Foreign researchers have figured out the reason why Vietnamese students always achieve extremely high scores in examinations

Vietnam is one of the most confusing cases in the education sector: A low-income country that produces students who do well on international standardized tests no less than students in the most developed countries in the world. .

It is clear that there is always a positive relationship between the level of economic development of a country and the capacity of students in that country expressed through standardized tests. But the fact that Vietnamese people have a low level of income per capita shows too much that one can expect in a country so it is really a confusing story.

The researchers analyzed the results of international standardized tests to better understand this " Vietnam phenomenon ". In the TIMMS test, Vietnamese students have outperformed students in countries with the same level of per capita income such as India, Peru, Tunisia or the Philippines, details can be found in the chart below:

TIMMS score (correct response rate - vertical column) compared to actual per capita GDP (WDI standard - horizontal column)

A 2014 study by Abhijeet Singh on the TIMMS test results showed that the outstanding capacity of Vietnamese children began very early - 5-year-old children from this country were more capable than one. a bit compared to peers from developing countries, and this capacity gap continues to increase in the next few years as they grow.

The study also showed that " one year of elementary school in Vietnam is considered 'productive' than a year of elementary school in Peru or India in terms of acquiring skills."

In one of his articles on Research on Improving Systems for Education, Lee Crawfurd wrote, "The problem that this research poses through Vietnam's experience is" Why do some countries achieve academic productivity? calculated year by year higher than other countries? ""

Recently, a study by two scholars Suhas D. Parandekar and Elisabeth K. Sedmik from the World Bank also tried to find answers to Vietnamese unknowns through the results of the PISA test (International Assessment Program). for students) in 2012.

In addition to Vietnam, there are 7 other developing countries participating in the review. Vietnam ranked last on the list of GDP per capita of this group with 4,098 USD / year. However, the score that students reach this country is still higher than other developing countries, especially the math score in the table comparing the points and GDP per capita below:

PISA score in 2012 (vertical column) compared with GDP per capita (USD - horizontal column)

The level of Vietnamese students has nearly caught up with Finnish and Swiss students and once again makes us wonder.
For math alone, the average score of Vietnamese students has far surpassed the average of the 7 developing countries remaining to 128 points.

What is happening?

After synthesizing data from PISA, including questions about students' circumstances, learning experiences and education systems, researchers have found that investment in education with tradition culture is part of the reason for the superiority of Vietnamese students.

Cultural traditions play a very important role in shaping the character of students. Basically, Vietnamese students concentrate and attach great importance to learning. They rarely go to school late, find excuses for absence or study. Vietnamese students also often spend more than 3 hours studying outside the classroom than students in other developing countries. These students are also less worried about math and are quite confident about how they can apply it in the future.

In addition, it must be mentioned that Vietnamese parents often participate more in their children's learning activities, help them and even make a call to raise funds for the school. The education system is also more focused: Teachers have less autonomy and stricter probation than other countries. Compared to developed countries, Vietnam is also more focused on student achievement than other factors such as extracurricular or sports.

However, most importantly, Vietnam invests heavily in education compared to other developing countries, especially in terms of lower GDP. With a low level of economic development, parents who are not educated are well-educated, and there are fewer urban schools than rural areas, which seem unlikely. a good education.

However, despite the economic difficulties, the facilities of schools in Vietnam are quite good. And although schools own very few computers, they are connected to the Internet, one of the proofs of the level of investment in education in Vietnam.

Vietnamese people now also have access to education earlier than before - this is one of the countries with a high rate of students attending pre-school preparation programs.

Of course all these factors combined only explain half of the outstanding gap of Vietnamese students compared to countries with the same GDP. Other factors in this unknown have not been clarified yet, but this result also shows that students in poor countries can also achieve the same level as students in rich countries.