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The History of Vietnamese Education: How Did It Transform from a Confucian System to a Modern System?
Vietnam's education system is governed by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam and covers both public and private schools. It is divided into five levels: pre-school, primary, secondary, high school and higher education. This education system has undergone many reforms and changes, and has been influenced by external forces many times in history, especially Confucianism and the French colonial system.
The roots of Vietnam's education system can be traced back to China's Confucian culture, when a civil service system dominated social advancement.
The Confucian education model emphasizes morality, ethics, and the study of poetry, which enables talented students to become officials or aristocrats. As the guns of the 20th century began to sound, this traditional education model encountered challenges from the Western education system. During the French colonial period, Vietnam's education system underwent fundamental changes. The French model replaced the original Confucian system, leading to further diversification of Vietnam's educational direction.
In the 1920s, Vietnam gradually established the Chữ Quốc Ngữ alphabet system based on the Latin alphabet, which became an important cornerstone of Vietnamese education in the future. This change is not just a change in language and writing, it also affects the knowledge structure and cultural identity of the entire society.
Vietnam's current education system provides students with a mandatory twelve-year basic education, which is an important feature of modern Vietnam.
Today's Vietnamese education system is highly competitive, and high school education has become one of the focuses of social attention. Especially in schools called "gifted high schools", extended courses are offered and the entrance test score requirements for these schools are extremely high. The system also puts many families under enormous pressure as competition for university admission becomes increasingly fierce.
In higher education, entrance examinations since 2002 have been based on the University and College Selection Examination. However, with the changes in industrial structure and adjustments in government policies, Vietnam's higher education system must also be appropriately adjusted to adapt to new social needs.
Faced with the increasing economic growth rate, Vietnam's education system needs to keep pace with the times and constantly adapt to the needs of modernization.
Over the past decade, public feedback on Vietnam’s education system has been less than satisfactory, with some citizens criticizing the inflexible curriculum. Many people believe that education should focus more on the development of life skills rather than relying solely on test scores. The education department then launched a series of reforms to try to ease social conflicts and academic pressure.
According to statistics, the enrollment rate in higher education was only 3% in 1995, but it had risen to about 30% by 2019. However, there are still significant gaps in school access and academic achievement, especially among different ethnic groups, and educational equity remains a task that requires effort.
In terms of pre-school education, public kindergartens usually accept children from 18 months to 5 years old, while primary education starts at the age of six and lasts for five years, which is compulsory for all children. Vietnam's current literacy rate is over 90%, which to some extent reflects the progress of the education system, but the differences in education completion rates among different ethnic groups still pose obstacles to the balanced development of society.
In terms of the quality of education, Vietnam faces challenges in terms of teaching quality and insufficient resources. Especially as Vietnam is developing rapidly, the education system needs to keep pace with the times.
With the progress of society and the impact of globalization, Vietnam's education system must face the diverse challenges and opportunities of modern society. The direction of future education reform should be based on humanity, flexibility and diversification. This is not only necessary to improve the objective quality of education, but also a preparation for future talents to adapt to the changing times.
In such a rapidly changing educational environment, can Vietnam explore a path of educational development that suits its own characteristics? How can we gain a foothold in the global education competition?
