Individual report:

Ethnic minorities of Vietnam have limited

access to education

Nguyễn Gia Bảo (23004951)

BAS-T323WSB-5
University of Economics HCMC - International
School of Business (ISB)
Anna Loseva
December 03, 2023
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report provides an overview of children from ethnic
minorities group in Vietnam lack of education context
including:
The effect of the COVID 19 pandemic
Ethnic minorities
Educational disparity

The root causes of the problem can be started from Educational

disparity, ethnic minorities view points and the Covid 19 pandemic

To improve the situation there are thing that can be done like:
Personalized Lessons
Policies for ethnic minorities
Increase fund and money
 TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction
Problem description
Context of the problem
I. Ethnic minorities
II. Educational disparity
III. The effect of the COVID 19 pandemic
Causes of the problem
I. A lack of facilities and resources
II. Early marriage
III. Language barrier
IV.A shortage of skilled teaching workforce
Possible Solutions
II. Personalized Lessons
II. Policies for ethnic minorities
III. Increase fund and money
Recommendations
Conclusions
References
INTRODUCTION
Education is one of the most important thing in human life,
we can learn so much and expand our world view and
even improve and change our lives. But not all people can
have the luxury to have full access to proper education like
people from the ethnic minorities group. To improve their
lives and make the rural areas more urban like, it is
important to care about education.

This report will aim to solve the fact that ethnic minorities still have
trouble in studying by addressing possible solutions for the problem. It
will also state the strength and limitations of the said solution to
maximize the solution and help the children to have the chance to
change their life for good

In this report, Viet Nam ethnic minorities education

and problems such as bad customs, language barrier
and lack of facility will be focused on
This report mainly uses secondary data to
understand the problem, its causes, and possible
solutions. These sources include Vietnamese
newspapers, reports of global health and
humanitarian organizations, and journal articles.
 PROBLEM
DESCRIPTION
The fact that ethnic minority communities continue to face challenges
when it comes to learning has gained significant attention not only from
the public but also from the government.

In Viet Nam rural areas, more than 40% children can’t go to school in
2022 according to Hùng P. (2022, September 22). Based on this data, it
could be concluded that regardless of the attention education for
ethnic minorities has received, the fact that it is difficult for them to
get access to education is an alarming problem
Context of the problem
Minorities in ethnicity
Vietnam is a multiethnic country made up of 54 distinct ethnic groups. The Kinh group
comprises around 86% of the entire population of Vietnam, with the remaining 53 groups
making up a smaller fraction of the population, totaling more than 14% . Many ethnic
minority groups are found in rural, isolated, and hilly places of Vietnam.
The lack of access to electricity, inadequate fresh water supplies, limited educational
opportunities relative to the Kinh group, and other issues have plagued people from
ethnic minorities. According to (Karlıdağ-Dennis et al. 2020a), there is a clear economic
and educational divide between the Kinh and other ethnic groups.
Educational disparity
In contrast to rural and urban areas, children in the former had less opportunities to
attend school, according to a UNICEF poll from 2021. Additionally, there is a discrepancy
in the pupils' attendance rate.
Figure 1: Percentage of children attending upper secondary school according to ethnicity,
region, and wealth quintile.

Image source: Viet Nam SDGCW Survey 2020-2021,

https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/media/8686/file/Education.pdf
The effect of the COVID 19 pandemic
Covid 19 pandemic have cost the world a lot of lives and resource, all of
trading business and work has stopped because of it. Scholls have tried
their best to ensure the student can still learn form home via online
classes but in the rural areas, according to (Flowers 2020) a UNICEF
representative in Viet Nam, in Lao Cai province only 15% Children hold
possession of devices thus resulting in many children can not learn
from their home

Causes of the problem

A lack of facilities and resources
People lack the resources or ability to build classrooms and schools in rural or
mountainous places, therefore students do not have a suitable environment to
study. Not to mention, there are no study aids or materials like textbooks, tables,
technology, internet access, etc. that hinder pupils' ability to learn (Flowers, 2020).
Even though there are some locations for ethnic students to learn, the majority
of them must walk there because there is no public transit, and because their
homes are distant from the school, it would take them hours to get there and
back (Duc Nam, 2022).
Early marriage
Early marriage is a big issue among ethnic minorities in Vietnam, and it
frequently leads in females dropping out of school. According to a
UNICEF research show that in 2014 shows an adolescent birth rate of 45
per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years making young girls have to
abandoned their future in order to raise the baby
Figure 2: Rates of women (aged 15-19 years) who have begun
childbearing by ethnicity, Viet Nam, 2011 and 2014

Image Source: MICS 2011 and 2014

https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/sites/unicef.org.vietnam/files/2018-
09/Child%20Marriage%20Eng.pdf

Language barrier
Being unable to understand the Vietnamese is a hard obstacle that the children in
rural areas have to face when studying.
. According to (World Bank 2013).Students from ethnic minorities in remote areas
like Yen Bai, Dien Bien and Quang Tri province found it difficult to understand
lessons because they were unable to speak Vietnamese and hardly went to school.
A shortage of skilled teaching workforce
The most vital element for the success of education is the teaching
workforce. However, Vietnam is having trouble finding qualified
educators to meet the demand of teaching children in these hilly
locations, particularly those who belong to ethnic groups (Ha, 2021).
The primary cause of this lack of qualified educators is that teachers
in educational institutions have insufficient training in local
languages, which is essential for imparting knowledge to pupils from
ethnic minorities. As a result, according to (V. C. Nguyen and Hoang
2022) students frequently complain that they struggle to understand
the lessons they are learning.
Because of this, pupils from ethnic minorities may not be able to
receive an education due to a teacher shortage (Karlıdağ-Dennis et al.,
2020b).
 Possible Solutions
Personalized Lessons
Making the lessons to be able to understand is important for children from the
ethnic minorities to learn. So in 2010, the “Improving Quality Basic Education for
Ethnic Minority Children in Three Disadvantaged Provinces in Vietnam Project”,
it is supported by the Japanese Social Development Fund and managed by Save
the Children and the World Bank. The project students are given lessons in the
local dialect by teaching assistants. Some educational institutions offer
Vietnamese as a second language. Students are learning the material more
quickly and readily thanks to this method. Not only that some students use their
own words and drawings or paintings to make unique books with the assistance
of their teachers. Reading becomes exciting for the kids since the material is
relevant to their lives. Thus significantly enhance their Vietnamese . (World Bank
2013)
Evaluation:
Strengths
Make the children learn faster and easier
Limitations
Take time cause the teacher will also have to learn their mother language to
be able to do this method
Policies for ethnic minorities
According to (World Bank,2016),The School Readiness Promotion Project (SRPP) was
created to supplement the following elements of the government's Early Childhood
Development programs and encourage children to go to school with various policies
like:
1. Expansion of full-day, full-year enrolment in preschools,
2. Provision of lunch subsidies for poor and ethnic minority children
3. Promotion of quality through more and better teacher training, the development
of a quality assurance system and the establishment of an accreditation process.
Evaluation
Strengths
Give more motivation for the children to go to school, as well as provide as much
as possible for them
Limitation
Need a lot of investment and fund from the government
 Increase fund and money
The government anticipates that more money spent will minimize the difficulty in
learning and with enough budget the government can make the infrastructure like
road, house, building,... to make life easier for people in the rural areas. It can also
provide more school supplies like books, pens, notebooks,.. and lead to a higher
attendance rate (Asian Development Bank, 2018).
Evaluation
Strengths
The investment has the potential to minimize the financial burden placed on
ethnic students.
Address the issue of insufficient school enrollment.
Limitations:
Inequality in resource distribution may occur among different ethnic minority
groups.
Long-term and sustainable success will necessitate more investment.

Recommendations
To deal with the issue lack of education of ethnic minority in Vietnam, authorities
should consider combining all three possible methods. Based on the three
evaluations, it is recommended to increase fund and money to make the facilities
more advanced as well more school supplies for the students so that the other two
solutions will be more effective in the long run and will slowly solve the problem.

Conclusions
To summarize, the proposed solutions might contribute to reducing the severity of the
problem of ethnic minorities in Vietnam having limited access to education. These
ideas could be more effective with the assistance of the government and local
authorities in mountainous areas
 References
Hùng P. (2022, September 22).More than 40% of children in disadvantaged areas do
not go to school. City Law Newspaper. Ho Chi Minh https://plo.vn/hon-40-tre-em-
vung-kho-khan-chua-duoc-toi-truong-post699789.html
Flowers,R(2020, May 11).Ethnic minority education in Viet Nam: challenges and
opportunities during COVID-19 outbreak
https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/stories/ethnic-minority-education-viet-nam-
challenges-and-opportunities-during-covid-19-outbreak
World Bank. (2013, September 4) Vietnam: Personalized Lessons Keep Children
from Ethnic Minorities in School
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/09/04/vietnam-personalised-
lessons-keep-children-from-ethnic-minorities-in-school
Karlidag-Dennis, E., Hazenberg, R., & Dinh, A.-T. (2020a). Is education for all? The
experiences of ethnic minority students and teachers in North-western Vietnam
engaging with social entrepreneurship. International Journal of Educational
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school. https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/11/21/vietnam-more-young-
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và hàm ý chính sách [ Accessing to the upper secondary education of ethnic
minority students in Lai Chau: Some issues and policies]. Sti.vista.gov.vn.
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western Vietnam engaging with social entrepreneurship. International
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