Despite the war raging between North and South Vietnam between 1954 and 1975 (not to mention a shortage of teachers, textbooks and classrooms), rival regimes in Hanoi and Saigon continued to place huge importance on providing educational opportunities.
Literacy in Vietnam among those aged 15 to 35 is 98.5 percent, an incredible feat considering some 90 percent of the population was unable to read or write in 1945 when it gained independence. The country’s Ministry of Education and Training put this down to its Learning Society Program. Vietnam’s literacy rate is now one of the highest in the world.
According to the charity Action Aid, 11,000 community-based learning centers across the country have been working together in tackling illiteracy.
