people studying each year. The number of foreign-invested educational institutions has expanded, from only two foreign-invested universities to five universities in 2017. To date, there are 29 high schools with foreign investment. FDI projects in education are stable in terms of total investment. However, ODA and non-refundable aid to education have decreased in recent years as Vietnam has entered the group of low middle-income countries. Accreditation of affiliate programs, or foreign educational institutions, remains difficult. There is not much cooperation on credit recognition and conversion with regional and international countries. Therefore, there are still many shortcomings surrounding the recognition of diplomas (DIC, 2019 ).

5.6 Challenges

This chapter focused on three components in designing the future of teaching and learning from Resolution 29 onwards: pedagogy, assessment, and management. These three elements are interrelated in both function and implementation, and thus should be enacted in harmony.

5.6.1 Pedagogy

Pedagogy is an important component of an effective instructional core. Children’s school readiness is positively correlated with high quality trained teachers and higher teacher class ratios (Reimers, 2020 ). Since teachers’ professional development is still under resourced, we suggest reforming the training surrounding pedagogy in Vietnam. For the most successful TPD, teachers should share best practices and learn from each other both vertically and horizontally, in the form of professional learning communities. The higher the teacher training level and reputation, the lower the proportion of children who are vulnerable or at risk. Thus, there must be institutional, political, and professional support to make the necessary changes.

To support these changes, the psychological and cultural framework of teaching also needs to be shifted. We believe that through professional learning communities, teachers will be given safe spaces and opportunities to share and ask about their practice. These communities will empower teachers, by giving them more agency over their lessons. As teachers are the most important stakeholders of education reforms, strengthening the teaching force with strengthen the education system generally. Finally, since teachers’ professional development is still under-resourced, we suggest reforming the training surrounding pedagogy. Here again, Vietnam could learn from OECD leaders such as Finland, Hong Kong, and Canada, which hold strict standards for training and selecting their teachers (Reimers, 2020 ).

5.6.2 Assessment

Vietnamese students at all levels are reportedly lacking in skills and motivation; according to the most recent ESA report, a non-negligible number of students report dislike for attending school or their poor learning capacities, as well as financial constraints (MOET, 2020 ). We believe that some degree of this pattern can be attributed to Vietnam’s educational assessment system, which is still too heavily focused on results rather than processes, and further exacerbates the mismatch between education and practical market demands. With this in mind, we believe that the espoused goals and framework of Vietnam’s education system should be changed. The objectives of education could be renovated to better fit the international standards of education, proposed by the OECD report. Rote learning should be abandoned and project-based learning, which suggests cooperation and innovation, should be emphasized more. In this case, we believe that cultural and psychological shifts (especially from parents and teachers) are important and will help to lead the Vietnamese education system towards accepting more formative assessments as opposed to summative assessments.

5.6.3 Management

Ultimately, the management of education (from the level of the Ministry of Education down to district level leaders or principals), the context of education (sociocultural environment, expectations, and norms), as well as the actual pedagogy of education must all come together cohesively to deliver results. Since no single part of this system can function without the other parts, spending on curriculum will amount to nothing without school leaders and teachers who can carry out the pedagogy. If the Vietnamese education system is to create successful training and policy for professional development, it will need continuous support from all institutional and political structures and key stakeholders. Empowering teachers and school leaders will be the most important effort in building on Resolution 29 into the future.

In addition, considering that decentralizing spending autonomy is proven to be ineffective in Vietnam, we suggest that Vietnam holds most of its budgetary power in the central educational authority. Compared with smaller or higher-income countries, Vietnam does not currently have the infrastructure to support breaking the federal budget on education regionally. We also recommend that Vietnam makes its spending more transparent; in countries like Finland, making educational costs publicly available has been proven to have positive results for public discourse and educational change (Reimers, 2020 ).

5.7 Conclusions

Education should be leveraged as an indispensable asset in confronting the many uncertainties that the future holds for Vietnam. Newly emerging challenges concern the quality of Vietnam’s human resource base: the need for higher skill levels, foreign and Western languages, and IT competencies to function in an internationalized market and educational environment. In Vietnam’s education policies since 2000, and especially with Resolution 29 in 2013, the dialogue around education has begun to reflect notions of a “learning society.” This is a positive trend, which should be encouraged and supported.

Vietnam has been an emerging dragon in education for the last decade, in large part due to the ideologies and successes of Resolution 29. Moving forward, Vietnam can build on the strengths of Resolution 29, and tackle its limitations in the next round of reform. Vietnam has only more success yet to come. The dragon is only waking up.

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Le, A.V., Han, P., Khaing, M.M., Farrar, O. (2022). An Emerging Dragon: Vietnamese Education After Resolution 29. In: Reimers, F.M., Amaechi, U., Banerji, A., Wang, M. (eds) Education to Build Back Better. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93951-9_5

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Everyday Vietnamese Classroom Phrases and Vocabulary

Learning languages starts from lessons in the classroom to traveling, working and living, or learning from the cultures of the country. No matter what strategy of learning, most people find studying from the basics plays an important role in building a sustainable foundation. 

When I first studied English, I was also adopting common classroom phrases to understand teachers’ commands. Most of them are actually quite helpful in my actual classes where I later on became a teacher. 

If you’re a student learning Vietnamese language, you’re going back to school , or you’re new here and want to improve Vietnamese language learning, I’m here for you. I’m going to share with you several lists of lexicon and Vietnamese classroom words and phrases that you will absolutely use at some point. 

First, let’s discover the Vietnamese education system through vocabulary about schools.

• School vocabulary (Từ vựng về trường học)
• School departments Vocabulary (Từ vựng về các phòng ban trong trường)
• Vocabulary about positions in a school (Từ vựng về các vị trí trong trường học)
• Classroom Greetings (Chào hỏi trong lớp)
• Instructions from Teachers
• Teacher’s common teaching techniques
• Student’s common questions/requests
• Explain Absence and Tardiness
• Common questions for students

1. School vocabulary (Từ vựng về trường học)

The Vietnamese education system is not very complicated since we only have a few typical levels of learning and it’s consistent across the country. Public schools’ tuition fees are often more affordable than international or private schools. Here are the most particular school types in Vietnam that you might have heard of to learn vietnamese language.

• Trường dân lập (Private school) : Private schools teaching quality is often slightly lower than public schools due to high costs but low investment and support from the government. However, some families prefer sending their children to private schools for their suitable locations or lower student numbers.
• Trường công lập (Public school) : Public schools are often the most sought after because of their moderate tuition fees and guaranteed teaching quality.
• Trường quốc tế (International school) : There are not many international schools in Vietnam because of the high cost but entering might be easier because it’s for people who can afford the tuition fee. 
• Nhà trẻ (Daycare/ Child care center) : Nhà trẻ is for kids between 1-2 years old, some even accept kids from 6-9 months old. Most of them are private establishments because official schools start from preschool which is for kids from 3-5 years old. For some families who don’t have anyone to take care of young kids, they would prefer sending them to local daycares during working hours. 
• Trường mầm non/trường mẫu giáo (Preschool) : Trường mẫu giáo accepts students from 3 to 5 years old. Most of the lessons contain games, sing and dance activities and learning numbers or alphabets to prepare for primary school. 
• Trường tiểu học/Trường cấp 1 (Elementary school) : Elementary schools are for students from 6 – 10 years old which means there are 5 grades, from grade 1 to grade 5. Most elementary schools don’t require entrance tests but depending on the admissions target of each school, students on the right line will be given priority to enroll first. 
• Trường Trung học phổ thông/Trường cấp 2 (Middle school/ Secondary school) : Middle school/ Secondary schools are for students from 11 to 14 years old. They are from grade 6 to 9. Similar to elementary school, entrance tests are not required but study results from elementary school will be considered.
• Trường Trung học cơ sở/Trường cấp 3 (High school) : High school is the most important level of every student because it prepares for university and therefore, specialized schools often require students to take an entrance test. Regular schools may not do so but it takes a lot of effort for parents to choose the right school for their children due to the high demands every year. 
• Trường đại học (College/ University) : A bachelor degree is very important to anyone when looking for a job in Vietnam and therefore, entering college/ university is the highest target set for students after 12 years studying at school. The high school graduation exam is used to determine the score for university admission, so this exam is considered extremely important for every student. College/ University usually takes 4 years for general subjects and 5 to 6 years or even more for majors such as medicine and pharmacy.
• Trường cao đẳng (Undergraduate) : If university entrance requirements are often high, undergraduate in Vietnam are a little bit easier to enroll because of lower standards. Undergraduate usually takes 2-3 years. 
• Tại chức (Service education/ Service learning) : Service education/ service learning schools are at a lower level than undergraduate or university. It often requires at least 2 years to finish but the degree is not very valuable. 

2. School departments Vocabulary (Từ vựng về các phòng ban trong trường)

Technically, these departments are the most common ones in every school in Vietnam. Depending on the specialized disciplines, the departments may differ. Let’s take a look at some vocabulary about school departments in order to prepare for the useful classroom phrases for students and teachers in Vietnamese that I’m going to share with you in the upcoming parts. 

• ​​ Phòng Học thuật/Phòng Học vụ (Academic Department)
• Phòng Hiệu trưởng (Principal’s office)
• Phòng Hiệu phó (Vice-Principal’s office)
• Phòng y tế ( Nurse’s office)
• Phòng truyền thống (Hall of Fame)
• Văn phòng Đoàn (The youth union room)
• Phòng thí nghiệm (Laboratory)
• Thư viện (Library)
• Giảng đường (Lecture hall)
• Ký túc xá (Hall of resident)
• Phòng bảo vệ (Security section)
• Khu vực gửi xe (Parking space)
• Căng tin (Cafeteria)
• Sân chơi (Playground)

If you’re new to a school and want to ask for directions, here is the sentence structure. 

• To friends : Bạn ơi, làm ơn cho mình hỏi + place + ở đâu? (Hey, may I ask where the + place + is please?)
• To more senior people: Anh/chị ơi, làm ơn cho em hỏi + place + ở đâu? (Hey, may I ask where the + place + is please?)
• To teachers (if you think they are) Thưa thầy/cô, làm ơn cho em hỏi + place + ở đâu ạ? (Hey, may I ask where the + place + is please?)

For examples : 

• Bạn ơi, làm ơn cho mình hỏi phòng y tế ở đâu? (May I ask where the nurse’s office is please?)
• Chị ơi, làm ơn cho em hỏi thư viện ở đâu? (May I ask where the library is please?)
• Thưa cô, làm ơn cho em hỏi phòng truyền thống ở đâu ạ? (May I ask where the hall of fame is please?)

3. Vocabulary about positions in a school (Từ vựng về các vị trí trong trường học)

Beside your classmates, there will be some positions that you must know when studying at school, for instance: 

• Giáo viên (Teacher)
• Giảng viên (Lecturer)
• Trợ giảng (Teaching assistant)
• Giáo viên chủ nhiệm (Head teacher)
• Hiệu phó (Vice-principal)
• Hiệu trưởng (Principal)
• Giáo viên bộ môn (Subject teacher)
• Học sinh (Pupil)
• Sinh viên (Student)
• Bí thư (Secretary)
• Lớp trưởng (Monitor)
• Lớp phó (Vice monitor)
• Bảo vệ (Guard)
• Tạp vụ/Lao công (Janitor)
• Giám thị (Supervisor)
• Nhân viên y tế (Medical officer)

To introduce someone, you can say:

4. Classroom Greetings (Chào hỏi trong lớp)

Moving to the main part of the lesson, you wil see that most sentences can be use in Vietnamese reading and writing also. First, let’s explore several basic Vietnamese words and phrases for greeting at school.

• First, let’s see how students greet teachers in Vietnam.
• Next, here are ways for teachers to respond to students. 
• To know how students greet each other, take a look at our video on our Youtube channel How to say Hello or our free article lesson How to say Hello for more details. 

5. Instructions from Teachers

You must have noticed somewhere that you can either use “Các em” or “Cả lớp” as “you all” when giving imperatives. In any classroom in the world, there will be different instructions or requirements from teachers for each class. If you are teaching, here are the easiest and most common Vietnamese classroom phrases for teachers that you can use on a daily basis: 

6. Teacher’s common teaching techniques

In some cases, there are some questions to check students’ understanding in a test or at the end of the lesson, or useful classroom phrases in Vietnamese that teachers can apply as teaching techniques.

• To check understanding
• Correction techniques

7. Student’s common questions/requests

Education 4.0 encourages students to interact with teachers and their peers anytime in the class for more effectiveness. With teachers who are well trained and equipped with 4.0 teaching methodologies, allowing students to have some free talks in the class is essential to keep students engaged. 

Therefore, there are various Vietnamese classroom phrases for students in the classroom:

• For entering the classroom:
• For better clarity:
• For adding ideas/comments
• For leaving the classroom

8. Explain Absence and Tardiness

Everyone would be late or play hooky once in their lives. I’m not an exception.

Let me spill the beans. It was in my highschool. My parents and other students’ were asked to meet my head teacher because the whole class skipped school to hang out the day before. 

I had a really good relationship with a fabric shop owner who I’m her regular customer at that time. Because of the parents meeting, I asked her to play as my mom and go meet my teacher. 

She agreed!

The day later, she went to my school, acting really cool and apologizing to my teacher as other parents would do. I couldn’t thank her enough.

Break time is over. Let’s get back to the lesson and see what Vietnamese classroom phrases for students that can be used when explaining absence or tardiness. 

9. Common questions for students

Last but not least, before checking some useful classroom questions for students, let’s take a look at several words that you can use for the sentence structures afterwards. 

• Cái bảng đen (Blackboard)
• Quyển sách ( Book )
• Cái ghế tựa (Chair)
• Bàn học sinh (Desk)
• Cái bàn (Table)
• Khăn lau bảng (Duster)
• Cục tẩy (Eraser)
• Quả địa cầu (Globe)
• Sổ ghi chép (Notebook)
• Gọt bút chì (Pencil sharpener)
• Thước kẻ (Ruler)
• Cái bút (Pen)
• Bút chì (Pencil)
• Hộp bút (Pencil Case)
• Sách điện tử (Electric book)

Sentence structure

For example:

Other questions:

That’s pretty much for today and I hope it helps. 

I’d like to share a little bit more about school etiquettes in another article in the near future.

Although English can be spoken if you’re lucky enough, knowing some basic Vietnamese phrases will help you be more engaged and interact with locals better.Thus, it’s alway worth it to surprise Vietnamese people or your teacher on Vietnamese Teachers’ Day .

For more FREE flashcards, vocabulary lists or audio files if you’re trying to learn Vietnamese language successfully, visit our website VietnamesePod101 and Youtube Channel Learn Vietnamese with VietnamesePod101.com . You can get your free lifetime account for real lessons by real teachers. 

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Thailand tends to get most of the attention as a Southeast Asian destination for ESL teachers. There are numerous teaching agencies that bring recent TEFL grads to the country, and plenty of jobs in private institutions and public schools. However, for many reasons Vietnam deserves to be considered perhaps the prime place to look for ESL work in the region. The country is bigger than Thailand by about 20 million people, the economy is growing, and the supply of teachers is much smaller. It adds up to a dynamic country with well-paid teaching work, coupled with a low cost of living which will let you save a good chunk of cash each month.

Teaching English in Vietnam

The best places to look for work are of course the biggest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The first is the country’s business capital and most modern city, with year-round warm weather to boot. The latter, which recently celebrated its 1000th anniversary, is the country’s political capital, with a historic old quarter.

However, as Vietnam is growing quickly, there are a number of other attractive places to look for work. Da Nang is the country’s third-largest city, and has the considerable advantage of being right on the beach and just a 30-minute ride from Hoi An, the country’s best-preserved historic town. Nha Trang also sits right next to the beach and is a bit more popular than Da Nang as a tourist destination, though the city itself is rather smaller. But as Vietnam has thousands of kilometers of coastline, there are lots of smaller cities a short drive from the beach where you may find work.

There are also growing numbers of jobs at larger provincial capitals such as Da Lat, Can Tho, Hai Phong and others. Some institutes in these smaller cities can pay rates comparable to schools in bigger cities, even though the cost of living is lower. This is because it’s more difficult to find teachers willing to relocate to those cities. However, those who do are rewarded with a slower pace of life and a chance to better immerse themselves in Vietnamese culture.

Kinds of Teaching Work

There are a number of different kinds of schools where you can look for work in Vietnam. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and some schools may be a better fit than others may for people with different interests and personalities.

• Private kindergartens and primary schools , where middle-class parents send their children to get them exposed to English during their important formative years, when it’s easiest for them to learn a new language. Teachers who can manage children and enjoy clapping, singing, and playing games are well suited for this kind of work. A further advantage is that you won’t have to worry much about marking homework! To work at a school like this, you’ll generally be expected to have a BA degree in some subject and a TEFL certificate, though this can be flexible. A friendly personality and the ability to keep the kids in line may be more important than formal qualifications at some of these schools.
• Private secondary schools offer some jobs that would include just teaching English, but there are also many private secondary schools that teach subjects like math and science in English. You may be able to teach those subjects as well if you’re appropriately qualified. You could expect to earn around $1200-1800 per month for work at private kindergartens, primary schools, or secondary schools.
• " International schools ” are somewhat different from private secondary schools, and usually pay more (perhaps $3000-4000 per month) for teachers with a Master’s in Education from abroad.

Some language centers offer additional test-prep classes. Most of these will prepare students for standardized English tests such as the IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, which they may need to take in order to work or study abroad, or to get a promotion in their company. As the stakes are higher for tests like these, students are willing to pay more to study and teachers can earn more for teaching them—usually about 30-50% more than the standard wage for teaching English.

• Private and public universities offer the chance to teach bright young adults. In universities you may be asked to teach listening and speaking classes (grammar classes are often taught by Vietnamese teachers), but may also have the chance to teach courses such as literature, western culture, or even some history. You’ll likely have around 20 hours in class per week, as well as office hours and time for lesson planning and marking papers. Public universities tend to pay less than private universities. Expect to earn around $1000-2000 per month at a university.

Living in Vietnam

While pay for teachers in Vietnam is generally higher than Thailand, the cost of living is generally lower. You’ll likely be able to earn at least $1600 per month in Vietnam, and even more if you take on part-time work or private tutoring. You can live a comfortable life, including eating out at small restaurants for 2-3 meals per day, evenings out with friends and coworkers, and the occasional weekend away, and still spend less than $800 per month. If you want to save, you should be able to put away $800-1000 per month.

You should be able to find an apartment in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City for around $200-300 per month, and for even less in smaller cities. A meal at a street stall or small restaurant can be under $1, and a cup of coffee at a small shop should be around $0.50-0.75. You’ll find plenty of upper-scale restaurants and cafes if you like, but it’s certainly possible to get all your food for the day for $5-8.

One unfortunate thing about Vietnamese cities is that you’ll likely need your own wheels in order to get around, and the roads are quite crowded. In bigger cities like Hanoi and HCMC, you’ll most likely need a motorbike to be able to get around, though in some smaller cities you could make it on a bicycle. Traffic is hectic, but there’s some unspoken order to it so you should be able to stay safe if you stick to the edges of the road and don’t go too fast.

Medical care has improved quite a lot in recent years, and you can find modern hospitals in most bigger cities in Vietnam where you can get care for a fraction of the price you’d pay in western countries or even in Singapore.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have sizable expat populations, and also have a wide variety of activities in which you can get involved. You can join modern sport clubs, participate in recreational sports leagues, take language classes, learn to dance and cook, try out rock-climbing, and take part in lots of other kinds of activities.

In addition to expat life, you’ll likely find that you get frequent invitations from Vietnamese colleagues, friends, and students. Vietnamese people tend, in general, to be quite forward about meeting foreigners, and you’re likely to get lots of invitations to go out to drink coffee, have dinner, or sing karaoke with your colleagues and friends.

Overall, Vietnam is a young and quickly growing country. There’s a rising demand for English skill, and this can also lead to other opportunities for native English speakers, especially if they learn Vietnamese well. While there are certainly opportunities to advance your career within English education, there are also opportunities to switch into the private sector, whether through work with NGOs or international companies in Vietnam. For teachers, there are many steady jobs to be found and lots of part-time work on the side, so that if you want to work a lot there should be plenty of work for you to do. There’s a low cost of living and lots of things to do, so Vietnam can be a great place to get your start as an English teacher while also enjoying your time abroad!

Nathan Edgerton has been living in Southeast Asia for over 15 years. He has taught in Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand.

You can find more information on teaching in Southeast Asia — including expected salaries, the cost-of-living, and needed qualifications, in his recommended ebook: Teaching English in Southeast Asia .

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• 1-on-1 Classes 20% OFF Individual tailored courses with the best teachers in the business
• Group Classes 20% OFF Study in small groups and enjoy 20% off our prices with all Xi’an bookings
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• Group Classes 20% OFF Enjoy 20% off our prices with all Chengdu bookings
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• Immersion Program The fastest way to learn Chinese. This is genuine 100% immersion
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• Discover Chengde Chengde isn’t to be confused with Chengdu (home of the Pandas)
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• 1-on-1 Classes Learn Mandarin individually with our fully certified teaching team
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• Online Study Korean 24/7 with LTL using our Flexi Class platform
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• Online Study Vietnamese 24/7 with LTL using our Flexi Class platform
• Apartments Discover our apartments which are an ideal alternative to our homestays
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• Summer Camp Ages 7-17 Send your kids to Saigon to experience true Vietnamese culture
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• 1-on-1 Classes Study individually for a tailored learning experience
• Group Classes Small groups that average just two people
• Online Learn Vietnamese online with Flexi Classes
• Homestay 80% of LTL students choose to live with a homestay
• Apartments The ideal budget option for LTL students
• Services Allow us to help you settle in easier with some additional services
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Our Student Advisor Team

Fancy coming to study with us? Drop me a message.

Email : [email protected] WeChat ID : manuelsaldana WhatsApp: ‪+886 987 291 651

Please contact me if you wish to come and study with us!

Email : [email protected] WeChat ID : Mojca_LTL

LEARN VIETNAMESE IN VIETNAM || GROUP CLASSES

Ready to learn Vietnamese in Vietnam? From beginner to advanced students, all ages, groups and nationalities are welcome.

All of our group classes are taught by our fully certified, native Vietnamese teachers and are designed to help you make fast and steady progress.

We keep our classes small with no more than 6 students per class, an an average of just 2.

Lessons are specifically designed to cover all aspects of the language: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Our central location in Saigon allows you to go and practice in the city right after class, by attending activities organised by the school or your homestay family .

Whether you already live in Vietnam or are here solely for your language studies, we will make sure you immerse yourself fully into the culture and make plenty of friends.

• Lessons in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
• 6 students maximum per class, average of 2
• 55 minutes lessons
• Group classes for all levels and age groups
• Fully certified, experienced native teachers
• 24/7 LTL Team Support

Prefer 1-on-1 courses? Check out our tailored programs here .

The Best Teachers

Certified – All teachers hired are fully certified Experienced – Teachers all have years of experience Qualified – We have a strict hiring process to find only the best Approachable – Always available to help and answer questions

Make Progress Fast

Speak up – Plenty of chances to speak and ask questions Small class – Allowing for the fastest possible progress Flexibility – From two weeks to a year, you choose Curriculum – Modern lessons designed for immediate use

Part of the Community

Social events – Activities and weekend trips New friends – Meet people from all over the world Explore – Create memories together after class Community – Students, teachers and staff together

24/7 Support

First Class – Always available to help Knowledge – We know what to visit and where to eat Advisors – Here to assist you through your studies Home – LTL will become your second home

LEARN VIETNAMESE IN VIETNAM || OUR COURSES

We are proud to say that ever since the opening of our first school back in 2007, small group classes have always been our most popular courses.

Our proven methods and carefully-built curriculum will have you speaking Vietnamese in no time. You only have to take a look at the hundreds of student reviews we’ve received all over the internet to see that we are genuinely the best school to help you gain fluency in Vietnamese.

All courses cover listening, speaking, writing and reading, so you will make fast progress in all areas of Vietnamese.

We offer a Standard Course as well as an Intensive Course , all lessons are 55 minutes long with an average of just 2 students per class .

Vietnamese Standard Course

• 20 hours per week
• 4 hours of Vietnamese a day
• Monday to Friday
• 2-6 students per class

Vietnamese Intensive Course

• 30 hours per week
• Extra 2 hours of 1-on-1 class a day

NO Material Fees

NO Accommodation Finding Fees

NO Registration Fees

LEARN VIETNAMESE IN VIETNAM || DATES & PRICES

You can choose the duration of your program which can last anything from 2 to 52 weeks.

Feel free to  contact us here  if you need any help in choosing a program duration. Let us know your goals and budget, and we’ll be able to provide you with a program suited to your needs and requirements.

There are no material fees, accommodation finding fees or registration fees.  What you see in this table is what you pay, there are no hidden fees.

GROUP CLASSES

Additional information, pre-course talk.

In order to find the perfect group class for you, we will organise a pre-course talk before you arrive in Ho Chi Minh City.

We organise our groups according to levels, so you are matched with a group with the same knowledge of Vietnamese as you. This way, you can all learn and progress together towards your goals.

The casual chat is organised with a member of our team and is a simple conversation. You are not being tested.

It can be done via WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom, or a phone call.

AIRPORT PICKUP

We can organise an airport pickup for you, so your arrival in HCMC is as smooth as possible.

Let us know if you’d like us to organise it for you, and our chauffeur will come to get you at Tan Son Nhat International Airport . They will have a sign with our logo and your name on it so you can easily find each other.

We offer further additional extras which you can discover here .

OTHER COURSES

We also offer more than just Small Group Courses .

We’ve got you covered if you’d prefer individual classes with a private tutor . All 1-on-1 classes include the following:

• Pre Course Talk – to get to know your goals and interests, we will then organise your program accordingly
• Tailored & Personalised lessons designed to suit your requirements
• Private native language tutor
• The schedule is organised according to your availability

We can also organise more specific Individual Courses for you to learn Vietnamese in Vietnam. Some examples:

• Vietnamese for Expats
• Vietnamese Language Proficiency Test Preparation
• Intensive Vietnamese Courses

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We have a maximum of 6 students per class, with an average of 2.

Our groups are kept small to encourage students to speak up and practice, but also so the teachers can focus on each and every student.

You will always be heard, and all your questions will be answered.

Each lesson lasts for 55 minutes .

Your classmates will come from all over the world.

We accept students of all age groups, backgrounds and nationalities, so you’ll be meeting a lot of interesting people at LTL.

Students often make friends for life at LTL given the fact our community is so tight-knit.

Check out our review page to see all the different nationalities who come to LTL.

A typical class schedule is 2 hours of class in the morning, and two hours in the afternoon (10am-12pm / 1pm-3pm).

If you joined an intensive program, the two extra 1-on-1 classes per day can be taken at any convenient time for you. Typically this is from 3pm to 5pm.

This schedule can differ depending on the period of the year, and classroom availabilities.

It is a very difficult question to answer as learning languages is different for everyone.

If you have a strong interest in learning Vietnamese, then it might be easier as there is a real passion behind your goals.

Generally speaking, the Vietnamese pronunciation is said to be the most difficult aspect of the learning process, as it is a tonal language.

However, once you’ve mastered the pronunciation, the rest of your learning will become easier.

You’ll be able to focus on learning more vocabulary and grammar structures without focusing too much on the pronunciation, as you’ve already mastered it.

Yes absolutely.

Vietnam is a beautiful country with lots to visit all year round, and you’ll definitely be able to go and explore plenty after your program.

Make sure you discuss your plans with your LTL Student Advisor during the booking process, so you have enough time on your visa (if one is needed) .

Find out more about Vietnam by checking out our dedicated Vietnamese blog .

We provide Homestay accommodation, meaning you’ll be living with a Vietnamese family.

We pride ourselves in our ability to create a truly immersive experience for our students, and living with a homestay family is the best way to do so.

You will be able to speak Vietnamese everyday after school, eat delicious homemade dishes daily and participate in every activity organised, just like any other member of the family.

Visit our dedicated page – Homestays in Saigon for more details.

Progress really depends on each and everyone.

You will of course make progress in your Vietnamese abilities by attending our classes and completing any homework and exercises your teacher assigns you.

However, you can progress much faster progress if you also practice outside of class, find some Vietnamese friends, watch Vietnamese TV , attend activities with locals, etc.

One of the best ways to make great progress is to live with a homestay family, as you get to speak Vietnamese on a daily basis in a very immersive environment.

Progress can be as fast as you’d like it to be, put yourself out there and practice as much as you can.

Adding on individual classes is a surefire way to improve even faster.

Speak to our student advisors by opening the live-chat at the bottom right corner of your screen, or send us an email here .

We look forward to hearing about your study plans.

The number of lessons and how long it takes to be fluent in Vietnamese will depend on multiple factors.

First of all, we all have different learning processes and retention abilities. You need to find what kind of learning works for you, and that can take time.

It will also depend on the time you can dedicate to your learning, if you can take individual or group classes, and if you are able to engage and practice your language skills in an immersive environment.

This is exactly why we work with Homestay families , so all of our students have the chance to practice their Vietnamese skills 24/7 at home after school, and make progress a lot faster.

The term ‘fluent’ can also differ from person to person. Is your goal to navigate life comfortably as an expat in Vietnam, or do you need to be able to work in a specific field with a Vietnamese team on a daily basis?

If you need some guidance, we are here to help .

I did an intensive language immersion course in HCMC and had such a wonderful time. I picked LTL because it offered the full package, and I got even more than that!

– Crystal from the US

The staff are friendly and communicative, and can provide help with Vietnamese conversation practise, and recommend interesting events or local food spots.

– Oliver from the UK

Great school. Friendly people. Fun teachers. Classrooms are much cleaner and more organised than other places I’ve been too.

– Ian from the US

GET IN TOUCH

Our student advisor will reach you within 24 hours and get your course booked up in no time.

• Jul 28, 2023

Teaching at an International School in Vietnam

Vietnam has emerged as a hotspot for educators seeking to teach at an international school . This Southeast Asian nation offers a unique blend of rich cultural heritage, scenic landscapes, and bustling cities. With an ever-growing number of international schools, Vietnam presents a plethora of opportunities to educators around the globe. Whether you're a seasoned teacher or a fresh graduate, this guide will help you navigate the process of landing a teaching job in this vibrant country.

1. Eligibility Criteria to Teach at an International School in Vietnam

If you're planning to teach in Vietnam , it’s crucial to understand the requirements for obtaining a work visa and a residency permit for 2023. Here's an outline of the prerequisites:

A Bachelor's degree (BA/BSc) or higher in a relevant discipline

Medical clearance, obtained within Vietnam

Professional teaching certification (e.g., BEd, PGDE, PGCE)

A minimum of 2-3 years of teaching experience at the grade level you plan to teach

Two positive teaching references

Age under 65 years

All necessary documents must be authenticated and legalized for the work permit and residency application. Fluent non-native English speakers may be considered if there's a shortage of native speakers.

2. Compensation and Benefits for International School Teachers

The monthly salary for international school teachers in Vietnam ranges from $2000 - $4900 (2023), contingent on experience and students' age. The compensation package typically includes:

Housing or housing allowance

A standard workweek of 25-28 hours with two days off

Paid holidays and vacation time

Flight reimbursement

School fee discounts for your children

Medical insurance

Possible performance bonuses.

3. Understanding the International School Landscape in Vietnam

Vietnam has seen a surge in the number of international schools, primarily concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. These schools cater to both local children and expatriates' kids.

Schools usually operate from 07:30 to 16:30, Monday to Friday, with some offering after-school extracurricular activities. The student population can be quite diverse, with some schools hosting up to 50 different nationalities.

International schools in Vietnam offer various curricula, including American , British , Australian , and International Baccalaureate .

4. A Day in the Life of an International School Teacher in Vietnam

On a typical day, teachers and students gather for an assembly between 7:00 and 7:30 am. The teacher's schedule usually involves a mix of teaching and planning, with the latter including lesson planning and grading.

After the academic day concludes, teachers often run clubs or supervise extra-curricular activities. Keeping accurate records of attendance, homework, and assessments is a crucial part of the job.

Communication with parents is typically more frequent and involved in international schools, given the fee-paying nature of these institutions and the parents' expectation for a superior education.

5. Student Demographics and Learning Styles

International schools in Vietnam attract a diverse mix of students, including local Vietnamese children and expatriates' kids. Class sizes can vary, but you may find yourself teaching a class of around 22 students hailing from 12-14 different countries.

It's important to be mindful of the different learning styles represented in your classroom. For instance, students from South Korea, China, and Taiwan may prefer to learn through memorization.

6. Preferred Teacher Nationalities in Vietnam

Vietnam's international schools hire teachers from various nationalities, often in line with the curriculum they offer. For instance, US and Canadian teachers are in demand at American curriculum schools, while British and Irish teachers are sought after at UK curriculum schools.

7. Application Process for Teaching Positions in Vietnam

The primary hiring season for jobs starting in August is the previous November/December, approximately 8 months prior. Job vacancies may also arise in January due to staff changes or school expansion.

Schools may also re-advertise unfilled positions during the term. Early application is therefore recommended.

8. Key Qualities Sought in Potential Teachers

Schools in Vietnam look for various attributes in potential teachers, including:

Experience with the specific curriculum taught at the school

Excellent subject knowledge

Effective communication skills

Professional appearance and demeanor

A wealth of ideas for engaging lessons

Approachability and teamwork skills

A commitment to continuous professional development

A positive attitude and willingness to contribute to the school community

A long-term commitment to the school or school group

Excellence in classroom teaching

9. Teaching English in Vietnam

English language teaching positions are available in cities and larger towns throughout Vietnam, with salaries ranging from $1000 to $2300 per month. English language teachers in Vietnam typically need to satisfy the following requirements:

English language teacher requirements 2023:

Native English speaker with TEFL/CELTA certificate and bachelor degree, clear criminal record check, and ability to pass a medical examination in Vietnam. Some schools may also require 3 years of teaching experience for a Vietnam work permit.

Before making the move, secure medical insurance and ensure you have sufficient funds to cover initial expenses such as document processing, flights, housing deposits, and living costs for the first few weeks.

10. Living in Vietnam as an International School Teacher

Living in Vietnam offers a different lifestyle compared to countries like the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and the UK. The cost of living is significantly lower, allowing teachers to save a substantial portion of their salary. The climate is generally mild or hot, with no snow or ice in the winter season. Navigating Vietnam is made easy with various transportation options, including public buses, trains, bicycles, taxis, Grab, motorbikes, cars, and airplanes. For those interested in driving, temporary driver's licenses are available upon application.

Lastly, Vietnam is famous for its breathtaking beaches, providing a perfect weekend getaway. From the scenic Tuan Chau and Do Son beaches near Hanoi to the bustling areas of Nha Trang and Vung Tau, there's a beach for every preference.

To teach at an international school in Vietnam is not just an employment opportunity, but a chance to immerse yourself in a new culture and contribute to the global community. With careful planning and preparation, you can make the most of this rewarding adventure.

Let us know in the comments what your day looks like at your international school!

• Teaching In Vietnam
• Teaching Tips and Advice

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Home » Blog » The Importance of Homework in Students Life

The Importance of Homework in Students Life

A very familiar word in every student’s life is “Homework”. These are the assignments given to them by the teachers to do at home after school. Why is this even important, have you ever thought about it?

Let’s delve deep into this blog to understand how crucial homework is in students’ lives. We are also going to explore the importance of homework and some exciting ways to make it fun and feasible. 

From developing good academic skills to inculcating responsibility and time management, homework significantly helps in shaping students’ education path. Now let’s focus and uncover how significant it is and its  potential impact on students’ life.

Students dread the word “homework” because they don’t need any more school work during their valuable weekends after spending hours in class.

Even though it’s well recognized that homework is a requirement of traditional education , the subject has grown to be somewhat contentious. 

While some people believe that homework is an essential part of education, others believe the time could be better spent elsewhere. Do pupils need to do homework? Take a closer look at both sides’ arguments about the Importance of homework to make your own decision.

• What is Homework?

Practice Makes Perfect: 

Review and reinforcement: , independent learning: , preparation for assessments: , extension of learning: , feedback and assessment: , 1. improve thinking and extend learning skills , 2. learn to use resources, 3. helps develop good study habits, 4. prepare for the following day’s class, 5. investigate subjects and develop research skills, 6. increases concentration, 7. develops memory, 8. time management, 9. students become independent, 10. homework improves student achievement, create a dedicated workspace: , provide necessary supplies:, establish a routine: , offer support, but don’t overdo it: , encourage regular breaks: , designate a study space: , set a schedule: , priorities tasks: , stay organized: , limit distractions: , potential of promoting classroom learning, develops crucial study skills, it encourages the discipline of practice, homework builds communication bridges, takes away from leisure time, causes unnecessary stress, not always effective, final thoughts.

It can be understood as work assigned to the students by their teachers to be completed in the time apart from their regular classes.

It can be given in different forms, for instance assignments, project works, reading articles or activities that support what they have already learnt in class. It brushes up their knowledge and they also get an opportunity to translate their understanding to application.

The complexity and duration of homework may vary depending on the grade level and subjects. The ultimate aim of giving homeworks is to boost up the understanding, improve skills and support independent learning.

How Does Homework Help Students Learn?

As we discussed, homework is very impactful in a student’s learning. It’s not about finishing the task; but revisiting the concepts that are already learnt in class. Here are different ways in which homework is helpful to the students:

Whether it is about solving maths problems, improving writing skills or learning languages, continuous practice with the help of homework builds the concepts and also helps in revision of what is already learnt.

Homework helps in revision of the concepts that are already taught in class. Regularly revising the topics helps students to gain a grasp on concepts and retain it for a longer time.

Students develop a sense of responsibility for their own learning by completing their homeworks. It develops very essential skills such as independence and self-discipline which will not only help to excel their academics but life too.

As we discussed, by completing homeworks students not only strengthen their concepts but also get them prepared for upcoming tests, quizzes, and exams.By practising related problems they become more confident and give their best in assessments.

Homework is also helpful in increasing the horizon of knowledge for students. It may include research, projects or some skill-based education activities which enables them to think beyond the classroom learning a particular topic deeply and develop critical thinking and analytical skills.

Valuable feedback always helps in the betterment of students. Teachers are able to understand students’ understanding about the topic by assessing their homeworks. They accordingly help the students struggling in a particular area.

Importance of Homework

In today’s academic world homework plays a significant role in shaping the academic journey of students. Let’s explore the different aspects of importance of homework:

Students develop various life skills for instance critical thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills by thinking beyond their curriculum. Homework’s helps them to translate the theoretical knowledge to practical applications.

Sometimes for the completion of assignments students are encouraged to utilise various online resources , different textbooks and libraries to gather critical informations.This becomes an expert at gathering information thereby improving their research abilities.

Regular homeworks seeds the sense of responsibility and discipline in students. It helps them develop a study routine, by which they learn to manage their time efficiently and stay organised. This leads to great success in their academics and life.

It is always better to read and make ourselves familiar with the topic which is going to be discussed in class. Through homeworks students are allowed to do that. They are well aware of the topic to be discussed which enables them to actively participate in class, ask accordant questions and even learn the topic better.

Assignments frequently pushes students to learn more about a certain topic, which increases their curiosity and desire for learning, for instance, research -based works make them learn how to gather, analyse and evaluate information, in turn improving their research skills.

Being involved in homework requires maintained focus and concentration. The independent study periods helps in practicing concentration which improves their potential to work efficiently for extended period of time, which is crucial for both academic and daily life.

Interaction is the important part of homework assignments. By revising and practising concepts students boost up their concepts, memory recall and also retain the information for a longer period of time.

Homeworks often comes with a deadline. Students learn how to wisely utilize their time to complete the task within the provided deadline.

This helps in developing essential time management skills by prioritising assignments, assigning certain time to particular work and sticking by the schedule. This is something they develop which is applicable throughout their life.

Homeworks are to be done beyond the classroom timings and without the help of teachers. This teaches students to own their work, perform independently, be confident as they deal with these academic problems and hopefully prevail over it with minimum guidance.

As we discussed, homework is a preview of preparation for assessments. It helps students in revision, and retention of the concepts being taught in class. It is often observed that ones who are regularly completing their homeworks are more likely to have good academic performance and grades overall.

How to Make Homework Comfortable for Kids? 

Although homeworks have immense benefits, it can be an arduous tasks for kids, but we can make it fun and intriguing for them. Following are the easy ways to tackle homework :

Good ambience do affect working efficiency. The place designed for kids to study must be away from distractions like TV, loud noises,or toys. It should have proper lighting, quiet and comfortable area to work in.

All the requirements for completion of homework like eraser, pencil, colors, notebooks etc must be checked prior such that there will be less interruptions during study time.

There must be a proper routine based on the child’s preference of learning time, which should be followed consistently. Children get benefitted by this as they learn what to expect and develops a sense of structure.

One should always be available to help or guide their child if needed, but never do their works for them. Parents should encourage their children to develop problem-solving skills and the sense of working independently.

Study period should have a decent amount of short breaks to avoid exhaustion. Child should be motivated to do some physical activities during these breaks to freshen up their minds.

What are some Good Homework Habits?

To give their apt performance in homeworks, students must develop some good homework habits. Following are some tips which can help them develop constructive homework habits:

Students should always have a better workplace which should be quite, with good lighting, and free from all sorts of distractions. Positive learning environment has direct effects on how efficiently we perform, being focused and organized.

Being consistent is the key to success. Students must fix their study time and abide by it. It will help prevent procrastination and will produce fruitful outcomes.

Prioritising assignments based on how challenging and important it is will help in its completion within the given timeline. Students should wisely divide their time and stick by the schedule for timely completion of their tasks.

Staying organised will save a lot of time. Students should always keep a track of their assignments, deadlines and study materials required for it. They can make a planner or use digital tools to stay updated and prevent forgetting important stuff.

Avoid electronic gadgets, mobile phones, speakers in the workplace. Time assigned for the short breaks should not exceed by any means to remain focused towards your work. Parents need to create ways to limit the screen time of children .

A Closer Look at the   Advantages and Disadvantages of Homework

Students perform best when their homework reinforces what they’ve learned in class. Homework assignments that review lessons from the previous day increase pupils’ retention of important material.

When the students have completed homework, they can use their newly acquired skills to apply to other topics and real-life scenarios.

Another importance of homework is that students develop various necessary skills that they will carry with them throughout their academic and professional life, from time management and organization to self-motivation and independent learning.

While doing the same issues again might be tedious and challenging, it also strengthens the disciplined practice. It’s common to need repetition to get better at a skill. Each repetition makes you more proficient.

When homework is finished each night, especially for a challenging subject, the principles are easier to comprehend. This gives the student a benefit while looking for vocational employment later on in life.

The relationship between the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents are forged by homework. Everyone can get to know one another better, and parents can identify where their kids are having difficulty. In a similar vein, parents may observe what areas their kids are doing particularly well.

Children can relax and explore the world during free time; for example, learning to ride a bike, reading a book , or socialising with friends and family teaches kids valuable skills that cannot be acquired when sitting at a computer.

Getting enough exercise, which can improve cognitive function , might be hampered by sedentary activities like doing schoolwork.

The mere mention of “homework” can make students feel dreadful. Homework makes pupils feel worried, agitated, and unmotivated when the workload is excessive, and the tasks get harder.

As well as causing behavioural problems and sleep deprivation , this can make schoolwork a burdensome part of school life.

Numerous research has attempted to evaluate the importance of homework and how it enhances academic performance.

According to research by John Hattie, a professor of education at the University of Melbourne, homework in elementary school has a negligible impact since pupils are working on independent, unconnected projects rather than consolidating previously learned material.

According to Hattie’s research, homework at the elementary and secondary levels only works when it requires pupils to review previously taught material.

Last but not the least, homework do play a significant part in not only letting students perform better academically but also excel in life.

They develop very important skills like time-management, being responsible, being ready for future challenges and lot more. It helps them prepare for their upcoming exams by practicing and revising the topics already learnt in class.

In addition to it, homework develops self-discipline and perseverance, the attributes that are indispensable for success in life. In spite of few complaints, homework’s hold a crucial place in education system, contributing to a student’s academic performance and a holistic development.

The advantages and disadvantages of homework are both genuine, and it appears that the topic of whether or not students should have homework is not an easy one to answer. It is often observed that parents and teachers are at odds while the students are left out in the middle.

It’s crucial to weigh both viewpoints to reach a middle ground. The achievement of the learner is ultimately everyone’s goal.

To help achieve this goal even more easily, 21K School has designed curriculums that will minimize the workload on students and help them have a better learning experience.

Despite occasional complaints, homework remains an essential component of education, contributing significantly to students’ academic growth and overall development.

Read our latest education blogs here. We are pioneers in proffering personalised, affordable and high-quality lessons using an advanced learning platform.

Why is homework good for students?

Homework can benefit students because it reinforces learning, helps develop responsibility and time management skills, and provides opportunities for independent practice and self-reflection.

Is daily homework necessary for students?

The necessity of daily homework for students can depend on various factors such as the student’s age, grade level, learning style, and the goals of the curriculum. Daily homework may not be necessary for younger students as they may require more hands-on and play-based learning experiences. However, as students get older, daily homework can become more critical as it helps reinforce learning and develop time management and study skills.

How is homework good for your brain?

Homework can be good for your brain in several ways:

Memory retention: Homework can help you better retain and recall information by providing opportunities for repetition and practice.

Critical thinking: Homework can help you develop critical thinking skills by challenging you to analyse and apply information in new and creative ways.

Time management: Completing homework requires discipline and time management skills, which can help improve executive functioning in the brain.

Self-reflection: Homework can provide opportunities for self-reflection and self-assessment, which can help you identify areas where you need to improve and develop a growth mindset.

Overall, regular homework assignments can help keep your brain active and engaged outside of the classroom, which can have long-term benefits for learning and academic success.

Does homework have a positive effect?

Yes, homework can have a positive effect. It can help students develop organisational and time management skills, reinforce what has been learned in class, and prepare for upcoming tests and assignments. Homework also encourages independent learning, which is critical to success in school and beyond. As students get older, homework increasingly allows them to take responsibility.

Why is homework beneficial for students?

Homework is beneficial to students in a variety of ways. It allows students to practice and reinforce the material they are learning. This repetition helps them develop better understanding and mastery of the subject matter, which can result in improved performance on tests and assignments. Homework also helps teach students responsibility, as they are expected to complete the assigned tasks. Additionally, it gives students an opportunity to work independently and develop problem solving skills that will be useful throughout their academic careers.

How does homework help students in the future?

Homework can help students in the future by reinforcing the concepts and skills taught in class, improving time management and study skills, and preparing students for future academic and career responsibilities.

How to give homework to students?

When giving homework to students, it is essential to provide clear instructions and expectations, assign tasks that align with class objectives, and provide opportunities for students to seek clarification or additional help.

How to motivate students to do their homework?

To motivate students to do their homework, teachers can provide incentives, offer choices, make the assignments relevant and engaging, and provide timely feedback and recognition for completed work.

Why do you think teachers give homework to students?

Teachers give homework to students for several reasons, including reinforcing learning, assessing understanding, providing additional practice, developing study habits and time management skills, and preparing students for future academic and career responsibilities.

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What is the translation of "homework" in Vietnamese?

"homework" in vietnamese, homework {noun}.

• bài tập về nhà

Translations

Monolingual examples, english how to use "homework" in a sentence.

• open_in_new Link to source
• warning Request revision

Synonyms (English) for "homework":

• preparation
• homogeneity
• homosexuality

Even more translations in the English-French dictionary by bab.la.

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Translation of "homework" into Vietnamese

bài làm, bài làm ở nhà, bài tập về nhà are the top translations of "homework" into Vietnamese. Sample translated sentence: Look over homework assignments, notes, and test results. ↔ Hãy xem qua bài làm ở nhà, vở ghi chú và kết quả bài thi của con.

Work that is done at home, especially school exercises set by a teacher. [..]

English-Vietnamese dictionary

Look over homework assignments, notes, and test results.

Hãy xem qua bài làm ở nhà, vở ghi chú và kết quả bài thi của con.

bài làm ở nhà

Bài tập về nhà.

It is very nice of you to help me with my homework .

Bạn thật tốt khi giúp tôi làm bài tập về nhà .

công việc làm ở nhà

Show algorithmically generated translations

Automatic translations of " homework " into Vietnamese

Translations with alternative spelling

Homework (film)

"Homework" in English - Vietnamese dictionary

Currently we have no translations for Homework in the dictionary, maybe you can add one? Make sure to check automatic translation, translation memory or indirect translations.

Images with "homework"

Phrases similar to "homework" with translations into vietnamese.

• Do homework làm bài tập
• you want to know what today's homework is câu trả lời viết

Translations of "homework" into Vietnamese in sentences, translation memory

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Translation of homework – English–Vietnamese dictionary

(Translation of homework from the PASSWORD English-Vietnamese Dictionary © 2015 K Dictionaries Ltd)

Examples of homework

Translations of homework.

Get a quick, free translation!

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veterinary surgeon

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formal for vet

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Teach English in Vietnam

Work abroad in vietnam by teaching english while you explore the historical cities, world famous food, and breathtaking countryside., program dates, eligibility, costs and inclusions, accommodation, orientation, why greenheart travel, application process, schedule a call.

Questions or concerns about the coronavirus?  Please read our blog about it here!

Teach in Vietnam and immerse yourself in a completely new culture! The low-cost living and laid-back lifestyle are very appealing to travelers, making Vietnam a highly sought after destination. The country is known for stunning places like Halong Bay and popular dishes like phở and bánh mì, but Vietnam has so much more to offer. As an English teacher, you will be making a huge impact on your student’s lives while having the time to explore.

Greenheart Travel’s program is ideal if you are:

• Interested in Vietnamese history and culture
• A new teacher and want a ton of support in the classroom
• Want to live in a city – most placements are in or around Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi!
• Want to earn a competitive salary

Program at a Glance:

• English teaching positions, primarily in and around Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
• Monthly salary of $1,200 – $2,000 USD
• 12 month (private language centers) or 6-12 month contracts (public schools)
• Group orientation in Ho Chi Minh City upon arrival
• Option to add an in-person 3 week TESOL Course upon arrival
• Placements in public schools and private language academies
• All-inclusive program with add-ons packaged in: airport pickup, extensive emergency medical insurance for one year, accommodation for your training period in Ho Chi Minh City, all orientation excursions, and more

For each start date, there will be a 5 day orientation, followed by the option to add on a 3-week TESOL certification course for those who are not yet certified. Everyone will still start the orientation on one of the start dates below, and those that add on the certification will have their orientation followed by 3 extra weeks of coursework.

Orientation and the course are held in Ho Chi Minh City, but placements will be all over the country.

Intake Dates:

*Please note that teachers should plan to arrive in their course location at least one day before the start date.

• Native English Speaker
• Citizenship from USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand
• Bachelor’s Degree
• This certification can be done in Vietnam upon arrival
• 21-60 years old
• Adventurous, mature, flexible and open-minded
• Due to the challenges of living and working abroad, any health conditions, whether mental or physical, may affect your eligibility
• Fully vaccinated against COVID-19*

Still need your TEFL/TESOL certificate?

Add on a 3-week 120 hour TESOL certification course on ANY start date. A TEFL/TESOL course is a requirement for the Vietnam program. Become prepared to step in front of a Vietnamese classroom, and make friends during your first month in Vietnam. You can add an on-site TESOL certification course in Ho Chi Minh City to the beginning of your program for $750 more.

Why should you take the course in Vietnam?

By taking the course in Vietnam you will get hands-on experience with Vietnamese students and the Vietnamese curriculum, as well as personal and helpful guidance from your TESOL teachers. You’ll also get to spend 3 weeks with all of your new friends taking the course before you spread out into your placements – and it’s a lot of fun!

If I need to take the TESOL course, do I arrive 4 weeks before my chosen start date?

No, we have TESOL courses on EVERY start date listed on the website so the date you choose on your application will be your first day in Vietnam. Everyone (regardless of if they need to do the course) will do the 1-week orientation together, and those taking the course will stay an additional 3 weeks after orientation.

Accreditation Information

This TESOL course is internationally accredited by Accreditat and will qualify you to teach anywhere in the world that requires or prefers a TEFL or TESOL certification. The certification lasts for the rest of your life!

* We can accept unvaccinated participants on a case-by-case basis, but 90% of schools still require teachers to be fully vaccinated. Please reach out to [email protected] for more information. 

Teaching Placement Only: $2,080 USD Ideal if you’re already TESOL certified or have teaching credentials

Teaching Placement +  Online TESOL certification course: $2,330 USD Ideal if you don’t have a TESOL yet, or don’t have classroom experience

Teaching Placement +  TESOL certification course: $2,800 USD (Offering a $100 discount on this option for all 2024 start dates) Ideal if you don’t have a TESOL yet, or don’t have classroom experience

Packaged into the Price:

• Guaranteed teaching placement in Vietnam with a monthly salary of $1,200 – $2,000 USD (pre-tax, depending on qualifications and number of teaching hours)
• Visa Paperwork (if applicable) and assistance with visa application process
• Work Visa arranged by the school
• 6 months of Medical Insurance
• TESOL Certification Course  (if chosen): classroom, instructors, learning materials
• 1-month of accommodation   during orientation week and TESOL course in Vietnam
• Airport pickup  and transfer to hotel
• One-week group orientation  upon arrival including all excursions
• Access to  Greenheart Travel Facebook groups   to connect with alumni and others on your start date ahead of your program.
• Greenheart Atlas Program 

Our Support and Services: 

• Visa Assistance  in applying for the visa ahead of arrival, including visa paperwork and extensive directions and support.
• Extensive pre-departure advice and support from Kara, your program manager! She will be with you from your first inquiry, all the way through preparing to leave and your arrival in Vietnam.
• Online webinar logistical orientation  before you leave
• Highly experienced team of 20+ in-country support staff members
• 24 hour in-country and emergency support  for duration of the program, including 24 hour emergency phone numbers to reach a program manager at any time.
• Free Program Extension  – You never have to pay a program fee again if you extend your contract past your first semester – it’s a one-time fee!
• Lifetime job placement assistance  in Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, China, or Myanmar upon successful completion of first contract.
• Opportunity to apply for a  Greenheart Grant  to give back to your community at home or abroad

Additional Expenses You’ll Need to Cover (Estimates):

• Airfare to Vietnam ($800)
• Visa fee or any costs associated with obtaining documents required for the visa ($100)
• You may also have to do a visa run after the TESOL course that will cost $150-$200; this cost is your responsibility.
• Meals ($5-$7/day)
• Rent during your teaching contract ($250 – $450 USD per month)
• A deposit for your orientation or course accommodation electricity and water usage ($70). Just don’t use your air conditioning like crazy and you should get most of this back 🙂
• A laptop:  Teachers are responsible for bringing a laptop computer to Vietnam with them for lesson planning
• Startup cash to hold you over until your first paycheck ($2000-$2500)

Payment Details:

• R efunded if you are not accepted  
• Confirms your spot on a start date 
• Remaining Balance Due 60 Days Prior to Start Date :

Wondering where exactly your program fee goes? Here’s a breakdown:

• Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and surrounding midsized cities around these areas are the most common
• Teachers will always have at least one other foreign teacher in their placement city
• Cities in the center of Vietnam are not common

Contract Length

• 12 month contracts available year-round in language centers, public schools, and a combination of both
• Contracts shorter than 12 months have their length depending on when you begin, as a commitment until the end of the school year (May/June) is required

Work Schedule

• Language schools: teaching in the afternoons and evenings + weekends. You will still get 2 days off per week, but they might be a Monday and Wednesday for example.*
• Public school hours: only weekdays in the mornings and afternoons*
• 15 -25 total teaching hours fluctuate from week to week
• Teachers will get two days off per week but may not be consecutive
• Paid holidays
• Vacation leave (amount varies from school to school)

*Note that many teachers work a combination of public and private school hours, or work in a public school during the school year and then in a private language school during the summer break.

Once you’re placed in a teaching position, you’ll move to your long-term accommodation, generally near your school.

Accommodation is sometimes there waiting for teachers but not always, more often than not teachers are housed for a few nights by the school and then they need to find their own accommodation for long term. We will provide full support and guidance on finding accommodation.

There are two very typical accommodation arrangements for teachers in Vietnam: renting a studio apartment or renting a room in a shared apartment, typically with other teachers on the program. Both options will come furnished, and it’s fairly common for teachers to hire a cleaning/laundry person to come a couple times a week, which is very affordable in Vietnam.

Rent is typically $250 – 450 USD per month

All participants will participate in a week long group orientation upon arrival, whether you are taking the TESOL course or not.

At orientation, you’ll have the opportunity to meet many other new like-minded and adventurous teachers who have also just arrived! Since most teachers are placed in and around HCMC and Hanoi, you’ll get to know a few people you’ll be spending the coming months with! Orientation includes important activities and classes on what to expect on your program, the Vietnamese language, and local culture. Shared accommodation is included for the duration of orientation, as well as for the duration of the course for those staying an additional 3 weeks for certification.  Meals are not included, but there are many inexpensive, cheap options in the area.

Orientation week is full of fun activities and excursions, which are included in the program (note that these will vary based on start date):

• Welcome dinner
• Vietnamese culture and cistory lessons
• Vietnamese language lessons
• Vietnamese cooking class
• War Remnants Museum and Cu Chi tunnels
• Market tour with the Vietnamese staff, to help learn basic phrases and how to buy items at a market
• Local temple tour
• Night market food tour

There are advantages of applying for this program through us:

• 33 years of experience with cultural exchange programs
• Friendly, responsive, and professional support from your program manager.
• Our alumni recommend us! GoOverseas.com Reviews // GoAbroad.com Reviews
• We make our program fees as inclusive as possible. We include things like extensive medical insurance for the duration of the program (medical maximum of $200,000 and prescription coverage with $0 copay) and accommodation for the entire TESOL course in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, so you don’t run into any hidden or unexpected fees down the line
• Connect with alumni and others on the program via our Greenheart Travel only Facebook forums , before you even leave!
• Exclusive access to the Greenheart Atlas, our interactive program that will guide you through your cultural immersion experience before, during, and after your program
• Hands-on support and personal attention every step of the way
• 24/7 emergency phone number to reach a staff member at any time
• Pre-departure “Culture Shock and Adjustment” Webinar before you leave
• Discounts for future Greenheart Travel programs
• We are a non-profit, mission-based organization
• Continued support throughout your contract

We also have some unique offerings to our Greenheart Travel teachers and alumni!

• Greenheart Grants: Greenheart Grants are funds awarded to Greenheart Travel participants to use for community development projects in their host or home country. A Greenheart Grant is the opportunity to create, improve, or maintain an impactful, community-focused project abroad or at home. Grant funds could be applied to supporting women’s cooperatives, schools, community centers, or health clinics, for example. Grant winners will be featured on our website, social media, and blog. You can see our past winners on our blog here.
• Greenheart Alumni Program: We created the Greenheart Travel Alumni Program to provide resources and a community to support alumni in their advancement as global leaders, and a way to celebrate and reward our participants for being ambitious, inspiring catalysts of cultural exchange!
• Greenheart Global Leaders Conference: Each August Greenheart offers full-ride scholarships to over 40 alumni to attend our annual conference in Washington, DC. Participants even get a chance to advocate for cultural exchange in a presentation to the US Department of State. You can see more about what GGLC is and what you could do at the conference here.

Am I guaranteed a job placement?

Yes, acceptance onto the program means placement is guaranteed once you are in Vietnam. We have a 100% success rate in placing our teachers, and would not accept you onto the program unless we were sure we could place you.

When will I find out where I will be placed?

For the placement only program, you’ll interview over Skype and get your placement assignment before you go to Vietnam. For those taking the TESOL course, you’ll interview with schools during your course and receive your assignment while you’re there.

Can I choose where I'm placed?

While we can’t 100% guarantee anything, the vast majority of our placements are in the HCMC and Hanoi area so it’s very likely you’ll be placed in one of these major cities. Teachers are currently in extremely high demand in Vietnam, so it’s very likely you’ll be placed in your city of choice!

Will I be the only foreign teacher?

Nope! You will be working at a private language school which employs multiple foreign teachers at a time.

Can I apply with my friend/spouse/significant other?

Yes! We’re able to easily place groups of 2, 3, even 4 friends in the same place!

Are my meals included throughout my placement?

You will be responsible for your own meals during your time in Vietnam. Vietnamese food is very fresh, inexpensive and easy to obtain.

How do I get a visa?

You’ll apply for a business visa and receive a visa stamp upon arrival. Once you start at your school, they will assist you with turning your business visa into a work permit.

What if I want to stay longer than one contract How do I extend?

If you’d like to stay at the same school, you can just sign another contract with them directly! If you’d like to move schools or towns, we can easily place you with another school at no charge!

How will I get to school every day?

You will be provided with a stipend intended to cover your commuting expenses. You may choose to take a taxi to school every day. Many teachers choose motorbike taxis as their form of transportation as they are very affordable. However, this option should only be taken after careful consideration of the dangerous roads and and very heavy traffic conditions in Vietnam. We do not recommend driving motorbikes in Vietnam.

When is the first and last day of school?

Since you’re working at a private language school, your first and last day will be outlined in your contract, not based on the school year (since classes run year-round).

What holidays will I have off?

You will have all Vietnamese public holidays off throughout the year, the longest break being Têt, the Vietnamese New Year, which is usually celebrated for 7 days, starting on the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar (usually late January/early February).

Will I have access to internet?

WiFi is widely accessible in Vietnam, although Vietnam does block certain websites.

What will my duties be during my contract?

The following are the key duties expected of you. These will vary slightly between schools, participants and programs. Classroom duties as a teacher include:

• Teaching English to a range of classes at public schools and/or language schools for up to 25 classroom teaching hours per week
• Classroom administration (such as taking attendance, marking homework, reporting grades etc.)
• Preparation of teaching materials and lesson plans
• Attending meetings as required
• Participation in after-school activities and cultural events.

It is the expectation of the school that teachers will maintain a high professional standard at all times and actively contribute to the life of the school.

Can I bring my children or pets?

We cannot support teachers wanting to bring children or pets on the program.

Can I talk with alumni or current participants from the program?

Of course! Please join our  Facebook community specifically for teachers in Vietnam, or check out our reviews on GoOverseas.com !

Will I have insurance?

You will be covered by comprehensive international medical and accident insurance through Greenheart Travel for 1 YEAR as part of your program fee. This will cover you for most medical expenses you could incur, like prescriptions, ER visits, doctor visits, dental accidents, and hospitalizations. If you want to extend your coverage, we’ll provide the link to purchase additional coverage.

Will I have access to a phone?

It is very easy and cheap to get cell phones in Vietnam. Phones cost about $30, and then it is pay as you go. You can also bring your own unlocked cell phone and just buy a new SIM card, which is only $2 or $3.

What language do they speak in Vietnam?

The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese.

What if I don't speak Vietnamese?

That’s totally ok! You’ll get some introductory Vietnamese classes during your orientation to help get you started. You’ll be expected to speak English all the time for your job, and for your personal life you’ll gradually pick up everything you need to know! A bit of preparation is always a good idea though! Even 10-20 minutes on Duolingo can do wonders.

I am a vegetarian – will this be a problem in Vietnam?

It can be a bit challenging to be a vegetarian in Vietnam. Most of the food in the restaurants contain some sort of meat, meat broth, or are prepared with fish sauce. However, there are traditional restaurants in Vietnam that serve strictly vegetarian fare. Look for restaurants that say “chay“ (vegetarian in Vietnamese) on the sign. In addition, there is an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables in the markets for those interested in cooking their own meals!

What should I wear?

Vietnamese teachers dress professionally. While teaching, you should dress “business casual”. Women should wear skirts/dresses that are knee length or longer, or nice pants.  Tops should cover your chest and shoulders. Men should wear trousers with collared shirts (polos or button-downs).

Outside of the classroom is more flexible, but you should keep in mind that the Vietnamese tend to be more conservative than most Western countries, especially in the rural areas outside of the city.

Will I need any vaccinations or immunizations to travel to Vietnam?

All teachers need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before arriving to their destination country.

We recommend visiting your doctor or a local travel clinic for updated advice on recommended immunizations. You should visit a doctor a couple of months before your program.

Here is some health information for Vietnam:  http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/vietnam

Is Vietnam safe?

Vietnam is a very safe country. However, just like in any country, you should exercise some caution: be aware of your surroundings, keep an eye on your belongings, don’t walk alone late at night, etc. In tourist areas street hawkers will approach you to buy their goods but a firm ‘’khong” or “no” is enough to put them off. Bag snatching from foreigners is probably the most common threat in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

How much money should I bring with me to Vietnam?

It’s best to have at least $2,000 USD in the bank going into the program. It is unlikely that you will use all of it, but it’s good to have additional funds for unexpected expenses and travel. You will also need to support yourself until your first paycheck comes through, often at the end of you first month of teaching. We also recommend having access to a credit card in case of  an emergency expense.

Can I use my credit card in Vietnam?

Day to day use of credit cards in Vietnam is fairly rare. Some higher end or touristy places or malls may accept cards, but expect to primarily use cash.

Is it expensive to live in Vietnam?

The cost of living in Vietnam is very low, and your salary will be plenty to live off of. The cost of a domestic beer is less than $1.00 USD, and an inexpensive meal can cost less than $2.00 USD!

Should I exchange for Vietnamese currency before arriving?

There’s no need to exchange your money before arriving. You can withdraw money from the ATM at the airport once you arrive, and throughout your stay in Vietnam. You can also bring some cash ($200-300 USD), and exchange it for Vietnamese Dong at an exchange kiosk in the airport upon arrival. However, exchange rates from ATMs tends to be better than at exchange kiosks. It’s good to travel with some cash to exchange in case you have any trouble with the ATM.

I identify as LGBTQ+. How will I be supported?

Our staff and in-country partners are also very welcoming and accepting of all gender identities. We can provide extra support if needed. 

During the application process we are happy to provide information on the cultural norms of our destination countries and are prepared to advise you on the best programs based on your needs and interests.  

Please read more here.

1.   Start Your Application  Here .  You will be sent more information as well as the link to our application portal to begin your formal application.

2. Submit Basic Program Information:  The first step in our application portal will be basic things like your chosen start date, etc.

3. Submit your Application Fee : A $300 application fee is required in order to apply for the program. This is subtracted from your total program fee. If we are unable to accept you following your interview (very unlikely!) we will refund your application fee in full.

4.   Complete Application & Documents :  Provide more detailed information about yourself in Part 2 of the application. In this section, you’ll tell us more information like your work history, motivations for joining the program, travel history, and emergency contacts. You will also submit your documents (below) within your portal account.

5.   Skype Interview: Once you have submitted your online application and paid your application fee, you will be asked to schedule a video interview with a Greenheart Travel representative.

6. You’re Accepted!  Woohoo! We are usually able to accept people within 1-2 weeks of their interviews.

7. Commitment Payment: Once you are accepted to the program, you will need to submit a $300 commitment payment within 14 days to confirm your spot on the program. Once you submit your commitment payment you will unlock the acceptance portion of your portal, which includes things like pre-departure videos, travel and arrival information, the Greenheart Travel Atlas, and more.

9. Book your flights, and get ready for your adventure to Vietnam!

Required Documents To Apply

• Terms and Conditions (signed virtually in portal)
• Copy of Passport
• Criminal Record Check – Greenheart Travel pays for this for US Citizens as part of the online application
• Copy of your University Degree or Transcript
• TEFL/TESOL Certificate (unless you plan to take the TESOL course in Vietnam)

Physical Documents

You will need to bring the following physical documents with you to Vietnam in order for the school to process your visa paperwork:

• Copy of your Bachelor’s Degree Diploma, notarized and apostilled
• Government Issued Background Check (local, state, or national level), notarized and apostilled
• Your original TEFL/TESOL Certificate

Have questions or want to talk to the program manager? Set up a time to have a phone call below.

Take a glimpse into life in Vietnam! Make sure to also check out #greenhearttravel  on Instagram for more

Sound like your kind of adventure?

Want access to our Facebook group to talk with travelers on this program? Click here! ​

Greenheart Travel Adventures

Best part about vietnam hands-down: being a teacher, some things you might see during your first week in vietnam, photo essay: 4 ways to spend 48 hours outside of hanoi.

Teaching ESL as a Non-native Speaker in Vietnam My experience and how you can do it too

Home » The Blog » Languages and Interactions » Teaching ESL as a Non-native Speaker in Vietnam

March 3, 2019 February 16, 2020 Ola Jagielska Living Abroad , Languages and Interactions , Asia

A few weeks ago, I came across an article that claimed non-native speakers can’t get a job teaching English in Vietnam.

As a Polish national currently teaching in Vietnam for a global language school, I’m a living proof that it’s possible to find a job here as a non-native speaker.

In this blog post, I discuss how to find a job as a non-native speaker in Vietnam, when and where to look for the job, challenges you’ll face and what the requirements are for teaching in Vietnam.

Read on to learn more about teaching ESL as a non-native speaker in Vietnam.

How long it took me to find a job as a non-native speaker in Vietnam

Before coming to Vietnam, I did some research. The consensus online was that it’s better to look for a job once you’re already there.

However, I started looking for a job around a week before that. I joined a few Facebook groups for English teachers and googled “English teaching jobs in Vietnam”.

I also sent a few messages and I got a few replies. In the end, I managed to arrange one interview for the day after I arrived in Hanoi . It was only supposed to be a cover for two weeks, but it was a start.

We arrived in Hanoi and I kept sending my CV to different companies. I went for the interview I arranged before but after they offered me $15 per hour, I declined.

Especially since, a flood of responses had filled up my email inbox.

During the first 2 weeks I went for 7 interviews, turned down at least 5, got 5 job offers and accepted 2 of them.

Since then, I’ve left one of these jobs, after getting a better paid position.

Is it better to look for an ESL job before coming to Vietnam or after?

I do understand that looking for a job before moving to a place gives you a sense of security, especially if you’ve never lived in a foreign country before.

However, I personally believe it’s better to look for a job after coming to Vietnam. This is especially true for non-native speakers. It’s just easier to prove your language abilities to a potential employer when they can meet you in person.

You will hear a lot of things like “Oh, I thought your country didn’t speak English” or “We can’t hire you because of your voice” (they mean your accent).

The important thing is to keep pushing through. The better jobs will know that non-native speakers can make valuable teachers, and most of the time the ones that don’t really aren’t worth your time. Remember, for every company that won’t hire you in Vietnam because of your nationality, there a few that will.

Visa-wise, it’s best to come to Vietnam on a tourist visa. This is because most companies will make you leave the country and come back, so your visa will be sponsored by them.

It’s very easy to get a tourist visa for Vietnam. You just need to go to one of the webpages that provide a so-called “Visa on arrival”. I used Vietnam EVisa . I recommend getting a three-month visa to start with, just in case you won’t find a job straight away. The difference in price between a one-month and three-month visa is less than $20.

The good thing is that the company who employed you will cover the cost of the business visa. Some companies will also reimburse you for your visa run. The downside of this is that once you leave the job, they’ll cancel your visa. This is something you might want to bear in mind when looking at jobs for the long-term.

Where to look for a job

You can find a lot of jobs in Vietnam just using Google and Facebook.

The majority of my job interviews came from Facebook. You’ll find a lot of job posting on groups like Hanoi English Teaching Jobs , Hanoi Massive Jobs or English Teaching Jobs in Vietnam . Hanoi Cover Teachers is also a great resource for finding cover classes when you’re just starting out. Those groups are mostly from Hanoi, but there are also many for Ho Chi Minh.

I would advise against posting in any of the groups with messages like “Hi, my name is … I’m from … I’m looking for a job as an English teacher…”. Unfortunately, for want of a better word, ‘trolls’ hang around these groups. So, you might end up getting comments from people who want to undermine you.

If you make even a tiniest mistake, they’ll pick up on it. And if you don’t make any mistakes, you might see comments like “I’ve never met a person from (your country) who could pronounce (some sound)”.

Also, the better employers don’t have time to go through all these Facebook posts. So, you won’t get the best possible offers this way, and often what you do see won’t be relevant to what you want to do.

It’s better to proactively apply for the jobs you like the look of and wait for the answer. Of course, you need to apply for a lot of jobs, and you won’t hear back from all of them. But this is the case in any country.

I read that a lot of people look for jobs by going from school to school and leaving their CV, but I have never personally met anyone who got a job this way. And in all honesty, in these connected times, I don’t think there’s much point.

What you need to get a legal job

The legal requirements for non-native speakers changed in 2020. Now, non-native-speakers can only get Work Permit if they have a degree, teaching certificate and English certificate at C1 level or equivalent. You won’t need an English certificate if you have a degree in English language or teaching.

You can find a job with a major or first degree in any subject. However, it’s easier to find a job if you majored in English, Education or Linguistics. Also, your degree doesn’t have to be from an English-speaking country, although this will help.

However, Vietnam is a bit stricter than other countries when it comes to teaching certificates and they generally don’t accept TEFL certificates acquired through online courses. Because of this CELTA or CERTesol is a safer option.

You will also need a police check. This can always be done in Vietnam, but some centres might still want to see a police check from your country. If you use a police check from your country, this must also be certified at the your country’s embassy in Vietnam.

You’ll also need a medical check done in Vietnam. It is straightforward and your centre will usually organize it. They will also pay for this if they are employing you full-time. If you are working part-time, you usually have to pay for your medical. However, this isn’t too expensive (usually less than 1,000,000 dong/$45/£30).

Are non-native speakers in Vietnam paid less than native speakers?

Usually, yes, but in some centres whether you’re native or non-native doesn’t matter. You are instead paid depending on your qualifications and experience.

In other centres you might not know how much other teachers are paid as not disclosing this information will be one of the terms of your contract (although some might choose to ignore this clause).

However, you should know your worth and not sell yourself short. The first job that I was offered in Vietnam was $15 per hour. I refused straight away. I did enough research to know that this is too low, since I have several years of experience as an ESL teacher already. The lowest I would accept was $20 and I stuck to that and succeeded.

Do people work illegally in Vietnam

If you don’t have a degree or a teaching qualification, you can also find jobs where they employ you without a work permit. I wouldn’t personally recommend doing this, but I know people who work this way.

In fact, some prefer working illegally to working legally, because of visa issues. For example, once you leave the job your employer will most likely cancel your visa within two weeks. But if you don’t have a working visa, you don’t have this issue.

However, if you work illegally you not only risk deportation, but you also aren’t protected by Vietnamese law. This makes it more likely that your employer won’t pay you or just won’t fulfil other terms of your contract.

Will you face discrimination?

Some employers might simply stop being interested once they find out that you’re not a native speaker. They might try to offer you a lower pay because of that. Or they might also make you lie about your nationality to your students.

They also might not give you the best options. For example, one agency told me explicitly that, because of my nationality, they could only offer me a job at a school that was in the suburbs of Hanoi. Their recommended location was a good hour away from my place, even though other teachers were employed in a closer school.

But the most important thing is for you to remember your worth and that being a non-native speaker doesn’t make you a worse teacher. Just ignore them and keep going.

Also, a bit of advice:

Don’t automatically take the first job you are offered. Shop around a little bit. I first took a decent looking job and this meant I wasn’t able to take better jobs due to schedule restrictions. Most places won’t mind waiting a week or two, while you take a little time to consider your options.

Thank you for reading. Have you any experience teaching English as a non-native speaker in Vietnam or any other country? I’ll be happy to hear your stories.

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About Ola Jagielska

Ola Jagielska is an ESL teacher, language enthusiast and co-author of this blog. She speaks seven languages and is striving for more. She loves travelling, reading and drinking good coffee.

10 thoughts on “ Teaching ESL as a Non-native Speaker in Vietnam ”

Thank you for the tips. I am a home-based online English teacher but I am considering teaching English around the Asia and Vietnam is on my list of countries I’m considering.

thank you for your extensive explanation

Dear Ola, Thanks a lot for your very valuable info. I have a personal feeling that you are a great teacher and a very nice Lady. Thanks a lot again.

Hello! I wanted to ask if I have to get my documents certified in Poland or can I do it in Vietnam? I’ve been living here for six months (my fiancé’s been doing all the working so far:D) I thought non natives couldn’t get work permit, so reading your article made me happy. The only question is whether I have to send all my documents back to Poland?

Hello, I am from India. Can I give it a try?

So the Vietnamese government will not accept a TEFL certificate of a non native speaker that is obtained through online education?

My name is Cris and I’m from Romania. I used to live in US for six years and in Canada(where I was a PR). I have a TEFL. I live in Korea since 2010 and I have worked as an English teacher for about 7 years in Korea. I have a Bachelor Degree from Romania(with Apostille) and another College degree from Canada(with Apostille). Also my wife is Korean and I got the F-6(spouse Visa). Even my Visa entitled me to work any job, there’s a preference for the native speakers(from the 7 countries)> Also Korean law allows only the native speakers to be employed as an ESL Instructors. But as I have mentioned because of my Visa I am entitled to get any job, but even so the employers prefer native speakers. So I had to lie in many cases that I am a Canadian in order to be hired, even I speak with very little accent. I have accumulated tons of experience here in Korea, and I have to say that Koreans are not easy people to work with. Competition is very high in SK and Korean kids always compete with other kids> The pressure on them is very high, so living in this patriarchal society is tough. I am looking forward to work somewhere else, I was thinking of China? They accept non native teachers but the salary is 1/3 of a native!..so, I know how much I am worth!..nah…Now I am thinking of Vietnam. Do you think my working experience in Korea will help me to land a job there? what should I do? Best Regards!

Great blog, Got a lot of info, but 2021 Vietnam will most likely be different procedure on English Job hunting.

Great post. You didn’t say anything about people of color from Africa, for example, Ghana, who speak and write English with near flawlessness and with the fluency of a native-speaker

Oh wow, thank you for this insightful article. Being a non-native speaker was really a challenge since l started searching for these opportunities in 2020.l would get interviews whenever l avoid mentioning my nationality in the application documents and process, however, the truth would always come out at the end of the interview after l mention my nationality. Most would then chose not to cut me off then but would ask that l wait for final decision after they consult. All emails were ‘regrets.’ its 2022 and l am out here giving it a try and your article will really help me regarding the approach to take during the search. Much appreciated ?

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Vietnamese Work Culture – What’s it Like to Work in Vietnam?

With global brands flooding into Vietnam and the rise of domestic heavy-weights like VinGroup , there is a boom in high-value jobs in Vietnam, from marketing to R&D to machine-learning engineers — to say nothing about the explosion in English-teacher jobs.

Many non-Vietnamese are starting to wonder: what is it like to work in Vietnam? In this post, we discuss things that our foreign-born colleagues find remarkable about the Vietnamese work-culture , from average-salary , to superstitions, to partying with business-clients.

Food Served at Work in Vietnam

Relationship consultants in vietnam, terminating employees in vietnam, labour costs.

See Also : How to find a job in Vietnam as an expat

Vietnamese Work Mentality – Strengths & Weaknesses

The Vietnamese generally make great employees, due to four traits:

• High IQ – The Vietnamese are tied for 13 th -place globally for average IQ ( source ). They also do consistently well in international math competitions .
• High conscientiousness – Vietnamese score high on one of the “Big Five” traits that is scientifically correlated with academic and vocational achievement: conscientiousness. This trait includes virtues such as dutifulness, reliability, and responsibility .
• Resourceful & get-it-done attitude – Vietnamese guys know how to fix things when they break. Such fixes may be quick and klugy, but at least they will keep production running.
• Technical sophistication & craftsmanship – the Vietnamese have a long tradition of exquisite craftsmanship , including lacquer-art, wood-working, ceramics, silk-making, embroidery-art, and much much more. This historic craftsmanship translates well into modern tech-manufacturing, as evidenced by the growing number of electronics manufacturers moving to Vietnam.

When you read the above list, does it make you think: “doesn’t that describe most Asian cultures?” Yes and no. As one of our colleague describes it, the Vietnamese are kind of in-between Korea and China in terms of work-mentality: they are hard-working and skillful, although not quite so pathologically work-obsessed like Korea, nor have they become so recalcitrant and entitled as the Chinese.

On the cons side of things, it is unclear how innovative and creative the Vietnamese can be. Despite their technical sophistication in arts and crafts , they also have a high rate of copy-cat businesses and fake products . However, we think this is not a permanent feature of Vietnamese culture, and is instead a historic consequence of low IP-protection and the relatively recent ascendancy of individualism among the younger generations (see our views on Gen-Z here ) versus the collectivist-raised Millennials and older generations.

Fluidity in Job Roles – Opportunities

In Vietnam, there is a lot more fluidity in one’s job description. This can be a source of frustration, or an opportunity for growth, depending on one’s ambitions and willingness to do what it takes to move-up.

• Pro : as a young person, you can reach management-level positions very quickly in Vietnam. There are a lot of young managers in Vietnam.
• Con : jobs often lack formal operating procedures, resulting in blurred-lines between who should do what, and ad-hoc hierarchies.

One of the manifestations of indistinct job-roles in Vietnam is the following: it is very common for bosses to get junior employees to do personal things for them , like errands, or taking care of their kids, or organizing the boss’s daughter’s wedding, or having to attend late-night parties with important clients and business partners. Such things would seem borderline-illegal in places like Canada, but it shows that Vietnamese workers are willing to do what it takes to showcase their dedication and reliability.

Greater Emphasis on Social Events in Vietnamese Workplaces

Vietnamese offices tend to have more social events, such as company-paid retreats for strategization, or late-night dinner-and-drinking parties to schmooze clients. In most cases, such events are simply meant to boost morale.

There are a lot of after-hour group-dinners and meet-ups — these are much more common than anything we’ve every experienced in Canada, Australia or the USA (e.g., they occur like twice a month or more!)

If you are an extrovert, or if you are new to a city, then all these social-events are great! But, if you like to separate your work-life from your social-life, then these can be a major energy-drain. You better like the people you work with!

Trust – The Currency of Vietnamese Business

Trust and relationship-building are key to Vietnamese business, both between businesses, and with government officials, as well as between employees and employers.

You’ll notice that a large percentage of a company’s budget is spent on meals and drinks (see our point above ). This is often referred to obliquely as the “Asian way of doing business”.

LEARN MORE about Vietnamese Business Culture & Etiquette

We think this is a natural type of risk-management : in frontier-markets, like Vietnam, there are not the kind of centuries-old regulatory regimes and legal institutions as in the West. Therefore, individuals must rely less on laws and contracts and professional oversight bodies and good-faith conventions. Instead, they must develop personal trust .

As an employee, one’s trustworthiness and loyalty are likewise very important.

Typical Work Hours in Vietnam

In Vietnam, it is normal to work Saturdays, and it is relatively rare to get two full-days off a week. Officially, the standard work-week is 48 hours a week in Vietnam, beyond which an employee must be paid over-time.

The Vietnamese government is considering reducing the work-week to 40 hours/week. However, large companies like Nike are lobbying against the reduction in working-hours. A few progressive companies or Western companies may give their employees one or two Saturdays off a month.

More generally, there is less work-life balance in Vietnam compared to North America. Even during off-hours, employers will frequently contact their employees outside of working hours for extra demands — or even get them to do random errands that aren’t exactly related to one’s official duties.

In one wacky example, we had the experience of being asked to wake-up at 5:00am to attend a boss’s weekly master-mind group and take notes, even though our position was not as her personal assistant, nor was the meeting really work-related. For ambitious employees, such extra tasks could be seen as an opportunity to demonstrate one’s work-ethic and loyalty . Or, it could be very stressful to one’s personal life and family.

Pay & Benefits – What is the Average Salary in Vietnam?

• Median salary – According to the latest government statistics (latest for 2020), the median salary in Vietnam was 4.2 million VND per month ( source ) or about $200 USD/month.
• Range of salaries – There are large differences between municipalities and across industries. For example, the median salary in Ho Chi Minh City was 10 million VND per month (~$440 USD/month). For educated professionals in tech, finance and marketing, their salaries were between 8-20 million VND/month ($350-900 USD/month) ( source ). Engineers in the hottest sectors, like AI and ML engineering, can fetch >$2000 USD per month.
• Tet bonus – One caveat is that, to annualize these monthly salaries, you must consider that everyone gets paid 13 months of salary, as part of a near-ubiquitous Tet-bonus .
• Benefits – Employee benefits are not as generous as in Western countries, but they usually include maternity-leave, extra private health insurance, life insurance, and perhaps retirement benefits to top-up socialized benefits. Government workers get the most benefits — some even get free things like new condominiums (but they get paid less on average than private-sector workers).
• Late pay – Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to be paid late, or for employers to skip payments altogether, especially if an employer is going out of business or they are angry at an employee. It’s not something we’ve personally experienced, but it happens all too often.
• Withheld pay – if you want to quit your job, your final month of back-pay may be illegally withheld from you as a bargaining chip by the employer in order to compel you to continue working longer.

Get more detailed information about Vietnamese salaries and taxation in our post dedicated to the topic.

One surprising perk of working for Vietnamese companies is that they often provide free home-style, freshly-cooked lunches — some even have a kitchen and a chef! We’re not talking about mega-tech companies the Google or VinGroup , but small 10-40 person businesses.

The reason they can offer lunches is because wages for part-time cooks is so low, as well as the overall cost of food — it probably costs less to feed your staff in Vietnam than it does to give your staff free-coffee at a Canadian business.

However, this perk is becoming less common.

Interns and Junior Staff in Vietnam

Although Vietnamese workplaces are not so hierarchical as some other Asian cultures (e.g. Japan), the employees at the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder are expected to do things that are never explicitly stated. Two examples, junior employees are often tacitly expected to:

• bring small gifts for their other employees when they are being onboarded;
• be the ones to fetch coffee, do small errands, carry heavy things, pick-up the boss’s kids, etc.

Such tasks will not be explicitly mentioned in a job description, aside from vague lines like “may be required to do other task as required by the manager”. For example, a senior statff may say, “Hey, we should get some coffee for the meeting”. The junior staff should just intuit that it is their duty to go get the coffee.

If junior staff refuse to do such menial tasks, or pretend not to know that it is their tacit duty to do so, then all their colleagues will make work very uncomfortable for them.

Superstition in Vietnamese Workplaces

Even though Vietnam is officially atheist , it is a deeply spiritual and superstition country. Work-teams sometimes rely on a complex catalogue of superstitions to make hiring decisions, depending on the boss and the HR person.

For example, according to the Vietnamese Zodiac, there are certain combos of birth-years that work-well together and generate good-luck , while other team-combos will lead to bad-luck. Teams are thought to thrive or flop based on these mystical combos (Fortunately, there are little spiritual cleansing exercises that HR staff can do in order to neutralize the bad-luck).

In modern Vietnam, these superstitious considerations are a low priority, overall, but they are still very common and in the back of mind of every hiring manager. For example, if there are two equally-qualified candidates for a position, then the tie-breaker will likely be due to their Zodiac signs and their compatibility with the rest of the team.

Certain industries are much more superstitious than others, like real estate and government, as well as most mom-and-pop small businesses.

Presents for Business Partners & Government Officials in Vietnam

One of the more surprising (and annoying) manifestations of superstition in the workplace is finding gifts to give important business partners, clients, and government officials.

For example, teams can spend an inordinate amount of time debating and deciding upon good-luck colours for their gift-recipients. According to tradition, each person has a set of good-luck colours, and bad-luck colours, based on their birth-year. You may accidentally insult a recipient if you gift them something that is their bad-luck colour — its like wishing them “go to hell!” .

Superstitions are another reason why relationships and knowing your business-partners very well is so important in Vietnam. It is also a good example of why it is important for foreign companies to hire local consultants to manage and mantain relationships prior to establishing business-dealings.

In the more business-centric regions of Ho Chi Minh City and Southern Vietnam, it is relatively easy and efficient to hire 3rd-party groups to navigate these kinds of considerations and translate the Vietnamese way-of-business into the Western conventions, and vice versa.

Pregnant Women and Kids at Work in Vietnam

One of the most surprising things about working in Vietnam is that it is totally legal to ask female candidates whether they plan on having children , and to discriminate against them if they do. Some companies require female employees to sign a contract stating that they will not have children without 2 years of employment.

However, once hired, Vietnamese workplaces are fairly equitable between men and women. Sometimes they are even better for women with young children: young mothers often can often bring their children to work, and will be treated more favourably than other staff, like reduced hours.

On the downside, there isn’t the kind of work-subsidized day-care like in the West; Vietnamese families rely extensively on grand-parents for day-care duties (in fact, grandparents usually move-in with their children during the early pre-school years).

High Job Turnover in Vietnam

Among the younger generation, you’ll see people come and go quite quickly in Vietnam. In some industries, it is not unusual for early- to mid-career professionals to change jobs every 6 months or so.

The high turnover in Vietnam may be a consequence of several things:

• A booming economy – skilled workers are very confident that they can quit and find new jobs easily.
• Fewer job benefits that make jobs sticky – workers are less worried about losing one’s stock-options, 401k plan, and/or life-insurance perks when they don’t have any.
• Fluidity in job roles – as discussed above about poorly-defined SOPs , a worker doesn’t really know what they are getting themselves into when they take-on a new job.
• High variance in work cultures – the differences between work-cultures within Vietnam can seem like entirely different countries, in contrast to Canada where one office-job is kind of the same as any other office job, just with different people.

Some domestic companies, like VinGroup , are known to actually like high turnover, as weak employees are rooted-out and good employees are baptized by fire.

On paper, it is theoretically difficult to fire a permanent employee in Vietnam. The process requires an application to the regulatory body to get approval, and the specified reasons cannot be that the employee is simply under-performing.

Usually, companies will do term contracts with junior employees so that they can just let underperforming employee go by letting contracts expire (although term-contracts have limits on renewal).

In practice, almost most Vietnamese employees complain about being fired at-will and without cause . This discrepancy between theory and practice is very confusing for foreign entites. “If they want to fire you, they will find a way” a Vietnamese manager warned us.

Unions in Vietnam

Almost all Vietnamese companies have trade unions. Most unions are not the kind of cross-company, sector-focused entities like the Teamsters or Federation of Nurses in North American, which span different companies.

Instead, most Vietnamese unions are specific to a company. Some are just an extension of the human resources department — where one begins and the other ends is not clear. And like HR, they are often frivolous and pesky, relegated to planning social events and pestering employees with administrative bloat. And perhaps that is for the best!

Trade union fees are 2% of an employee’s gross salary , regardless of whether an employee actually wants to participate in a union.

High Variance in Work-Cultures Across Vietnam

Due to the rapid change from a command-and-control economy to a free-market oriented economy ( Doi Moi ), and the massive injection of foreign direct investment, there is a very wide range of work-cultures in Vietnam. For example, a well-run foreign company like Uniqlo or Zara may succeed in instilling their own corporate-culture and operating-procedures into a local workforce — for workers, its almost like working in another country, as compared to traditional businesses.

But domestic businesses are also changing and modernizing — we’ve seen first-hand how foreign best-practices can move laterally across a business ecosystem, as workers take what they’ve learned from one workplace and apply it elsewhere. Some workers are hired to do just that!

Hot Tip : Vietnam presents a huge opportunity for consultants to do restructuring and implement managerial best-practices into medium-sized enterprises. From things like Agile to KPI’s to standard operating procedures to demand forecasting: the Vietnamese are eager to learn and implement the hard-won ideas from the West.

In contrast, some domestic conglomerates have developed their own culture that is more akin to the ruthless, high-octane corporate-culture of Japan or Korea.

Finally, there is the non-profit and government-run sector, which is a whole other blog post unto itself.

Why Do Foreign Companies Like Vietnam?

The number of major brands that have most or the majority of their manufacturing in Vietnam is rising — including high-value industries like Samsung’s new and largest R&D centre.

The above work-culture characteristics are very conducive to foreign businesses (and forms part of our bullish thesis about Vietnam), in addition to the following macro factors:

Regional Competition for Business in Vietnam

The 63 provinces of Vietnam are engaged in an aggressive competition to facilitate business and grow their economies. The regional party leaders seem to be responsive to feedback from the Provincial Competitiveness Index , and vie for top positions — the results can lead to prestige and ascendancy within the ruling Socialist Party. This contrasts with Western democracies, where provincial politicians ascend by ideological pandering and/or appeal to race & gender (e.g. the “Obama coalition”) and not competence.

Provinces ascend the PCI by adopting pro-business policies like:

• Providing administrative procedures online;
• Reducing the time to start a business;
• Reducing “informal” fees and charges (i.e, anti-corruption);
• Easy access to land and security of business premises;

… and more .

Each year, more and more pro-business reforms are being introduced in a decentralized, competitive, and experimental manner across the provinces — this provides innovation and opportunities for business. It is also a strong contrast to the top-down central-planning mentality of the Soviet-era.

In 2020 (the latest year with data) the provinces of Quang Ninh , Dong Thap and Long An topped the competitive index.

China+1 Strategy Benefits Vietnam

It is relatively easy to re-route supply chains from China to Vietnam. More businesses are choosing to do so as part of a “China plus one” strategy, propelled by the long-term degradation in the business climate of China.

The most recent example of this decline is China’s failed “zero-covid” policy restrictions of 2021/22. In contrast, Vietnam retired its zero-covid policy in late 2021 and adopted a flexible “live with Covid” policy. Importantly, the Vietnamese government implemented this 180-degree change after responding to concerns from the Korean and EU and American Chambers of Commerce — a refreshing example of stakeholder engagement, in contrast to the unyielding top-down dictates of China.

While Vietnam is pursuing economic liberalization, China is actively undermining foreign operators, in both long-term policies that favour its “ national team “, as well as mercurial policy-attacks on private businesses, such as the $180 billion dollar demolition of the private education sector in 2021. Political tensions are also dissuading foreign businesses from investing in R&D in China, according to the 2021 American Chamber’s China Business Climate Survey Report .

Free-Trade Tail-Winds

Vietnam has been expanding its free-trade agreements in recent years, such as the ASEAN free-trade agreements in 2015/16, the 2019 Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and other signatories, and the watershed Vietnam-EU Free trade agreement in 2020.

Every-year, the average tariffs on imported goods into Vietnam have been failling, as well as the import duties on Vietnamese exports to other countries.

Skilled Labour in Vietnam

Beyond having a culture of hard-work and conscientiousness , the Vietnamese people have a long history of high-quality craftsmanship and technical sophistication — to a degree that we’ve only witnessed in a few other cultures (e.g., Japan, Germany, Korea). Traditionally, this talent expressed itself in works like instrument-making, wood-working, silk-making, painting, porcelain, lacquer-art, as well as very esoteric art-forms such as embroidery art.

Not only do Vietnamese have a history of skilled craftsmanship — they also did it at scale! Vietnam historically had many towns that were singularly dedicated to a particular craft, like “silk villages” or “pottery villages”. Many still exist today (which is one of our favourite tours ) — once you see the skill of these guild-towns, it is easy to imagine how such a culture would excel at large-scale assembly and manufacturing.

30 years ago, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world. Now, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies . Labour costs in Vietnam are still cheaper than many of its SE-Asian neighbours (for example 50% cheaper than China), due to its catch-up in national wealth following Vietnam’s delayed implementation of free-market reforms (Doi Moi).

Will is a researcher in Toronto who has lived and worked in Vietnam. On his own journey learning Vietnamese, he realized the best way to learn a language is to embed the lessons in stories, cultural insights and history.

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Amazing read. Thanks William!

I’m sorry but most of this is just rosy-tinted nonsense. The reality of working in a Vietnamese company in Vietnam is like everywhere else in Asia: low efficiency, no transparency, virtually no standard for innovation or competency. Extremely slow progress on all business aspects. Expected to do unpaid overtime or else get no promotions. Poor strategy. Poor accountability. Poor government enforcement of working regulations. Poor management. Nepotism abounds. This article is biased as hell.

Hi Sean, thanks for the reply. Its funny to think that I’m writing that here is no overtime (I make that clear). Or, that management and accountability are the best? Not so — I am writing about the marginal differences, things that are interesting and unexpected, between Vietnamese working environments Canada, not unconditionally heaping praise on one country or another. Sorry if you had a bad experience, but to think that non-Vietnamese working environments don’t have poor management and poor strategy and poor promotions is unfair as well. Thanks again for the reply, I’d love to hear about your experience

My experience was three different companies over seven years and the only thing most of my Vietnamese colleagues and superiors ever learned was to hand more work to the competent people and hand more power to the incompetent ones. The brightest and freest thinkers among Vietnamese always got phased out in favour of “peacekeepers”.

The level of bureaucratic pointlessness and rules for rules’ sake was just staggering. I frequently saw high level directors get involved in tiny issues of no consequence, the kinds of things that could have been decided by new hires off the street and still would have had absolutely no impact on anything. In fact, all that the actions of directors and managers served to do, most of the time, was suffocate our foreign staff and alienate talented local staff.

There was constantly high turnover that was never addressed. We seemed to be constantly seeking new foreign qualified staff to plug gaps. There was an endless, chaotic, last-minute work culture with little if any ability to forward plan or think strategically. And middle to middle upper management showed no backbone to stick to long term planning decisions.

It was shifting sands every day and didn’t seem to imorove. When I left each business, they had hugely inflated staff numbers, yet extremely slow productivity, just as bad as when I started.

And this was pointed out to numerous upper management staff and even company directors, personally, and nauseum.

Any young Vietnamese who showed individual flair, competence and an ability to think for themselves left for something else abroad only a few months or a year after graduating and starting their work. Virtually all of them admit privately that Vietnamese culture was the reason.

It is absolutely a cultural problem.

Vietnamese people, most at least, and especially anyone above 30 years old or so, seem to put on a great show of being productive and making busywork, but for them, everything is run by a committee of every stakeholder and his grandmother’s pet chihuahua, and so nothing ever really gets done. Everything is so up for review that you can’t trust that a decision has ever been made and finalized. Progress is so slow that by the time a change is adopted, the whole landscape has altered so much it might as well not be progress at all.

Why is this so? I think because the focus in Vietnamese culture is upon keeping an incompetent peace at the cost of fostering competitive progress. Few adult people know how to take constructive criticism without turning into children, and out of those who do, even fewer will genuinely admit wrongdoing. Saving face is itself a nice way of saying “I may lie, deceive and deny, despite all negative consequences, in order to avoid damaging my ego and the egos of others”.

That’s what happens when you have a generation or two pumped full of propaganda, in a place where learning pointless facts means more than thinking critically: many Vietnamese, a majority it seems, either simply lack common sense, or outright refuse to adapt it and would rather hide behind procedure and wooly hierarchies. And the longer you live there, the more it seems to be the latter is true.

To me tere’s nothing at all beautiful about a culture where humans are defined by their ability to lie to each other to avoid any productive conflict of ideas, and it is even worse that they have the further disingenuousness to call it “respectfulness”. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s the opposite of respect. It’s like saying “I’ll pretend to believe your flawed ideas and image, if you pretend to believe mine. And then any progress that occurs after that will be a nice bonus, but it’s fine if it doesn’t occur at all”. A culture, indeed, of childishness, populated by those who have never grown up to the responsibility of real words, real statements, and factual feedback.

Vietnamese culture refuses to acknowledge and embrace the individualism that is absolutely necessary for Western levels of economic success and personal liberty, by beating the individual down with bureaucracy, boredom, and nauseating political waffle. And that’s why it’ll never have both economic success and personal liberty, and likely it will achieve neither.

Where Korea and Japan succeeded, only, is in making extreme hours the norm for everybody who wants to keep a job. Without the several hours of free overtime each day, Japanese and Korean companies would be significantly less profitable. Without those willing to spend quite literally every waking hour at work, what is the Japanese economy at all?

High efficiency, low turnover, good benefits and decent work life balance is the norm in European countries and oftentimes in the States, too. And if you do have to work awfully demanding hours, you’re usually pretty well paid in return.

By contrast, in Asia, jobs with efficiency, stability, good pay and a work life balance are absolutely by far and away the exception, not the rule. Only Westerners generally land those types of jobs. And it’s because Westerners abroad usually have a decent education, can think critically, and aren’t afraid to say it like it is. That’s responsibility. That’s how adults do business. And that’s how businesses become innovative and efficient.

And all that isn’t even touching on general working standards in Vietnam.

When you see the minority, free thinking Vietnamese people, in their mid twenties working 10-12 hours a day for six days a week to earn $300 a month, and you see their work and reforms consistently wasted by incompetent management, it’s hard to think of Vietnam as a good location for investment for business.

Personally, given also the extreme rampant corruption, bribery, and bureaucratic impedance to all forms of business (which costs foreign investors billions every year in missed deadlines and bloated budgets), as well as the inherent threat to long term strategy posed by government authoritarian decrees, Vietnam is a very high risk investment with potential returns that, in my view, don’t justify the risks.

That said, consultancy could be very profitable, if ultimately ineffective.

Everything you said is completely correct. There is a reason why a large number of talented young workers looking for work abroad instead of Vietnam.

Where the culture of valuing incompetent over competent, where skilled and talented candidates are turned down and you get hired for a job not because of your ability but because the boss knows your father.

Free thinking and innovative ideas are looked down upon by the incompetent higher ups. Especially if you are new to the company, they’ll make your work life miserable because you came up with a better idea than them and you do not know your place, which is beneath them and do menial tasks for them.

Hi William, a very thoughtful and well laid out article. Very impressive. Thank you. Also interesting to note that there are opportunities for consulting to bring lessons from others business environments to Vietnam. Not sure if you have experience with this, but I am curious whether Vietnamese businesses eg Banks are familiar and comfortable paying consulting rates charged by overseas firms (we are from Australia and consult to business on leadership, wellbeing, culture etc). Thanks again

Definitely. We’ve seen first-hand that there is a big appetite for leadership and wellbeing workshops in Vietnam, and especially lessons from the Anglosphere. You’ll have to approach big companies and/or foreign NGOs with big budgets. Regarding operational consulting, I think there is a big opportunity in Vietnam in certain sectors, such as high-growth microcaps in burgeoning sectors (e.g. Saas, tech) who have young staff and little institution knowledge — seniority and best practises literally need to be imported from abroad. For banks specifically, I don’t know, sorry.

Hello William, I’m a Vietnamese who studying abroad in Europe now and I just looked for sources to help me with my essay at school. It is very interesting to read the information from your experiences. Just wanna say thank you and wish you have a great year! 🙂

You too. Let us know what you think about Europe and European culture as a Vietnamese! I’d be interested in knowing.

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Man Tortured Minors in Family with Methods Used in Vietnam and Korean Wars

David Calhoun was convicted on several counts of abuse that were committed for six years across several Texas cities

Cooke County Jail

Content warning: The following article contains disturbing descriptions of child abuse.

• David Calhoun was found guilty for sexually assaulting a child, aggravated assault on his victims and strangulation, according to reports
• His wife Ashley Calhoun has been indicted as a co-defendant in the case
• One child told authorities about the abuse, which included burning and pulling out nails with pliers, per court records

A Texas man has been sentenced for brutally abusing several children related to him by using torture techniques deemed by child policy expert Pamela Miller as “indistinguishable” from those seen in the Vietnam and Korean wars, authorities say. 

David Calhoun, 38, was found guilty on five counts of sexual assault of a child, seven counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault strangulation, according to Cooke County District Attorney’s Office, KLTV , FOX 4 News and KETK report.

Authorities say he inflicted horrific abuse on several children when they lived with him in a trailer in Gainesville, Texas, FOX 4 News reports. 

The abuse began in 2017 when he assumed care of some of the children and it continued until 2022 when he was arrested, according to KLTV, FOX 4 News and KETK. 

In 2022, police in Nebraska found a 16-year-old child in a hotel room with adults when the teenager told authorities that he had escaped vicious physical and psychological torture from Calhoun, according to court documents cited by FOX 4 News. The child was reportedly unrelated to the adults in the room with him. 

The teenager detailed horrific abuse that included being set on fire with gasoline, stabbing, beating and sexual violence, according to the documents, FOX 4 News reports. 

The boy said Calhoun had used devices to burn his face and genitals almost everyday and used a plier to remove his nails, among other severe forms of abuse, according to court documents cited by FOX 4 News. 

The reports did not detail the number of children who were abused. FOX 4 News reports there were adult victims as well. 

Investigators say they eventually learned that the abuses took place across several cities in Texas, per FOX 4 News and KLTV. 

Pamela Miller, a senior analyst on policies for children, claims the abuse Calhoun inflicted was “almost indistinguishable from the type of torture that POWs and political prisoners suffered during the Korean War and the Vietnam War," the Cooke County DA’s office said, according to FOX 4 News and KLTV. 

Eric Erlandson, first assistant district attorney for Cooke County, says this is "the worst abuse that I have ever seen," KLTV, FOX 4 News and KETK report.

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Calhoun's wife, Ashley Elizabeth Calhoun, and another adult living with them, Mireya Grace Evans, have been indicted as co-defendants in the case, per KLTV. No details were available as to the nature of the charges against them.

They are set to go on trial in April, KLTV, FOX 4 News and KETK report. It’s unclear if they have entered pleas or retained attorneys on their behalf.

David was sentenced to 10 life sentences, one 10-year-sentence and two 20-year sentences, per the outlets. The judge ordered five of the life sentences be served consecutively, KETK reports.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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