The Analysis of Vietnam Education Development: Impacts of

Vietnam War Perspective

Peixuan Han

Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University100 International Drive, Baltimore, U.S.A.

Keywords: Education, Vietnam War, Economic, Political Economy of Education Development, History.

Abstract: After the Vietnam War in 1975, Vietnam's economic development and education system continued to

develop. With this long-term development, Vietnam has become one of the world’s highest literacy rates

countries. As time moving, more and more researchers want to know how the Vietnamese are cultivating

the knowledge rate. People think they have their own cultural background, others consider that Vietnam has

a good policy system or leader. This research paper analyses how the Vietnamese develop their education

system from multiple perspectives such as educational background, the impact of the Vietnam War, national

policies, and economic factors.

1 INTRODUCTION

“Are you sure Vietnam has one of the world’s highest

literacy rates?” I asked my friend, Katherine in surprise.

“Yes, I am. I have another interesting data. In

Vietnam’s rural areas, the education system has been

nearly as well developed as in urban areas, and in

1989, 87 percent of the rural population has ability

of literacy. I don’t know why their education had big

improvement after the Vietnam War.” She described

it to me with an uncanny expression. The above

story could relate to other historical data which

showed that after the Vietnam War in 1975,

Vietnam’s development of economic and education

system continues to develop. This development also

raises the rate of literacy in Vietnam.

As time goes by, more and more researchers want to

know how the Vietnamese improved the rate of literacy

in a short period. Some people consider that they had

profound cultural background. Some people focus on

their good leader. However, Vietnam’s policies could

not be the most important factor in the improvement of

Vietnam’s education. Although the Vietnam War had

devastation in their country, it also pushed Vietnam’s

educational reform. Whenever people mention the topic

of the Vietnam education system, we should look back

to the Vietnamese education historical processes at first.

2 VIETNAM’S EDUCATION

ROOTS (THE LATE 19TH

CENTURY TO THE MID 20TH

CENTURY)

In the period between the late 19th century to mid

20th century, Vietnam’s education system falls into

two distinct periods.

One of the educational roots of Vietnam had

named the Feudal Period. Before the 19th century,

Vietnamese accepted cultures and education in

several different ways, such as Taoism, Buddhism,

and Confucianism. But over time, in the nineteenth

century, Confucianism became the most important

influence in Vietnam’s culture and education

system. Neil L. Jamieson, who works at The

University of California Press, talked about the ideas

of Confucianism of yin and yang in his book,

Understanding Vietnam. He mentioned that yin and

yang is one of the most important ideas in

Confucianism. Vietnamese traditional society

consists by a system of yin and yang. For the

traditional Vietnamese, their culture consisted by the

whole Confucianism idea, not only consisted by yin

and yang rule (Jamieson, 2005). An Academic

journal, East Asia: An International Quarterly,

explains that China had contact with Vietnam for

more than two millennia. A significant event

happened in the seventeenth century; some people

Han, P.

The Analysis of Vietnam Education Development: Impacts of Vietnam War Perspective.

DOI: 10.5220/0011073000003168

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Finance, Information Technology and Management (ICFITM 2021), pages 28-32

ISBN: 978-989-758-576-0

who were from the Ming dynasty arrived in Vietnam

they formed a Sino-Vietnamese ethnic community.

Sino-Vietnamese further promoted cultural

integration between Vietnam and China (Nguyen,

2016). Whitmore, a researcher at the Michigan

University, had recorded that some Sino-Vietnamese

form a new leadership group and noted: “the

diplomatic corps of nineteenth-century Vietnam was

made up largely of Minhuong” (Whitmore, 1996).

These results could show that the Confucianism

education system had an important place in

Vietnam’s original history. Even as time goes by,

Vietnamese increases communication with other

outside countries, their ambassadors grew up with

Chinese traditional education. So, Confucianism

could be Vietnam’s education system root.

With a power change in the late 19th century, the

French colonized Vietnam. Because of the

domination of the French, Vietnam’s education

system had started to involve the west education

system. The French government built the schools for

the Vietnamese. However, those schools’ teachers

taught in French, and the government had limits and

policies for Vietnamese to enter school. For

example, some schools only taught French Children.

Those policies caused 95 percent of Vietnamese to

not have literacy ability in the period of the late 19th

century to the mid-20th century.

Based on the influence of Confucianism and the

French education system in Vietnam’s education and

culture, and with some problems in the education

system, people's cultural communications, economic

development, or human life gradually appeared

many problems in the early-20th century. The

problems, which came from different areas, made

people’s dissatisfaction with life led Vietnam to the

country’s independence in the mid-20th century.

This trend also led to later wars and more changes in

education.

3 THE VIETNAM WAR’S

CHANGE ON THE VIETNAM’

S EDUCATION STYLE

When scholars compared the different education

styles before and after the Vietnam War, they found

families’ opinions on education had changed. Before

the war, because of the French policies of schools

and the Vietnamese family’s financial problems,

they did not have the ability to send their children to

school. So, Vietnamese had family education style

or homeschool at that time. Children learned the

knowledge from their families, such as Morales,

religion, behavior, business and public relations with

the world (Jamieson, 2005).

With the Vietnam War coming, the Vietnam

education style faced a new challenge. Nguyen

wrote an article on Lancaster County School Board,

which explained some history, culture, and

education system in Vietnam. In his article, he

mentioned that the Vietnam government would

check all 17-year-old students’ educational status by

using the military census. After the military census,

they would determine whether this student should

finish senior high school. This government action

changed their education system from family

education style to school style. They used this

method to get more people to attend classes.

However, this military census action failed. The

financial problems of the family and the influence of

the Vietnam War on students constitute the two most

important reasons for students not to study (Nguyen,

Chinh B, 1976). For example, some parents wanted

their children to go to school, but they did, more

stress occurred in the family and even resulted in the

family not having enough money to continue living.

On the other hand, while the war was happening,

people lived in fear of betrayal. They only cared

about their physical desires, drinking, loving,

smoking and eventual death. Based on this state they

even could not consider what they should do. So,

how could students concentrate on learning or

studying knowledge? To live would be the most

important thing during the Vietnam War period.

Although the Vietnam government recognized the

importance of education to the country, due to the

advent of war, the Vietnamese education system

could not improve immediately.

Due to the country splitting into two countries

from 1955 to 1975, Vietnam witnessed two

completely different education systems: The Soviet

model used in the Northern part, and the American

and French model used in the Southern part

(Warner, 2007). This phenomenon could show that

Vietnam had utilized many different kinds of

education systems in their country. Those different

education systems from different countries had a

certain impact on the development of the education

system of Vietnam after the Vietnam War.

The Analysis of Vietnam Education Development: Impacts of Vietnam War Perspective

4 FRANCE AND THE UNITED

STATES COMPETED ON

EDUCATION MISSIONS

DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

In South Vietnam, they had two big culturally

advance educational communication parties-France

and The United States, which affected the

development of South Vietnam’s education system.

But France and the United States had different goals

and opinions of Vietnam’s educational development.

France and America had competed to be the highest

influence of education systems at that time. They

both helped Vietnam to advance and develop its

education system in different ways. But why did

France and the United Stated have the competition

in the first place?

A researcher, who works at Paris Descartes

University, shows that in the French’s view, during

France's colonial period, the French government

provided an “extremely good” educational system in

Vietnam. Their education system just worked for

French children and selected children of Indochinese

elites. Obviously, under this “civilizing mission”

system, most Vietnamese did not have the ability to

read and write. Although France already left

Vietnam, they still focused on their influence of

education of mission Culturelle, and they thought

that their education system performed better than

another education system. The French thought that

the Vietnamese should continuously concentrate on

this idea, the Vietnam government should keep the

influence on Vietnamese elites, and let their

nationals rely on those scholars. However, the

government of the United States had different

opinions than the French government. The

Americans considered that they wanted to improve

the education level of the population of Vietnam,

and the Americans would help the Vietnamese

administration to reform.

When France heard about America’s plan, they

engaged in a period of debate and competition with

the United States, and they wanted to regain their

footing in South Vietnam. During the 1960s, the

Americans had a big revolution in education. The

curricula experienced reformation to decrease the

pressure and weight of examinations on students

(Nguyen, 2014).

With the influence of France's colonial period and

the Vietnam War started, and the effects of the United

States joined the War and formally began to help

Vietnam reform the education system, Vietnam’s

extremely long, traditional education system gradually

merged with western culture and system. Vietnam also

could gain many resources, experiences, and knowledge

to prepare for further reform of education after the

Vietnam War. In fact, the Vietnam War gave

opportunities to the Vietnamese to contacts different

peoples with which to facilitate cultural and

economic interchanges. It had a profound influence

on the development of Vietnam education.

5 THE EDUCATION REFORM

AFTER THE VIETNAM WAR

After Vietnam gained independence after the Vietnam

War, they directly reformed their economic system and

education system. In April 1975, Vietnam declared that a

unified country was established in the world. During the

reform of the education system, the government

concentrated on two points. The education

administration department should establish a system to

eliminate the residual effects in the old education system.

They also needed to focus on the group of 12-50 years

old people because most of those groups of people grew

without education during the war period. So, the

Vietnam government helped them learning basic

knowledge through a new program called anti-illiteracy.

However, the old education reform published

within a decade since 1975, the development of

Vietnam’s education and economics did not have

significant growth until 1986. In 1986, the Vietnam

government published a policy called “Doi Moi

(renovation),” and Doi Moi helped Vietnam have a

quick improvement in economics. The Vietnam

government gave more financial aid to the education

system. The advantages of Doi Moi led Vietnam’s

education system to innovative breakthroughs in the

higher education system. When Vietnam published

the Doi Moi policy in 1986, this policy was

dominated by the capitalist system. So, all educators

should train their students to be independent

thinkers, and they should have capitalistic thinker’s

characteristics (Thanh, 2011).

The Vietnam War brought the Vietnamese

people to explore new education systems. The

following consequences with exploring have many

side effects. Whether or not the influence of the

Vietnam War was positive or negative for the

Vietnamese, it is right to keep the idea of exploring

and developing. On the other hand, although

Vietnam has the decision to reform and develop the

education system, the Vietnam postwar economy

made the Vietnam education system had a slow

development.

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6 THE RELATIONSHIPS

BETWEEN THE VIETNAM

WAR, VIETNAM ECONOMICS

AND VIETNAM EDUCATION

War always brings damage to humans and countries.

Vietnam also cannot avoid the war damages on

economics, assets, environment, culture, education

and many different views. As I mentioned before,

financial problem is one of the most important

reasons to Vietnamese who cannot have a good

educational system. Before the war, France

controlled Vietnam. Vietnamese could not develop

and maintain their economy by themselves. At the

same time, the French government only provided

high-quality education for elites. The Vietnamese

lived at the bottom of society. They did not have

enough money to send their children to go to school,

and they also did not have the qualifications to enter

high-quality French schools. Economics became one

of the most important factors that caused the low

rate of literacy in Vietnam in those decades.

During the war, the Vietnam government had

divided into two parts, south and north. Whether

south or north Vietnam, they both had to spend all of

the money on the cost of the war. So, the Vietnam

War exacerbated social and economic pressures in

Vietnam. Even more deplorable is that the Vietnam

War let the government have no surplus money to

maintain the education system and other important

matters. This fact caused a period of default in

Vietnam’s education. Vietnamese would take long

time to reconstruct their education system. The

following consequences could lead to a more

backward development in Vietnam and other

countries.

According to the after-war damage statistics, the

destruction of the southern society and population,

farmland and forest spraying herbicide, destroyed

the infrastructure, created food shortages, caused

displacement at millions of refugees. An estimated 3

million became unemployed. 500,000 prostitutes

emerged, along with 100,000 drug addicts and

800,000 orphans (Tarling, 1999). Based on this

situation, one official later admitted ‘Because we

won the war, we thought we could do anything

successfully,’ and the government believed that they

could solve all of the problems (Sue, 1989). Because

of their conceit, Vietnam’s economy still

experienced a slow development during this period.

Due to insufficient financial support for education

programs, education did not have significant

improvement.

However, with the economics improving after the

war, Vietnam’s education financial aspects also had

improved. According to data from previous research, the

Vietnam government would expend 7,100 billion

(10.08% of the national budget) to reestablish their

education system in 1996. They wanted to increase their

education budget to be 18% of the national budget in

2005 and 22 % by 2010. By 2004, Vietnam already have

35,239 educational institutions, above 34% of middle

schools are private, and 10.8% of higher education

organizations are private (Huong 2004). Those figures

make clear that the government has encouraged

education, but it is still constrained by the country’s

budget shortfall. The Education network experienced

preliminary consolidation.

7 ANALYSIS

Nowadays, Vietnam has one of the world’s highest

literacy rates, and the Vietnamese have high respect

for learning. Vietnam pushed by the pressure of

history, constructed its own education system in

modern society. Confucian and French systems

influenced early Vietnamese education. Some of the

advantages and disadvantages of Chinese and

French’s early education system led later to

Vietnam’s political and education system to change.

For example, Chinese traditional culture made

Vietnam develop slowly after the late 19th century.

In addition, economics played a large role in

Vietnam's education. Vietnamese had the slow

development of economy during the French colonial

period, and Vietnamese did not have enough money

to go to school. On the other hand, with French as

the dominant language of instruction during the

French Colonization period, because many

Vietnamese did not speak French, and this policy

caused most of those Vietnamese to lose their

literacy.

After France left Vietnam, because of

Vietnamese dissatisfaction with life and the collapse

of Vietnam, the Vietnamese government encouraged

young Vietnamese to learn from school, rather than

from their family. However, although the

government had noticed the importance of education

to the country, and tried to change their education

policy, from 1955 to 1975, America, France, and the

Soviet Union affected Vietnam’s education system.

Because of many different influences, Vietnamese’s

education system could not change or improve

immediately, so, the old education system still

caused lots of many social problems.

The Analysis of Vietnam Education Development: Impacts of Vietnam War Perspective

The Vietnam War brought influence on

Vietnam’s education reform. Because the Vietnam

War started, America joined the war. They had tried

to change the Vietnam education system. However,

France thought that Americans belittled their culture.

Afterward, France and the United States’

competition started. Ultimately, the compromises of

the French let Americans also keep helping the

Vietnamese government to re-establish and reform

the Vietnam education system after the war. On the

other hand, during the Vietnam War and the war

damages aggravated the social and economic

pressure, and the government did not reestablish the

education system. However, with the improvement

of economics in Vietnam after 1975, Vietnam’s

education system had improved. With the new

policy in 1986, Doi Moi, Vietnam’s education

become better and better as time goes by.

France and America’s competition, Vietnam, the

economic and the education reform, all those

elements had profound influences on the

development of Vietnam education. Because they

pushed Vietnam’s extremely long, traditional

education system gradually merged with western

culture and system step by step, let more Vietnamese

have more opportunities to study, contact with

different people, countries, and cultures, let Vietnam

gradually become an international country.

8 CONCLUSION

With time elapsing, people will gradually forget the

history and the influence of history. However,

people should admit that histories have profound

influences on modern society. When I do research, I

found a lot of information about how Chinese

culture has deeply influenced Vietnamese culture.

As time goes by, Vietnam started to contact western

culture, and their social system started to change

based on east and west culture. So, if anyone wants

to know how the Vietnam society changes after

western culture was involved in Vietnam. I would

like to suggest that to compare which culture, east or

west, has bigger influences on Vietnamese’s modern

society first? That should be a good start.

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