Similar to its economy, Vietnam’s education system has improved at a remarkable pace. Having almost met the goal of universal primary education, government officials are now paying even greater attention to ensuring education quality. Vietnam’s vision for its education system is one that enables the country to become a globally competitive, knowledge-based economy.

The objective of the READ Trust Fund program in Vietnam in the first stage of the Program was to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the country’s assessment system. The program supported Vietnam to enhance its capacity to conduct systemic assessments of learning outcomes and provide recommendations for actions to improve student learning. At the beginning of the program, the baseline diagnostic showed that the most developed part of Vietnam’s assessment system was classroom assessment, which was only emerging. With READ funds, Vietnam focused significant efforts on capacity building in a number of assessment areas, and among a wide range of stakeholders, i.e., teachers, school leaders, provincial departments, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) staff, teacher training colleges, and universities. Additionally, Vietnam concentrated its READ support on developing and institutionalizing competency-based assessment practices into their new general education curriculum. By the end of READ Vietnam had made significant progress in all assessment areas and had built a strong foundation for future activities.

During the second stage of the READ Trust Fund program in 2016-2019 Vietnam implements project “Promoting Capacity for Fair, Aligned, and Effective Assessment”.

FOCAL AREAS OF THE PROJECT

  • Enhancing stakeholder capacity to use assessment data to improve teaching and learning

  • High-stakes examination program reform

  • Training and professional development of teachers in classroom assessment practices

UP TO DATE ACHIEVEMENTS

Developed an overall work plan of the review of Senior Secondary Entrance Examination (SSEE) content and evaluation of its technical quality, alignment with curricula, and effectiveness as an assessment for entry to Senior Secondary School, and developed an initial detailed plan of data collection from selected provincial examination sites

 

Developed an action plan for the survey on training needs among teachers and education managers on classroom assessment practices to be implemented by June 2019

 

Prepared a compilation of reading materials for the primary education level, which can be used for the development of new systematic reading scale criteria covering beginner to advanced reading proficiency; these materials are guided by the background paper on assessing reading with reference to Vietnam’s policy and linguistic context

UPCOMING ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Complete data collection for the SSEE review

  • Prepare and finalize a report on the effectiveness and technical quality of the SSEE

  • Develop systematic criteria for assessment of reading progress covering beginner to advanced reading proficiency

  • Develop performance level indicators within a range of reading proficiencies consistent with curricular standards developed

  • Complete a report on the training needs among teachers and education managers on classroom assessment practices