Vietnam to Spend VND5.8T on Education and Training This Year

Vietnam will allocate VND5.8 trillion from the state budget for the education and training sector this year, rising 5.4% over the previous year, in an effort to further improve its quality.  Of the figure, regular spending is VND4.83 trillion, up 15.1% on year, the Dau Tu newspaper reported on Feb 8. The national education and training quality now remains low and problematic though the country’s state budget spending on education and training has increased by many times over the past years. In fact, the education and training sector does not lack money to develop, but lack proper solutions to the development, experts said. Analyses show that the percentage of population having high qualification is relatively low: only 1.6% of the population finishes junior college (3-year training), 4.2% finishes university (4-year training), and 0.21% has master degree or higher. “Despite the fast expansion and rapid growth in the numbers of universities and colleges, the quality of education cannot meet the social demand and development in the region,” Victoria Kwakwa, WB director said.  “If the current situation of education is maintained, Vietnam will be inadequate for the requirements of international integration,” the experts warned. (Dau Tu – Investment Feb 8 p2)