Viet Nam

The master plan outlines the following objectives for the period 2001-2005:

• To build IT infrastructure for education and training. This consists of computer networks (local netwo ks, intranets, Internet), computer rooms in schools, computers in all educational institutions (schools, colleges, universities, provincial departments, MOET departments) linked together providing access to various databases and resources for teaching and leaning activities and for educational management.
• To develop IT human resource for IT industry for reaching to 25000 or 30000 IT trained specialists at all levels of qualification. Specialised IT training programs for other disciplines are developed to promote IT applications to all different fields. Flexible training modes are encouraged. Much attention should be paid to quality training management to avoid quantity chasing.
• To use IT as an aided tool to teaching and learning for promoting innovative thinking, initiatives, communication, independent problem solving skills, information searching and processing skills to facilitate life-long learning for all people. To develop IT application to any subject, at any school, at any level through use of educational software (software for teaching, learning, testing and evaluation).
• To build suitable curricula, teaching methods and student evaluation systems for teachers' training programmes and to revamp educational management through student databases, teacher databases, databases for educational institutions as well as legal and regulation documents. This information system will make policy decision making faster and more efficient.

More specifically, Vietnam aims to develop a computer-based information network system for education called EduNet and to improve computer ratios at educational institutions: Every school should have at least one classroom with five computers.

In order to reach the goal of at least 25,000 trained IT specialists by 2005, Vietnam aims to strengthen training quality at all IT faculties, increase technical and practical works, regularly revise IT faculties and update their programmes, set up more IT faculties at other state universities, increase the intake into two year training programmes for technicians and technologists with more emphasis on practical skills, encourage second degree training in IT for graduates holding bachelor degrees in other disciplines, create a quality accreditation committee for reviewing programmes at IT faculties and at other IT training levels, set up joint training programs with foreign universities, and to incite students, lecturers and researchers to study in developed countries.

As far as ICTs in schools are concerned, the Master plan states the provision of general knowledge about computers and IT for all school teachers and students, computer use for teaching and learning other subjects as well as computer use for school management as major aims.

Educational institutions will allocate three to five per cent of their annual budgets to IT application.