Decision No. 711/QD-TTg Approving the "Education Development Strategy 2011-2020"

Pursuant to …;
Approving the "Education Development Strategy 2011-2020" 

PRIME MINISTER

Based on the Law on the Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on Higher Education dated June 18, 2012;

Pursuant to Decree No. 75/2006/NĐ-CP dated August 2, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Education Law and Decree No. 31/2011/NĐ-CP dated May 11, 2011 of the Government amending and supplementing certain provisions of Decree No. 75/2006/NĐ-CP dated August 2, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Education Law;

Pursuant to the Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020;

Pursuant to Decision No. 579/QĐ-TTg dated April 19, 2011 of the Prime Minister approving the Human Resources Development Strategy for the period 2011-2020;

Pursuant to Decision No. 1216/QĐ-TTg dated July 22, 2011 of the Prime Minister approving the Human Resources Development Plan for the period 2011-2020;

Considering the proposal of the Minister of Education and Training,

DECISION:

Article 1. Approving the "Education Development Strategy 2011-2020" attached hereto.

Article 2. This Decision takes effect from the date of issuance.

Article 3. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government agencies, and Chairpersons of Provincial People's Committees and Municipal People's Committees directly under the Central Government shall be responsible for enforcing this Decision.

 

STRATEGY

DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 2011-2020
(Issued together with Decision No. 711/QĐ-TTg dated June 13, 2012 of the Prime Minister) 

PART I

The Resolution of the 11th National Party Congress has affirmed that "fundamental and comprehensive renewal of the Vietnamese education system towards standardization, modernization, socialization, democratization, and international integration, with reforming the management mechanism of education and developing the teaching staff and educational administrators being the key point" and "education and training have the mission to raise public awareness, develop human resources, nurture talents, and make significant contributions to building the country, culture, and Vietnamese people." The Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020 has directed: "Developing and improving the quality of human resources, especially high-quality human resources, is a strategic breakthrough." The Education Development Strategy 2011-2020 aims to implement and concretize the policies and directions for renewing education and training, contributing to successfully implementing the Resolution of the 11th National Party Congress and the Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020 of the country.

I. THE SITUATION OF VIETNAMESE EDUCATION IN THE PERIOD 2001-2010

1. Achievements

a) The scale of education and the network of educational institutions have developed, better meeting the learning needs of the people.

During the period from 2001 to 2010, the enrollment rate of school-age children increased rapidly, including kindergarten at age five rising from 72% to 98%; primary school from 94% to 97%; lower secondary school from 70% to 83%; upper secondary school from 33% to 50%; the scale of vocational training increased 3.08 times; junior college increased 2.69 times; the scale of higher education increased 2.35 times. In 2010, the number of college and university students per ten thousand people reached 227; the labor force with training reached 40%, initially meeting the market's labor demand.

The nationwide network of educational institutions has expanded learning opportunities for everyone, initially building a learning society. Kindergarten "white areas" have been eliminated; primary schools are present in all communes; lower secondary schools are available in most communes or commune clusters; upper secondary schools are present in all districts. Ethnic minority regions have boarding schools and half-day schools. Networks of continuing education centers and community learning centers have developed strongly. Vocational training institutions, junior colleges, colleges, and universities have been established in most densely populated areas, regions, and localities, even in difficult areas such as Northwest, Central Highlands, and Mekong Delta.

The country has completed the goal of eliminating illiteracy, universalizing primary education, universalizing lower secondary education, and is intensifying efforts to universalize preschool education for five-year-olds and universalizing primary education at the appropriate age; some localities are implementing universal secondary education.

b) The quality of education at various levels and training programs has improved. The level of knowledge and ability to access new information of students has been raised. Most graduates have ambitions to establish themselves and their careers and a spirit of self-reliance; the majority of graduates have found employment. Educational development has shifted towards better meeting the needs of economic and social development, science, and technology; many new training fields have been added, initially meeting the market's labor demand.

The quality of outstanding education has been emphasized through the development of specialized schools, talent schools, and the implementation of high-quality training programs and advanced programs in many universities and vocational colleges.

c) Social equity in accessing education has improved, particularly for ethnic minorities, children from poor families, girls, and disadvantaged groups. Gender equality in general education and higher education has largely been achieved. Education in ethnic minority areas, remote, and far-flung regions continues to develop. Some policies of reducing tuition fees, providing scholarships, student loans, and other support for policy-targeted students have brought practical benefits in promoting social equity and developing high-quality human resources.

d) Educational management has made positive changes towards: overcoming negative practices in the sector, standardizing the teaching staff and educational administrators; reforming the financial mechanism of the education sector; strengthening decentralized educational management, autonomy, and responsibility of educational institutions; widely applying information technology; establishing social supervision over the quality of education and training; building a quality management system from central to local levels and educational institutions; promoting administrative reform throughout the sector; expanding a friendly educational environment, encouraging initiative and proactivity among students; renewing and strengthening traditional and national cultural education.

đ) The teaching staff and educational management personnel have increased rapidly in number, improved gradually in quality, and partially addressed unreasonable aspects of their structure, meeting the requirements for universal education and the development of various levels of education and training.

e) State budget investment in education has increased rapidly, from 15.3% in 2001 to 20% of total state budget spending in 2010. Socialization of education has achieved significant results, particularly in mobilizing resources to invest in school infrastructure, opening schools, and contributing funds to education. Investment sources for education are increasingly being strictly controlled and improving in terms of efficiency.

g) Non-public education has developed, especially in vocational training and higher education. In the past ten years, the proportion of non-public training scale in the total training scale has increased: primary vocational training increased from 28% to 44%, intermediate and higher vocational training increased from 1.5% to 5.5%, intermediate specialized training increased from 5.6% to 27.2%, college training increased from 7.9% to 19.9%, university training increased from 12.2% to 13.2%.

h) School facilities have been improved. The ratio of solid classrooms increased from 52% in 2006 to 71% in 2010. Housing for teachers and dormitories for students have been prioritized for construction and have gradually increased in recent years.

Over the past ten years, the achievements of our country's education have made significant contributions to raising the people's knowledge level, developing human resources, nurturing talent, promoting economic and social development, maintaining political security, and creating conditions for the country to participate in international integration processes.

Causes of these achievements:

- The leadership of the Party, the attention of the National Assembly; the guidance and management of the Government and local authorities; the participation and contribution of social organizations both domestically and internationally, and the whole people towards education have determined the success of the education cause.

- Political stability, economic and social development achievements, improvements in people's living standards, and international integration during the period of renewal have created a favorable environment for education development. Investment in education in the state budget has continuously increased year after year.

- Patriotism, love for people, dedication to work, sense of responsibility, and the efforts of the teaching staff and the determination to reform the education sector have made important contributions to fulfilling educational tasks. Generations of teachers and educational managers working across the country, especially in mountainous, remote, and far-flung areas, have overcome many difficulties and challenges, making great contributions to the cause of cultivating people.

- The tradition of valuing education in the nation has been strongly promoted, reflected in every family, clan, locality, and community.

2. Shortcomings and weaknesses:

a) The national education system lacks unity, lacks connectivity between some levels of education and some levels of training, and does not have a national qualification framework for education. The imbalance in the structure of training professions and between regions has not been adequately addressed, failing to meet the needs of society's human resources. The number of training institutions and scale have increased but the conditions ensuring quality have not kept pace. Some indicators have not reached the set targets in the Education Development Strategy 2001-2010, such as the enrollment rate of school-age children in primary and secondary schools; the graduation rate of secondary school students entering vocational education.

b) The quality of education remains low compared to the requirements for development in the new era and compared to the level of advanced education systems in the region and around the world. The relationship between developing quantity and improving quality has not been well resolved; the professional skills of graduating students do not meet job requirements; there are signs of behavioral and lifestyle deviations among a portion of students and graduates.

c) Educational management still has many shortcomings, retaining a centralized, overreaching, bureaucratic, and overlapping nature; professional management responsibilities and powers are not aligned with personnel and financial management responsibilities and powers. The legal system and policies on education lack synchronization, slow to be revised and supplemented. Coordination between the education sector and other ministries, sectors, and localities is not tight enough. Policies for mobilizing and allocating human and financial resources for education are not reasonable; the effectiveness of resource utilization is not high. State investment in education is not highly concentrated on priority goals; funding for professional activities is still low. The autonomy rights and social responsibilities of educational institutions are not fully defined and practical.

d) A portion of teachers and educational managers have not met the requirements and tasks of education in the new era. The teaching staff is both surplus and lacking in certain areas, and is not synchronized in professional structure. The proportion of teachers with postgraduate qualifications in higher education is still low; the student-to-faculty ratio has not reached the target set in the Education Development Strategy 2001-2010. There is still a small portion of teachers and educational managers who show signs of irresponsibility and lack of passion for their profession, violating ethics and lifestyle, negatively impacting the reputation of teachers in society. The capabilities of a portion of teachers and educational managers are still low. Policies and benefits for teachers and educational managers, especially salary and allowances, are not satisfactory, failing to attract talented individuals to the education sector and failing to create motivation for career advancement. Teacher training and development programs have not met the requirements of educational reform.

đ) The curriculum content, teaching methods, examination, inspection, and evaluation procedures have been slow to change. The curriculum content is still heavily theoretical, teaching methods are outdated, and do not suit the different characteristics of various types of educational institutions, regions, and student groups; schools are not closely linked to economic and social life; they have not shifted strongly towards training according to societal needs; they do not focus on life skill education, fostering creativity, and practical abilities of students.

e) The material and technical infrastructure of schools is still insufficient and outdated. There are still temporary classrooms made of bamboo and palm leaves in kindergartens and primary schools, especially in remote areas; libraries, laboratories, subject-specific classrooms, and teaching aids do not meet the required quantity, variety, and quality for improving educational standards, particularly in universities. The land fund allocated for educational institutions has not reached the prescribed standards.

g) Research and application of scientific research results in education are limited and have not met the timely requirements for educational development. The quality and effectiveness of scientific research in universities remain low; there is a lack of close integration between training and scientific research and production.

Causes of the inadequacies and weaknesses:

- The viewpoint that "developing education is the top national policy" and "investing in education is investing in development" has not been truly internalized and reflected in practice; many Party committees and local authorities have not fully grasped the Party's policies on education development and have not paid sufficient attention to directing and implementing the Education Development Strategy 2001-2010.

- Educational thinking has not been reformed sufficiently. Some new theoretical issues about education development under socialist-oriented market economy conditions and international integration have not been thoroughly researched. The decisive role of the teaching staff and the necessity of focusing on reforming state management of education have not been recognized properly. Comprehensive and strategic planning for human resource development at the national, sectoral, and local levels, as well as planning for vocational education networks, are lacking. Policies for recruiting and utilizing personnel after training are still inadequate.

- External influences have exacerbated the weaknesses and inadequacies in education. While international integration has brought opportunities, it also poses significant challenges to education. In society, the examination-oriented mindset, preference for academic degrees, and the pursuit of achievements continue to dominate teaching, learning, and examinations. The negative aspects of the market economy have had many adverse effects on education. The demand for education and the need to improve educational quality are increasing while the capacity of the education sector and the level of economic and social development of the country are still limited.

II. BACKGROUND AND OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR EDUCATION IN THE 2011-2020 PERIOD

1. International and domestic context

Vietnam's education will develop in the next decade against a backdrop of rapid and complex global changes. Globalization and international integration in education have become an inevitable trend. Scientific and technological revolutions, information and communication technology, and knowledge-based economies are developing strongly and directly impacting the development of education worldwide.

The Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020 aims to make Vietnam a basically modern industrialized country by 2020; ensure political and social stability, democracy, discipline, consensus; significantly improve the material and spiritual life of the people; maintain independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity; enhance Vietnam's position on the international stage; and lay a solid foundation for higher development in the subsequent period. The strategy clearly identifies one of the three breakthroughs as rapidly developing human resources, especially high-quality human resources, with a focus on fundamentally and comprehensively reforming the national education system, closely linking human resource development with science and technology development and application. The country's development in the new phase will create numerous opportunities and advantages, while also generating many challenges for the education development cause.

2. Opportunities and challenges

a) Opportunities:

The Party and State always affirm that developing education is the top national policy, and investing in education is investing in development; education serves both as a goal and a driving force for socio-economic development. The achievements in socio-economic development over the past ten years and the Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020, which requires restructuring the economy and changing the growth model, along with the Human Resource Development Strategy during the golden population period, provide a basic premise for the education sector and relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to develop education.

The scientific and technological revolution, particularly information and communication technology, will create favorable conditions for fundamentally reforming the content, methods, and organizational forms of education, managing education, and moving towards an electronic education system that meets the needs of individual learners.

The deepening process of international integration in education taking place globally provides opportunities to access new trends, knowledge, modern education models, external resources, and creates opportunities for education development.

b) Challenges:

Domestically, social stratification is increasing. The wealth gap between different groups of people and the development gap between regions are becoming more pronounced, posing risks of unequal access to education and widening disparities in educational quality between regions and among different learner groups.

The need for rapid education development to meet the demands of national industrialization and modernization, deep-seated economic development with advanced technology and international integration, while the investment resources for education are limited, will put pressure on education development.

The risk of falling behind could widen the economic, knowledge, and educational gaps between Vietnam and other countries. International integration and market economy development generate new issues, such as the risk of unhealthy cultural and lifestyle infiltration eroding national identity, and poor-quality educational services may pose significant risks to education, requiring theoretical and practical solutions to be reformed appropriately for education development.

III. GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT

1. Education development must truly be the top national policy, a cause of the Party, State, and the entire people. Strengthening the leadership of the Party, management of the State, enhancing the roles of political, economic, and social organizations in education development. Investment in education is developmental investment. Implement preferential policies for education, particularly investment policies and salary policies; prioritizing state budget allocation for universal education and special groups.

2. Building an education system with popular, national, advanced, modern, socialist characteristics, based on Marxism-Leninism and President Ho Chi Minh's thoughts. Ensuring social equity in education, improving the quality of education in difficult regions to reach the general standard, while creating conditions for localities and educational institutions to break through quickly, take the lead, and achieve parity with countries having developed education systems. Building a learning society, creating equal opportunities for everyone to learn throughout their lives, especially for ethnic minorities, the poor, and children from policy beneficiaries.

3. Fundamentally and comprehensively reforming the education system towards standardization, modernization, socialization, democratization, international integration, adapting to a socialist-oriented market economy, linking education development with scientific and technological advancement, focusing on improving quality, particularly moral and lifestyle education, creative ability, practical skills to meet economic and social development requirements, accelerate industrialization and modernization, ensure national security and defense; at the same time, pay attention to satisfying individual learners' development needs, nurturing talents among those with aptitudes.

4. Deepening and broadening international integration in education based on preserving and promoting national identity, maintaining independence, autonomy, and socialist orientation. Expanding exchanges and cooperation with global education systems, especially advanced and modern ones; promptly identifying and exploiting opportunities to attract high-quality resources.

IV. EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT GOALS UNTIL 2020

1. General Objective

By 2020, Vietnam’s education system will be fundamentally and comprehensively reformed towards standardization, modernization, socialization, democratization, and international integration; education quality will be comprehensively improved, including moral education, life skills, creative ability, practical skills, foreign language proficiency, and computer literacy; meeting human resource demands, especially high-quality personnel for national industrialization and modernization and building a knowledge-based economy; ensuring social equity in education and lifelong learning opportunities for every citizen, gradually forming a learning society.

2. Specific objectives

a) Early Childhood Education

Achieving universal early childhood education for five-year-olds by 2015; by 2020, at least 30% of preschool-aged children and 80% of kindergarten-aged children will be cared for and educated in early childhood education facilities; the rate of malnutrition among children in early childhood education facilities will decrease below 10%.

b) General Education

Comprehensive education quality will be enhanced, particularly cultural, moral, life skills, legal, foreign language, and computer education quality.

By 2020, the enrollment rate for primary school age will be 99%, for lower secondary school age 95%, and 80% of young people in the relevant age group will have completed secondary education or equivalent; 70% of disabled children will attend school.

c) Vocational and Higher Education

Completing the structure of vocational and higher education systems; adjusting the structure of majors and training levels, improving training quality to meet labor market demands, producing individuals with creative abilities, independent thinking, civic responsibility, professional ethics and skills, foreign language proficiency, work discipline, industrial demeanor, self-employment capabilities, and adaptability to labor market fluctuations, and some with competitive capabilities in the region and globally.

By 2020, vocational education facilities will have the capacity to accept 30% of junior high school graduates; the ratio of trained labor in vocational and higher education will reach about 70%; the student-to-population ratio across all training programs will be approximately 350-400 per ten thousand people.

d) Continuing Education

Developing continuing education to provide lifelong learning opportunities for everyone, suitable to their circumstances and conditions; initially forming a learning society. Continuing education quality will be improved, helping learners acquire practical knowledge and skills to create employment or change careers, improve material and spiritual living standards.

Illiteracy eradication results will be sustainably consolidated. By 2020, the literacy rate for those aged 15 and above will be 98%, and the literacy rate for those aged 15 to 35 will be 99% for both males and females.

V. SOLUTIONS FOR EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PERIOD 2011-2020

To achieve strategic goals, it is necessary to effectively implement eight solutions, among which Solution 1 is a breakthrough solution and Solution 2 is a key solution.

1. Reforming Educational Management

a) Building and perfecting a synchronized legal framework as a basis for implementing fundamental and comprehensive educational reforms.

b) Promoting administrative reform, implementing unified management and perfecting the organizational structure of state management in education. Synchronously decentralizing management, perfecting and implementing mechanisms for coordination between ministries, sectors, and localities in state management of education according to clearly defined functions, responsibilities, authorities linked with accountability, and strengthening inspection and supervision; increasing the autonomy and social responsibility of educational institutions alongside perfecting transparent mechanisms, ensuring government oversight, political and social organization oversight, and public oversight.

Ensure democratization in education. Implement mechanisms for students to participate in evaluating teachers, educators and lecturers to participate in evaluating management officials, lower-level management officials to participate in evaluating higher-level management officials, educational institutions to participate in evaluating state management in education.

c) Complete the structure of the national education system, establish a national qualification framework for education compatible with other countries in the region and around the world, ensure channeling within the system, particularly after junior high school and high school, and interconnect various educational programs, levels of education, and training qualifications; diversify learning methods to meet human resource needs and provide lifelong learning opportunities for citizens.

d) Classify the quality of general education, vocational education, and higher education according to national quality standards; educational institutions that have not met the standards must develop plans to reach the standards; focus on building advanced, key, and high-quality educational institutions to train and nurture talents and high-quality human resources for economic and social sectors.

đ) Implement strategic management based on development plans for education and human resource development plans for each sector and locality at different stages in line with economic and social development situations, national defense, and security.

e) Focus on managing educational quality: standardize outputs and quality assurance conditions based on applying new achievements in educational science, technology, and management, gradually adopting standards from advanced countries; publicly disclose educational quality, material facilities, personnel, and financial conditions of educational institutions; implement social supervision over educational quality and effectiveness; establish an independent quality assessment system for education, conduct quality assessments of educational institutions at all levels and training qualifications, and assess vocational education and higher education programs.

g) Strengthen the application of information and communication technology to enhance the efficiency of educational management at all levels.

2. Develop the teaching staff and educational management personnel.

a) Consolidate and improve the teacher training system, fundamentally and comprehensively reform the content and methods of training and upgrading to form a teaching staff and educational management personnel capable of implementing the new general education program after 2015. Focus investment in building teacher training schools and teacher training departments in universities to improve the quality of teacher training.

b) Gradually ensure sufficient teachers to implement comprehensive education according to the preschool and general education curriculum, two sessions of classes per day, foreign language teachers, school counselors and career guidance teachers, special education teachers, and regular education teachers.

c) Standardize teacher training, selection, utilization, and evaluation. Emphasize improving professional ethics, work style, and character of the teaching staff to set examples for students and trainees.

Continue to train, retrain, and upgrade the teaching staff so that by 2020, 100% of kindergarten and general education teachers meet the training qualification standards, including 60% of kindergarten teachers, 100% of primary school teachers, 88% of junior high school teachers, and 16.6% of high school teachers exceeding the standard; 38.5% of intermediate vocational teachers, 60% of college lecturers, and 100% of university lecturers hold master's degrees or higher; 100% of university and college lecturers proficiently use one foreign language.

Implement the project to train university and college lecturers with doctoral degrees through a combination of domestic and international training programs to achieve 25% of university lecturers and 8% of college lecturers holding doctoral degrees by 2020.

d) Implement preferential policies regarding material and spiritual incentives to motivate teaching staff and educational management personnel, especially kindergarten teachers; adopt special policies to attract experienced and reputable teachers, scientists, and experts both domestically and internationally to participate in developing education.

3. Reform the content, teaching methods, examination, testing, and evaluation of educational quality.

a) Based on evaluating the current general education curriculum and referring to advanced curricula of other countries, reform the curriculum and textbooks from after 2015 towards developing students' capabilities, ensuring uniformity nationwide while adapting to the characteristics of each locality. Emphasize moral education, legal education, physical education, national defense and security, and traditional cultural values; life skills education, labor education, and vocational guidance for secondary school students.

b) Reform teaching materials and programs in vocational and higher education institutions based on the needs of employers, selectively applying some advanced global programs, leveraging the role of key institutions in each field of training to design interconnected programs. Develop university programs in two directions: research and applied professions.

c) Develop continuing education programs, apply information and communication technology to expand diverse learning forms to meet the varied learning needs of everyone, helping learners improve their personality, broaden knowledge, enhance academic and professional qualifications suitable for job requirements, and improve the quality of life.

d) Continue to innovate teaching methods and learning outcomes assessment in a direction that promotes positive, self-aware, proactive, creative, and self-study capabilities of learners. Strengthen the application of information technology and communication in teaching and learning; by 2015, 100% of university and college lecturers, and by 2020, 100% of vocational and secondary school teachers will have the ability to apply information technology and communication in teaching. Compile and use electronic textbooks. By 2020, 90% of primary schools and 50% of junior high schools will organize two sessions of classes per day. Reform the national graduation examination for secondary schools and the university admission examination towards ensuring practicality, effectiveness, objectivity, and fairness; combine evaluation results during the educational process with examination results.

đ) Regularly conduct national assessments on the quality of secondary education students' learning to determine the overall quality level and serve as a basis for proposing policies to improve the quality of education in localities and nationwide.

4. Increase investment resources and reform financial mechanisms for education

a) Continue to reform the financial mechanism for education to effectively mobilize, allocate, and utilize state and societal resources invested in education; enhance the autonomy of educational institutions, ensure transparency and accountability to the state, learners, and society; ensure financial resources for some Vietnamese educational institutions to be capable of international integration and competition.

b) Ensure that the proportion of expenditure on education in the total state budget is at least 20%, appropriate to economic and social conditions and efficient management and utilization. The state budget investment in education should prioritize universal education; education in particularly difficult areas, ethnic minorities, and social policy groups; gifted and talented education; training high-quality human resources; basic sciences, social sciences and humanities, cutting-edge sciences, and other fields that are needed but difficult to attract learners.

c) Focus state budget investment on public educational institutions without spreading it evenly; invest where standards are met. Gradually standardize and modernize physical and technical infrastructure, ensuring minimum financial resources and teaching equipment for all educational institutions; prioritize investment in building some outstanding universities with international quality levels, key institutions, specialized schools, schools for gifted students, boarding schools for ethnic minorities, and residential schools. Strive to achieve high-quality departments and majors by 2020. Plan and ensure land reserves for school construction, prioritizing the development of concentrated university zones and dormitories for students.

d) Establish mechanisms and policies defining the responsibility of enterprises in investing in human resource development, especially high-quality human resources and those in critical industries. Define the responsibilities of various sectors, political-social organizations, communities, and families in contributing resources and participating in educational activities, creating lifelong learning opportunities for everyone, and gradually building a learning society. Develop and implement new tuition fee systems to ensure reasonable sharing between the state, learners, and societal components.

đ) Implement specific policies to support non-state higher education, vocational training, and general education institutions, primarily regarding land, taxes, and loans. Clearly define criteria for establishing educational institutions to ensure quality and facilitate individuals and socio-economic organizations in establishing schools according to the state's development planning.

5. Strengthen the connection between training and employment, scientific research, and technological transfer to meet social needs

a) Encourage domestic and foreign investors to establish vocational training and higher education institutions to strengthen their capacity to supply human resources and contribute to the labor market.

b) Define responsibilities and coordination mechanisms between the Ministry of Education and Training and relevant ministries, sectors, and localities; between training institutions and enterprises in determining training needs, developing and evaluating programs, admissions, organizing training and internships, and recruiting graduates.

c) Closely link training with scientific research, technological transfer, and production; establish science and technology enterprises within training institutions. Enhance the capacity of research institutions, prioritizing investment in cutting-edge research institutions and key laboratories in universities.

6. Strengthen support for education development in difficult regions, ethnic minority areas, and social policy groups

a) Develop and implement policies to ensure equal educational opportunities, support, and priority development of education and human resource training in ethnic minority areas, difficult regions, social policy groups, and the poor.

b) Provide preferential policies for educators and education managers in ethnic minority areas and difficult regions.

c) Develop distance education, vocational training, expand pre-university systems. Develop special education facilities for people with disabilities, children affected by HIV, street children, and other disadvantaged groups.

d) Increase investment in special education; provide incentives for special education teachers and disabled students.

7. Develop educational science

a) Prioritize fundamental research in educational science; summarize practical experiences and trends in domestic and international education development, conduct forward-looking research to provide scientific grounds for formulating Party and State policies on education development, serving the reform of state management in education and educational institutions, the educational process in schools, and contributing practically and effectively to the overall education development and the establishment of Vietnamese educational science.

b) Develop the network of scientific research education bases, focusing on investing to enhance the research capacity of national scientific research education agencies and research institutes in key teacher training universities. Focus on building a team of researchers and educational experts through domestic and international training, and international exchange cooperation.

c) Implement the national research program on science education; effectively transfer research results and applications to serve fundamental and comprehensive educational reform in Vietnam.

8. Expand and improve the effectiveness of international cooperation in education.

a) Increase the quota for overseas training funded by the state budget for key universities and national research institutes, prioritizing leading fields of science and technology. Encourage and support Vietnamese citizens to study and conduct research abroad with self-funded expenses.

b) Encourage domestic educational institutions to cooperate with foreign educational institutions to enhance management, training, scientific research, technology transfer, teacher and lecturer training, and education management staff training; increase the number of scholarships for students going abroad.

c) Encourage foreign organizations and individuals, international organizations, and overseas Vietnamese to invest and sponsor education, participate in teaching and scientific research, application of science, and technology transfer to contribute to educational reform in Vietnam. Establish some modern universities and research centers to attract domestic and international scientists for teaching and research.

VI. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY

1. Two Implementation Stages of the Strategy

a) Stage 1 (2011-2015): Implement educational management reform; complete the structure of the national education system; establish the national qualification framework; implement the construction of some high-quality vocational and higher education institutions and research-oriented universities; reform the content and methods of training at universities, colleges, and vocational schools; train and implement policies to motivate the development of teachers and education management staff to meet educational reform requirements. Focus on preparing conditions for secondary education reform after 2015; implement steps to build a learning society. Evaluate and adjust strategic goals and solutions by the end of 2015; organize a mid-term review of the implementation of the strategy stage 1 in early 2016.

b) Stage 2 (2016-2020): Implement secondary education curriculum reform; continue implementing vocational education, higher education reforms, and some tasks from stage 1 with necessary adjustments; focus on consolidating and improving educational quality. Evaluate the results of the 2011-2020 education development strategy by the end of 2020 and conclude in early 2021.

2. Division of Responsibilities for Implementing the Strategy

a) The National Education Council advises the Prime Minister on directing the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy.

b) The Ministry of Education and Training

- Take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries, sectors, and provincial people's committees to organize the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy; guide ministries, sectors, and localities in building and implementing five-year and annual education development plans consistent with the education development strategy, human resource development strategy, and planning for the 2011-2020 period; inspect, supervise, compile the situation of implementation, and regularly report to the Prime Minister; organize a mid-term review of the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy in early 2016 and a conclusion in early 2021.

- Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to develop policies for teachers and education management staff, support policies for students under policy categories, and other related policies.

- Take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries to develop financial autonomy policies in educational institutions, financial policies encouraging the integration of training with scientific research and application, encouraging economic and social sectors to invest in education, and regulations on enterprises' responsibilities for training and personnel development.

c) The Ministry of Planning and Investment takes the lead in incorporating the education development plans of ministries, sectors, and localities into the national socio-economic development plan; take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education and Training to mobilize domestic and foreign funding for education development; take the lead and coordinate with ministries and sectors to organize information work on human resource needs.

d) The Ministry of Finance takes the lead and coordinates with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to ensure the budget for education development needs during the 2011-2020 period; perfect financial policies and financial management systems in the field of education to use investment funds effectively.

đ) The Ministry of Science and Technology takes the lead and coordinates with the Ministry of Education and Training and relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to develop mechanisms, policies, and plans for coordinating scientific research and technological activities between research institutes and universities and colleges; participate in building outstanding universities.

e) The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment takes the lead and coordinates with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Construction, and all levels of People's Committees to plan land funds for educational institutions.

g) The Ministries of Interior, Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Culture, Sports and Tourism, Information and Communications, and other relevant ministries according to their functions and tasks shall organize and direct the implementation of the Education Development Strategy 2011-2020 within their respective jurisdictions; develop five-year and annual training human resource development plans, programs, and projects in accordance with the Education Development Strategy 2011-2020, Human Resource Development Strategy and Plan 2011-2020; direct, organize, inspect, supervise, and evaluate the implementation of plans, programs, and projects of their respective ministries; coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and other relevant ministries to implement national education development tasks.

h) Provincial People's Committees directly under the Central Government shall be responsible for developing education within their respective jurisdictions according to their authority; build and implement strategies, plans for education development until 2020, five-year and annual education development plans, local education development programs and projects in accordance with the Education Development Strategy 2011-2020, Human Resource Development Strategy and Plan 2011-2020, and local socio-economic development plans during the same period; direct, organize, inspect, supervise, and evaluate the implementation of strategies, plans, programs, and projects of their respective localities.

ACTION PROGRAM

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY 2011-2020
(Issued together with Decision No. 711/QĐ-TTg dated June 13, 2012 of the Prime Minister)