Early Childhood Education in Vietnam: History and Evaluation of Its Policies
This chapter analyses Vietnam’s policies, laws and documentation on early childhood care and education (ECCE) through the 3A2S framework (Li et al, Int J Chin Educ 3(16):1–170, 2014) and concludes with an evaluation of the progress made in the provision o
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Early Childhood Education in Vietnam: History and Evaluation of Its Policies Wendy Boyd and Thao Dang Phuong
Abstract This chapter analyses Vietnam’s policies, laws and documentation on early childhood care and education (ECCE) through the 3A2S framework (Li et al, Int J Chin Educ 3(16):1–170, 2014) and concludes with an evaluation of the progress made in the provision of quality early childhood education throughout the twenty-first century. Early childhood care and education has a long history in Vietnam. As early as the 1900s, ECCE was provided to support women’s work, as Vietnam was an agrarian society. Following independence of France in 1954, Vietnam was involved in war and associated hardship until the 1970s so it was not until the 1980s that large-scale reforms in education became a significant focus of the government. Early childhood care and education was made an official department in 1991. Throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century, universal access to ECCE has been a priority with remarkable achievements gained. However, access to ECCE in mountainous areas, amongst ethnic minority groups and for many disadvantaged people, needs improvement. Vietnam has made significant progress in meeting accessibility, affordability, accountability, sustainability and social justice goals in ECCE, ongoing investment, both financial and in terms of human resources, is required to continue strengthening ECCE more uniformly across the country.
W. Boyd (*) School of Education, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW, Australia e-mail: [email protected] T. Dang Phuong Early Childhood Education Department, Lam Dong Education and Training Agency, Dalat, Vietnam © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 H. Li et al. (eds.), Early Childhood Education Policies in Asia Pacific, Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects 35, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1528-1_12
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W. Boyd and T. Dang Phuong
Introduction Vietnam is bounded by the People’s Republic of China to the north, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia in the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east and south. The country has a population of 93 million (Index Mundi 2015) with 54 ethnic groups comprising 86 % Vietnamese and the rest of ethnic minority background (MoET 2015). Vietnam is divided into 63 provinces under the central government: 643 districts, towns and provincial cities and 11,145 communes, wards and towns under district administration (General Statistics Office 2012 as cited in MoET 2015). Around 17 % (15.6 million) of Vietnam’s total population remain below the national poverty line (World Bank 2015). In 2015, approximately one quarter of the population was under 15 years of age (Country Meters 2015). For children to make the best start in life, they need to live in a safe and hygienic environment. While Vietnam’s quality of life has improved with access to clean drinking water and sanitation, there are still problems associated with poor living standards. Of the children under 5 years of age, 12
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