DECISION

APPROVING THE 2011-2020 EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on Education dated June 14, 2005 and the Law amending and supplementing a number of Articles of the Education Law dated November 25, 2009;

Pursuant to the Decree No. 75/2006/ND-CP dated August 2, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding a number of articles of the Education Law, and the Decree No. 31/2011/ND-CP dated May 11,2011 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 75/2006/ND-CP dated August 02, 2006 of the Government stipulating in detailed and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Education Law.

Pursuant to the 2011 -2020 socio-economic development strategy;

Pursuant to Decision No. 579/QD-TTg dated April 19, 2011approving Vietnam's human resource development strategy during 2011-2020;

Pursuant to Decision No. 1216/QD-TTg of July 22, 2011 of the Prime Minister approving Vietnam's human resource development strategy during 2011-2020;

Pursuant to Decision No. 1216/QĐ-TTg DATED July 22, 2011 of the Prime Minister approving Vietnam's human resource development master plan during 2011-2020;

At the proposal of the Minister of Education and Training,

DECIDES:

Article 1. To approve together with this Decision the 2011 -2020 education development strategy.

Article 2. This Decision takes effect on its signing date.

Article 3. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-affiliated agencies and chairman of provincial-level People's Committees are liable to implement this Decision.-

2011-2020 EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
(Issued together with Decision No. 711/QD-TTg dated June 13, 2012 of the Prime Minister)

FOREWORDS

The 6th National Party Congress's resolution has asserted "To basically and comprehensively renew Vietnam's education toward standardization, modernization, socialization, democratization and international integration with renewal of the education management mechanism and development of the staff of educational administrators as the key element" and "Education and training have the missions of raising people's intellectual level, developing human resources and fostering talents, making important contributions to building the country and developing its culture and people." The 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy has set the orientation: "Development and quality improvement of human resources, especially high-quality ones, are a strategic breakthrough." The 2011-2020 education development strategy aims to thoroughly grasp and concretize the guidelines and orientations for education and training renewal, contributing to successfully implementing the 6th National Party Congress's resolution and the 2011-2020 national socio-economic development strategy.

I. EDUCATION SITUATION IN VIETNAM DURING 2001-2010

1. Achievements

a/ The education scale and network of educational institutions have developed and better met people's learning needs.

During 2001-2010, the rate of school-age children going to school grew fast, from 72% to 98% for pre-school five-year-old children; 94% to 97% for primary school students; 70% to 83% for lower secondary school students; and 33% to 50% for upper secondary school students. The scale of vocational training increased by 3.08 times, professional secondary education by 2.69 times and tertiary education by 2.35 times. In 2010, the ratio of collegial and university students reached 227 per 10,000 people; the rate of trained labor reached 40%, initially meeting the labor market's demands.

A network of educational institutions developed nationwide increased learning opportunities for people, initially forming a learning society. Communes in which children had no access to preschool education no longer existed. All communes have primary schools. Most communes or inter-communes have lower secondary schools. All districts have upper secondary schools. Provinces and districts with a high density of ethnic minority people have boarding and semi-boarding schools for ethnic minority students. The network of continuing education centers and community learning centers have developed strongly. Vocational and professional secondary training institutions, colleges and universities have been established in most populous areas, regions and localities, including difficulty-hit regions such as the northwestern region, the Central Highlands and the Mekong delta.

The country has achieved the targets of eradicating illiteracy and universalizing primary and lower secondary education, and is boosting the universalization of preschool education for five-year-old children and universalization of primary education for children of eligible age. A number of localities are universalizing secondary education.

b/ The education quality at different educational grades and training levels has been improved. Students' knowledge and capacity to approach new knowledge are raised to a higher level. Most graduates are keen on setting up a career and have a sense of self reliance. An overwhelming majority of graduates have jobs. Education and training have developed toward better meeting requirements of socio-economic and scientific and technological development. Training in many new disciplines and occupations has developed, initially meeting the labor market's demands.

Importance is specially attached to the quality of spearhead education through developing a system of specialized schools and schools for the gifted and carrying out high-quality and advanced training programs at many universities and vocational colleges.

c/ Social equity in access to education was improved, especially paying greater attention to ethnic minority people, children of poor families, girls and the disadvantaged. Gender equality in general education and tertiary education was achieved basically. Education in ethnic minority, deep-lying and remote areas further developed. A number of policies on school fee exemption and reduction, scholarship, lending and other supports for students being policy beneficiaries were practically effective in realizing social equality and developing human resources of increasingly higher quality.

d/ Education administration saw a positive change toward addressing negative practices in the education sector and standardizing teachers and education administrators; renewing the financial regime of the education sector; increasing education management decentralization, autonomy and accountability for educational institutions; widely applying information technology; forming social supervision for education and training quality; developing a quality control system from central to local levels and at educational institutions; boosting administrative reform in the whole sector; expanding a friendly education environment which encouraged activeness among students; and renewing and increasing education about national traditions and culture.

e/ The staff of teachers and educational administrators rapidly increased in number and gradually improved in quality, step by step addressing the unreasonable structure and meeting requirements for education universalization and development of educational grades and training levels.

f/ State budget funds for education rose fast, from 15.3% of the total state budget expenditures in 2001 to 20% in 2010. The socialization of education achieved important results, particularly in raising resources for building physical foundations of schools, establishing new schools and making financial contributions to education. Investment sources for education are controlled more closely and used more effectively.

g/ Non-public education developed, especially in vocational and tertiary education. In the past 10 years, the rate of non-public education in the total training scale increased from 28% to 44% for basic vocational training; 1.5% to 5.5% for intermediate-and collegial-level vocational training; 5.6% to 27.2% for professional secondary training; 7.9% to 19.9% for collegial training; and 12.2% to 13.2% for tertiary training.

h/ Schools' material facilities are improved. The rate of strongly-built classrooms increased from 52% in 2006 to 71% in 2010. Priority was given to the building of public-duty houses for teachers and dormitories for students which had incrementally increased in recent years.

In the past 10 years, the country's education achievements made important contributions to raising people's intellectual level, developing human resources, fostering talents, developing socio-economy, maintaining security and political stability and facilitating the country's international integration.

Reasons behind the achievements:

- The Party's leadership, the National Assembly's care; the direction and administration of the Government and administrations of all levels; and the care, participation and contributions of domestic and overseas mass and social organizations and the entire people for education were decisive to the success of the education cause.

- Political stability, socio-economic development achievements, people's improved living conditions and international integration in the renewal period have created a favorable environment for education development. Education investment constantly has increased in total state budget expenditures year by year.

- Teachers' patriotism, love for people and their profession, sense of responsibility and efforts together with the education sector's determination for renewal made important contributions to the good performance of the educational task. Generations of teachers and educational administrators working across the country, especially in mountainous, deep-lying and remote areas have overcome numerous difficulties and challenges and made great contributions to the educational cause.

- The national traditional fondness for learning has been promoted strongly, which was shown in each family, clan, locality and community.

2. Problems and weaknesses

a/ The national education system lacks uniformity, transferability between a number of educational grades and training levels and a national qualifications framework. The imbalanced structure of training disciplines and occupations and between areas and regions is slowly addressed, failing to meet the society's human resource demands. The number and scale of training institutions have increased without sufficient conditions to assure training quality. A number of targets set in the 2001-2010 education development strategy have not been achieved, such as the enrollment rate of primary and lower secondary school students of eligible age; and the vocational education enrollment rate of lower secondary school graduates.

b/ The education quality is lower than required by national development in the new period and the levels of countries with an advanced education system in the region and the world. The interrelation between quantitative development and qualitative improvement has not been addressed properly. Graduates' professional capacity fail to meet job requirements. There are signs of deviation in the behaviors and lifestyle of a part of students.

c/ There remain numerous problems in education administration which is still subsidized, spread too thin, short-term, overlapping and scattered; responsibilities and powers for professional management are incommensurate with responsibilities and powers for management of personnel and finance. The system of education law and policies remains inadequate and slow to be revised and supplemented. Coordination between the education sector and ministries, sectors and localities is not close. Policies to raise and allocate funding resources for education are inappropriate while the use of these resources is not highly effective. State investment in education fails to focus mainly on prioritized targets with still low spending on professional activities. Autonomy and social accountability of educational institutions have not been prescribed fully and practically.

d/ A part of teachers and administrators fail to meet education requirements and tasks in the new period. The staff of teachers is redundant while lacking qualified ones and is imbalanced in terms of professional structure. The rate of university lecturers with post­graduate degrees is low. The ratio of students to lecturers fails to reach the target set in the 2001-2010 education development strategy. A small part of teachers and educational administrators show signs of irresponsibility for and lack of devotion to their profession and committed moral- and lifestyle-related violations, badly affecting the prestige of teachers in the society. The capacity of a segment of teachers and educational administrators remains poor. Regimes and policies for teachers and educational administrators, particularly wage and wage-based allowance policies, are not satisfactory, failing to attract highly qualified persons to the education sector and create a motive force for advancement in professional career. Training and retraining of teachers fail to meet requirements of educational renewal.

e/ Curricular and teaching and learning methods, organization of exams and tests and assessment are slowly renovated. Curricular contents are mostly theoretical, teaching methods are outdated and fail to suit specific characteristics of different types of educational institutions, areas and learners. Schools are not closely associated with the socio-economic life and fail to strongly shift to market-driven training and attach special importance to life skills education and promotion of students' creativity and practice ability.

f/ Schools' material facilities and technical foundations remain inadequate and outdated. Preschools and general schools still have thatch and bamboo classrooms, especially in deep-lying and remote areas. Libraries, laboratories specialized learning rooms and teaching aids, especially in universities, fail to meet requirements of education quality improvement in terms of quantity, type and quality. Land areas for educational institutions fail to reach prescribed norms.

g/ Educational science research and application of its findings remain limited and fail to meet education development requirements. The quality and effectiveness of scientific research in universities remain low, failing to closely associate training with scientific research and production.

Causes of problems and weaknesses:

- The "education development is a top national policy" and "investment in education is development investment" viewpoints have not really been absorbed and materialized. Not a few Party committees and administrations at different levels fail to thoroughly grasp the Party's education development line and to pay proper attention to directing and organizing the implementation of the 2001-2010 education development strategy.

- Educational thinking has been renovated slowly. Certain new theories on education development in the context of socialist-oriented market economy and international integration have not been thoroughly studied. The decisive role of teachers and the necessity to focus on renovation of the state management of education have not been properly understood. There exists lack of awareness about and strategies and master plans on human resource development of the country, ministries, sectors and localities as well as a master plan on the network of vocational education institutions. Policies on recruitment and employment of trained human resources reveal many limitations.

- Objective impacts have worsened the weaknesses and problems of the education sector. The process of international integration has brought about opportunities as well as challenges for the education sector. The psychological preference to exam pass and diplomas and overemphasis on achievements still control teaching, learning and exam activities. The market economy's negative sides have adversely impacted education. People's demands for learning and improved education quality are increasing while the education sector's capacity to meet those demands as well as the national socio-economic development level are still limited.

II. CONTEXT, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE COUNTRY'S EDUCATION DURING 2011-2020

1. International and domestic contexts

The country's education in the next decade will develop in the context of the world's fast and complex changes. Globalization and international integration for education have become inevitable. The revolution of science and technology, information technology and communication and a knowledge-based economy will continue to vigorously develop, directly impacting the development of educations worldwide.

The 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy has asserted that by 2020, the country will become basically a modernity-oriented industrial country with socio-political stability, democracy, discipline and consensus; the people's material and spiritual life is remarkably improved; national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity are firmly maintained; Vietnam's position in the international arena is further enhanced; making a solid premise for a higher level of development in the next period. The strategy also clearly identifies fast development of human resources, especially high-quality human resources, as one of the three breakthroughs, focusing on fundamental and comprehensive renovation of the national education, and closely associating human resource development with science and technology development and application. The country's development in the new period will create numerous opportunities and major advantages and concurrently pose many challenges to the education development cause.

2. Opportunities and challenges

a/ Opportunities:

The Party and State always affirm education development is a top national policy, investment in education is investment for development; education is the objective and concurrently the motive for socio-economic development. Socio-economic development achievements over the past 10 years and the 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy, which demands economic restructuring and renewal of the growth model, together with the strategy for and master plan on human resource development in the golden population period serve as basic premises for the education sector together with other ministries, sectors and localities to develop education.

The revolution of science and technology, particularly information technology and communication, will create favorable conditions for basically renovating contents, methods and organizational forms of education as well as education administration, advancing to an e-education meeting every learner's demands.

The wide and deep international integration in education is taking place globally, creating favorable opportunities for approaching new trends, new knowledge and modern educational models and making use of external resources and creating opportunities for education development.

b/ Challenges:

In Vietnam, social differentiation tends to increase. The rich and poor gap among different population groups and development gap among regions and areas have become increasingly apparent, posing a risk for inequality in access to education and widening the gap in education quality among regions and areas and different types of learners.

The need for rapid education development to meet the requirements of national industrialization and modernization, development of a knowledge-based economy with advanced technologies and international integration in the condition of limited investment resources for education will pressure education development.

The risk of lagging behind can increasingly widen the economic, intellectual and educational gaps between Vietnam and other countries. New problems, which have arisen from international integration and market economy development, such as threats of invasion of unhealthy culture and lifestyles that undermine national identity, and poor quality educational services that may pose major risks for education, demand theoretical renewal as well as appropriate practical solutions for education development.

III. GUIDING VIEWPOINTS ON EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Educational development must be truly a top national policy and the cause of the Party, State and entire people. To increase the Party leadership, state management and promote the role of political, economic and social organizations in education development. Investment in education is development investment. To implement incentive policies for education, particularly investment and wage policies; to prioritize state budget for universalized education development and specific target groups.

2. To build a socialist education with people's, national, advanced and modern characteristics with Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought as the foundation. To ensure social equity in education, improve education quality in disadvantaged areas to reach the common level while creating conditions for localities and educational institutions with more favorable conditions to quickly develop one step ahead to reach the level of countries with a developed education. To build a learning society and create equal opportunities for everyone to pursue their learning and lifelong learning, particularly for ethnic minority people, the poor and children of policy beneficiary families.

3. To basically and comprehensively renovate education toward standardization, socialization, democratization, international integration, adaptation to the socialist-oriented market economy, education development associated with science and technology development, focus on quality improvement, particularly the quality of education of morals, lifestyle, creative ability and practical skills in order to meet the requirements of socio-­economic development, acceleration of national industrialization and modernization and assurance of security and defense on the one hand and attaching special importance to meeting development needs of every learner and talented persons.

4. To make deep and wide international integration in education on the basis of preserving and promoting national identity and maintaining independence, self-reliance and socialist orientation. To expand exchange and cooperation with world educations, especially advanced and modern ones; to find out and promptly make use of opportunities to attract quality resources.

IV. EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES TO 2020

1. Overall objectives

By 2020, to basically and comprehensively renovate national education toward standardization, modernization, socialization, democratization and international integration; to improve education quality comprehensively, including education of morals, life skills, creative ability, practice ability, foreign language and information technology proficiency; to meet the demand for human resources, especially high-quality ones, for national industrialization and modernization and formation of a knowledge-based economy; to assure social equity in education and lifelong learning opportunity for everyone, to step by step form a learning society.

2. Specific objectives

a/ Preschool education

To fulfill the target of universalization of preschool education for five-year-old children by 2015; by 2020, at least 30% of children at creche age and 80% of children at kindergarten age will be taken care of and educated at preschools; the rate of malnourished children at preschools will be reduced to below 10%.

b/ General education

The quality of all-sided education will be improved, particularly that of intellectual, moral, life skills, law, foreign language and information technology education.

By 2020, the rate of primary school students and lower secondary school students of eligible age will reach 99% and 95% respectively; 80% of young people will reach education of upper secondary school level or equivalent at eligible age; 70% of disabled children will get schooling.

c/ Vocational education and tertiary education

To complete the structure of vocational and tertiary education; to adjust the structure of training disciplines and occupations and training levels, to improve training quality to meet human resource requirements of socio­economic development; to train persons with creative ability, independent thinking, civic responsibility, professional ethics and skills, foreign language proficiency, sense of labor discipline, industrial working style, self-employment capacity and ability to adapt to labor market changes, with a segment of them being regionally and internationally competitive.

By 2020, vocational education institutions will be capable of receiving 30% of lower secondary school graduates; the rate of labor receiving vocational and tertiary education will reach around 70%; the ratio of students of all forms of training will reach around 350-400 per 10,000 persons.

d/ Continuing education

To develop continuing education to create lifelong learning opportunities for all people suitable to their circumstances and conditions; to initially form a learning society. To improve the quality of continuing education, helping learners acquire knowledge and practical skills for self-employment or change of occupations to improve their material and spiritual lives.

The achievement of illiteracy eradication will be maintained sustainably. By 2020, the rate of literate people at the age of 15 or older will be 98% and the rate of literate people at the age of between 15 and 35 will be 99% for both men and women.

V. EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS DURING 2011-2020

To achieve the strategic objectives, it is required to properly implement 8 solutions with solution 1 as the breakthrough and solution 2 as the key.

1. To renovate education administration

a/ To elaborate and complete a uniform system of legal documents as a basis for fundamental and comprehensive renovation of education.

b/ To boost administrative reform, to assign a focal point for management of, and complete the state management apparatus for, education. To make uniform management decentralization, complete and implement the mechanism for coordination among ministries, sectors and localities in the state management of education in the direction of clearly defining functions, tasks and powers associated with responsibilities and increasing inspection and examination; to increase autonomy and social responsibility of educational institutions along with completing the publicity and transparency regime, ensuring supervision by state agencies, socio-political organizations and the people.

To ensure democratization in education. To apply a mechanism allowing learners to assess trainers, trainers and lecturers to assess administrators, administrators to assess their supervisors, and educational institutions to assess education state management agencies.

c/ To improve the structure of the national education system, to build a national education qualifications framework compatible with those of countries in the region and the world, to assure channeling within the system, particularly post-lower and upper secondary education channeling and transferability of educational programs, educational grades and training levels; to diversify methods of learning to meet human resource requirements, creating lifelong learning opportunities for the people.

d/ To classify quality of general education, vocational education and tertiary education according to national quality standards. Unqualified educational institutions shall adopt a roadmap to reach standards. To attach importance to building advanced, key and quality educational institutions for training and fostering talents and high-quality human resources for socio-economic sectors.

e/ To perform management based on strategies, master plans and plans on education development and human resource development master plans of every sector and locality in each period suitable to the situations of socio­economic development and defense and security.

f/ To focus on education quality management: To standardize output and quality assurance conditions on the basis of applying new achievements of education science, science and technology and management science, to step by step apply standards of advanced countries; to publicize education quality, physical foundations, personnel and finance of educational institutions; to conduct social supervision of education quality and effectiveness; to build a system of independent accreditation of education quality, to accredit the quality of educational institutions of all educational grades and training levels and vocational and tertiary education programs.

g/ To boost the application of information and communication technology to raise the education management effectiveness at different levels.

2. To develop a staff of teachers and educational administrators

a/ To consolidate and complete the teacher training system, to substantially and comprehensively renovate training and retraining contents and methods in order to develop a staff of teachers and educational administrators capable of renovating the general education program after 2015. To focus on building teachers schools and pedagogics faculties within universities to improve teacher training quality.

b/ To step by step ensure adequate teachers for all-sided education according to preschool and general education programs providing teaching 2 shifts/day, and teachers of foreign languages, school counseling and career orientation, special education and continuing education.

c/ To standardize training, recruitment, employment and assessment of teachers and educational administrators. To attach importance to raising professional ethics, conduct and moral qualities of teachers to set examples for students.

To further train and retrain teachers so that by 2020, all preschool and general school teachers will reach training standards, with 60% of preschool teachers, all primary school teachers, 88% of lower secondary school teachers and 16.6% of upper secondary school teachers reaching above training standards; 38.5% of professional secondary school teachers, 60% of college lecturers and all university lecturers will hold a master or higher degree; and all university and college lecturers will be proficient in a foreign language.

To implement a scheme on doctoral training for lecturers of universities and colleges, which combines domestic and overseas training, so that by 2020, 25% of university lecturers and 8% of college lecturers will hold a doctoral degree.

d/ To offer material and spiritual incentives to motivate teachers and educational administrators, especially preschool teachers; to adopt special policies to involve experienced and prestigious domestic and overseas teachers, scientists and specialists in education development.

3. To renovate teaching contents and methods, exams, tests and education quality assessment

a/ On the basis of evaluating the current general education program and referring to advanced programs of other countries, to renovate the education program and textbooks after 2015 toward developing students' capacity, ensuring both uniformity nationwide and relevance to each locality. To attach importance to moral, law, physical strength, defense-security and traditional cultural value education; life skill education, labor education and career orientation for general school students.

b/ To renovate teaching programs and materials at vocational education institutions and universities based on employers' needs, to selectively apply some world advanced programs, to promote the role of key schools in each training discipline and occupation in designing transferable programs. To develop tertiary education programs in the two directions: research and applied professions.

c/ To develop continuing education programs, to apply information and communication technology in order to expand forms of learning to meet diversified learning needs and help learners improve personality, knowledge, intellectual level and professional qualifications and skills to meet their job requirements and improve the quality of life.

d/ To further renovate methods of teaching and evaluation of learning and practice performance toward promoting learners' activeness, self-discipline, initiative, creativity and self-learning capacity. To enhance the application of information technology and communication in teaching and learning. By 2015 and 2020, all university and collegial lecturers, and all vocational education and general education teachers, will respectively apply information and communication technology in training. To compile and use e-training manuals and e-textbooks. By 2020, 90% of primary schools and 50% of lower secondary schools will teach two shifts a day. To renovate lower secondary school graduation exams and university and college entrance exams toward assuring practicality, effectiveness, objectiveness and fairness; to combine learning performance evaluation results with exam results.

e/ To periodically conduct national assessment of the learning quality of general school students in order to determine the overall quality level which serves as a basis for proposing policies to improve education quality in each locality and the whole country.

4. To increase investment resources and renew the financial regime for education

a/ To further renew the financial regime for education in order to mobilize, allocate and more effectively use resources of the State and the society invested in education; to raise the autonomy of educational institutions, ensuring transparency and responsibility toward the State, learners and the society; to assure financial resources for some Vietnamese educational institutions capable of international integration and competition.

b/ To assure that expenditures for education will account for 20% or more of the total state budget, and be suitable to socio-economic conditions and used effectively. State budget funds for education will be prioritized for universalized education; education in areas meeting with extreme difficulties, ethnic minority areas and social policy beneficiaries; education for gifted and talented persons; high-quality human resource training; training in basic sciences, social sciences and humanities, spearhead sciences and other branches which are needed by the society but unattractive to learners.

c/ To make state budget investment in public educational institutions in a concentrated rather than thinned-out manner to ensure those receiving investment must reach standards. To incrementally standardize and modernize physical and technical foundations and assure adequate financial resources and standard teaching aids for all educational institutions; to prioritize investment in building a number of excellent universities of international quality and level, key schools, specialized schools, schools for gifted students and boarding and semi-boarding schools for ethnic minority students. To strive that by 2020, some faculties and branches will reach high quality. To plan and assure land for construction of schools, prioritizing construction of concentrated university centers and dormitories for students.

d/ To adopt mechanisms and policies defining responsibilities of enterprises for investment in development of human resource training, particularly training of high-quality human resources and those of spearhead disciplines and occupations. To define responsibilities of sectors, socio-political organizations, communities and families for contributing resources and participating in educational activities, creating lifelong learning opportunities for everybody and contributing to step by step forming a learning society. To elaborate and apply a new school fee regime in order to assure reasonable sharing among the State, learners and other stakeholders in the society.

e/ To implement specific policies to support non-public tertiary, vocational and general education institutions, firstly in terms of land, taxes and loans. To determine clear and specific criteria for establishing educational institutions, ensuring quality and creating favorable conditions for the people and socio-economic organizations to establish schools in conformity with the State's development planning.

5. To increasingly associate training with employment, scientific research and technology transfer to meet social needs

a/ To encourage domestic and overseas enterprises and investors to open vocational and tertiary educational institutions to raise their human resource self-supply capacity and contribute to supplying human resources for the labor market.

b/ To define responsibilities of and coordination mechanism between the Ministry of Education and Training and ministries, sectors and localities; and between training institutions and enterprises in identifying training needs, elaborating and assessing training programs, enrolling learners, organizing training and apprentice at enterprises, and recruiting graduates.

c/ To closely associate training with scientific research, technology transfer and production; to establish science and technology enterprises within training institutions. To raise capacity of scientific research institutions, prioritizing investment in spearhead science research institutions and key laboratories of universities.

6. To increasingly support education development in difficulty-hit and ethnic minority areas and for social policy beneficiaries

a/ To elaborate and implement policies to ensure equality in learning opportunities, to support and prioritize education development and human resource training for ethnic minority and difficulty-hit areas, social policy beneficiaries and the poor.

b/ To adopt incentives for teachers and educational administrators in ethnic minority and difficulty-hit areas.

c/ To develop distance education and vocational education and expand the pre-university system. To develop a system of special educational institutions for persons with disabilities, HIV-affected children, street children and other disadvantaged groups.

d/ To increase investment in special education; to adopt treatment incentives for teachers of special education and students with disabilities.

7. To develop educational science

a/ To prioritize basic research into education science; to review practical experience and domestic and overseas education development trends, to proactively conduct research in order to provide scientific grounds for planning and making the Party's and State's lines, guidelines, strategies and policies for education development, serving the renovation of state management of education and management of educational institutions and renovation of education at schools, and making practical and effective contributions to education in general and building of Vietnam's education science in particular.

b/ To develop a network of education science research institutions, to concentrate investment on raising capacity of national education science research agencies and research institutes of key teachers colleges. To concentrate on building a staff of educational researchers and specialists through domestic and overseas training and international exchange and cooperation.

c/ To implement a national research program on education science; to properly transfer scientific research outcomes and applications for fundamental and comprehensive renovation of Vietnam's education.

8. To expand and raise effectiveness of international cooperation on education

a/ To increase state-funded overseas training quotas for key universities and national research institutes, prioritizing spearhead sciences and technologies. To encourage and support Vietnamese citizens in learning and conducting research overseas at their own expenses.

b/ To encourage domestic educational institutions to cooperate with foreign educational institutions to raise their capacity for management, training, scientific research, technology transfer and training and retraining of teachers, lecturers, scientists and educational administrators; to increase overseas scholarships for students.

c/ To encourage foreign organizations and individuals, international organizations and overseas Vietnamese to invest in and finance education and participate in teaching, scientific research and application, and technology transfer, contributing to renovating education in Vietnam. To build a number of modern universities and research centers to attract domestic and foreign scientists to conduct training and scientific research.

VI. ORGANIZATION OF THE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

1. Two phases of the strategy implementation

a/ Phase 1 (2011-2015): To renovate education administration; to complete the national education system; to build the national qualifications framework; to build a number of quality research-oriented vocational and tertiary education institutions and universities; to renovate training contents and methods of universities, colleges and professional secondary schools; to train and retrain, and implement incentive policies to develop, the staff of teachers and educational administrators meeting education renovation requirements. To concentrate on preparing conditions to renovate general education after 2015. To implement steps to build a learning society. To evaluate and adjust objectives and strategic solutions by the end of 2015. To conduct a preliminary review of the strategy implementation phase 1 in early 2016.

b/ Phase 2 (2016-2020): To renovate the general education program; to continue with the renovation of vocational and tertiary education and perform some tasks of phase 1 with adjustments and supplements; to concentrate on consolidating and improving education quality. To evaluate the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy in late 2020 and conduct the final review in early 2021.

2. Assignment of the strategy implementation

a/ The National Council for Education and Human Resource Development shall advise and assist the Prime Minister in directing the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy.

b/ The Ministry of Education and Training shall:

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries and sectors and provincial-level People's Committees in, thoroughly grasping and implementing the 2011-2020 education development strategy; guide ministries, sectors and localities in formulating and implementing five-year and annual education development master plans and plans in conformity with the 2011-2020 education development strategy and the strategy for and master plan on development of Vietnam's human resources during 2011-2020; inspect, supervise and review the strategy implementation for periodical reporting to the Prime Minister; conduct preliminary and final reviews of the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy in early 2016 and early 2021 respectively.

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, related ministries and sectors, and localities in, formulating policies for teachers and educational administrators, policies to support learners being policy beneficiaries, and other relevant policies.

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries in, formulating policies on financial autonomy of educational institutions, financial policies promoting the association of training with scientific research and application, and economic sectors' investment in education, and define enterprises' responsibilities for human resource training and retraining.

c/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for incorporating education development plans of ministries, sectors and localities into the national socio-economic development plan; assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education and Training in, raising domestic and overseas funding sources for education development; and assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with ministries and sectors in, organizing communication about human resource demands.

d/ The Ministry of Finance shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in, assuring budget funds for education development during 2011-2020; and improve financial policies and the finance management mechanism in the education sector for effective use of funding sources for education.

e/ The Ministry of Science and Technology shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and ministries, sectors and localities in, formulating mechanisms, policies and plans for coordination in scientific and technological research between research institutes and universities and colleges; and join the establishment of excellent universities.

f/ The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Construction and People's Committees of all levels in, planning land for educational institutions.

g/ The Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Information and Communications and other ministries and sectors shall, within the scope of their functions, tasks and powers, direct the implementation of the 2011-2020 education development strategy; formulate five-year and annual master plans and plans on human resource training development, and programs and schemes on human resource training development of ministries and sectors in conformity with the 2011-2020 education development strategy and the strategy for and master plan on human resource development during 2011-2020; direct, organize, inspect, supervise and evaluate the implementation of master plans, plans, programs and schemes of ministries and sectors; and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and other ministries and sectors in performing education development tasks nationwide.

h/ Provincial-level People's Committees shall develop education in their localities according to their competence; formulate and implement strategies and master plans on education development to 2020, five-year and annual education development plans, and education development programs and schemes of their localities in accordance with the 2011-2020 education development strategy, the strategy for and master plan on human resource development during 2011-2020 and local socio­economic development plans of the same period; and direct, organize, inspect, supervise and evaluate the implementation of local strategies, master plans, plans, programs and schemes.-