Quality as Key in Vietnam’s Passage to Educational Integration

Abstract

Postwar Vietnam did well in offering basic education to most of its people. Socialist-oriented policies tried to create a less polarized distribution of wealth, and public universities were designed to be meritocratic yet equitable to play a key role in producing the technicians and professionals required by domestic production activities. At the tertiary level, the recent surge in college admissions from the rural countryside where 80 percent of the population live indicates that recipients of state investment for education come from poorer backgrounds.