The Ministry  is compiling a draft decree regulating cooperation with foreign partners.  It’s aiming to encourage investment in Vietnam’s education at all levels, from pre-school to higher education and vocational training.

Fields especially encouraged include information technology, telecommunications e-commerce, environmental protection, agriculture, tourism and energy. In addition, Vietnam is also encouraging the training of highly qualified polytechnique officers, management officers and teachers.

Foreign institutions are allowed to set up new training establishments or team up with their partners to set up training establishments at different education levels, from nursery schools to universities or vocational training. Training curriculums can be either Vietnamese or from recognised programmes overseas.

In fact, the draft document encourages teachers to use foreign curricula in the first years of operation.

Regarding the investment rate, pre-school education establishments must have a minimum investment rate of $1,000 per child, while a minimum investment rate of $2,500 per student up to a total investment capital of $2.5 million is required for general school education.

Higher education requires higher investment  - $7,500 per student and the minimum total investment capital of $15 million.  This does not include the expenses for land use rights.

The draft decree compilers are also attempting to set strict requirements for lecturers qualifications as well as material facilities and the ratio of teachers to students.

As for general education, the number of students in every class must not be higher than 30 students in primary schools and 35 students in secondary and high schools.

The minimum number of teachers per class is 1.5 in primary school, 1.95 in secondary school and 2.25 in high school.

In foreign-invested enterprises, the number of lecturers with master degrees must not be less than 50 per cent of total, while the number of lecturers with PhD degrees must not be lower than 25 per cent.