In Spring 2025, I am planning to travel out to Vietnam in order to volunteer in a kindergarten for two weeks. Whilst there, I will be helping to give children, aged between 3 and 5 years old, a head start in English and providing valuable support to local teachers in the day-to-day operations of the facility.

In the United Kingdom, we are fortunate to have access to one of the world’s best education systems. We have a 99% adult literacy rate, and educational attainment, which stands at 79.9%, places us at 8th in the world. Furthermore, all children, regardless of background, are entitled to free education, which is closely managed to ensure high quality.

However, heartbreakingly, around the world, there are a number of other countries where access to a high, or in some cases even adequate, standard of education is limited. One of these countries is Vietnam.

The latest education sector analysis showed that, despite significant government funding (20% of the total budget), there is a significant shortage of equipment and physical infrastructure is lacking. This is further exacerbated by high student-class ratios, meaning that the already limited teaching workforce’s efficiency is further limited and that when renovations to teaching and learning structures are made there is no training to allow changes to be implemented.

On the whole, the majority of teachers, qualified or not, lack training to effectively teach their students. This leaves certain groups of disadvantaged students, such as those with disabilities, at a greater risk of being deprived of education. This problem further extends to students in certain geographic areas, as there were shown to be high regional disparities in terms of enrolment and dropout rates, and those living in deprived areas, where families can simply not afford to send children to school, instead placing them in the workplace or early marriages.