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Vietnam
This Week in AsiaSociety

Vietnam’s plan for all students to speak English didn’t work – but its education system still shines

  • While the Project 2020 initiative fell short, students in the country have embraced opportunities to learn the language
  • The country ranks ahead of Thailand and Indonesia in English proficiency, and global test scores show its young are doing well in maths, science and reading

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Vietnam is in the final year of a 12-year, US$446 million initiative to ensure all students become proficient in a foreign language, namely English. Photo: Alamy
Bac PhamandBennett Murray

Nguyen Quy Duc, 17, speaks English with a near native accent. Like many Vietnamese teenagers, he wants to go abroad, hopefully to the United States, to study information technology. He takes A-level courses in English at his state high school in Hanoi, the first in Vietnam to offer British-designed advanced courses certified by Cambridge University.

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“We get a chance to learn subjects in English which is very helpful for the future,” he said.

Vietnam is now in the final year of a 12-year, US$446 million initiative to ensure all students become proficient in a foreign language, namely English, to effectively integrate the nation into the global economy. While most indicators suggest the programme – known as Project 2020 – has fallen short, many Vietnamese students have nonetheless embraced the expanded opportunities to learn the language.

Vietnam is a young country – almost 40 per cent of its population of over 90 million is under the age of 40 – and around 23.5 million Vietnamese are enrolled in some sort of educational institute. These include the 1.5 million attending one of the country’s 235 tertiary education institutes, with 87 per cent attending public schools and the rest in private ones, according to government statistics.

Nguyen Phu Hoang Lan, a maths teacher at Chu Van An who teaches in English, said the language proficiency at his school was high.

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“They have many chances to study English, from television, to music, from teachers, to the [A-level] programme … and most of them are really good,” he said.

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