Today’s news celebrates France’s new Minister of Education—a 38-year-old woman of Muslim faith—hailed as a rising star for her brilliance and youth. Many may not realize that India’s Minister of Human Resource Development (equivalent to Education), Smriti Zubin Irani, was a 39-year-old former Bollywood star and model who never graduated college.
France and India, two global powers, dared to entrust immense responsibility to young leaders who lacked traditional academic experience. Their approach is clear: They prioritize radical, creative thinking to solve massive educational problems over traditional political or academic credentialism.
This mindset is the engine of reform. India, for instance, created universities rivaling MIT and Harvard, offers English-medium education for the cost of three ice cream cones ( $7 to $10 per month), and distributes world-class curricula (IB, IGCSE equivalents) for free online. This success came from a revolutionary approach to education—elite quality for the masses.
I. The qualitative barrier to change
In contrast, the biggest obstacle to an educational revolution in Vietnam is the bureaucracy’s reliance on purely qualitative criteria instead of quantifiable metrics for management and evaluation.
This qualitative bias erects an impenetrable wall against any genuinely innovative reform proposal. Bureaucratic feedback is often vague and emotionally dismissive: “not suitable for educational goals” or “not aligned with Vietnamese culture,” without any serious research or measurable evaluation. This approach guarantees that no truly breakthrough initiative can ever be approved.
The result of this bias is market distortion: We are left with costly, conservative, and often ineffective educational programs. We see textbook projects costing billions with confusing, unworkable criteria; expensive English programs; and overpriced digital devices forced upon parents. The consequence is a looting of the education market that is more detrimental than corruption in banking or arms trade.
II. The vicious cycle of parental fear
The worst aspect of this market distortion is that it exploits the deepest fear of Vietnamese parents: the uncertain future of their children.
- The compliance trap: Because parents fear their child will be left behind, they “acquiesce” (“Ừ!” tất) to every demand. If a teacher or school declares a program is essential (even if expensive), parents will grit their teeth and pay. They queue up for schools based on unverified rumors and buy substandard digital packages just to be done with it.
- The expert illusion: In education, everyone considers themselves an expert. Lawyers advise on curricula; military officials advise on discipline. Journalists and KOLs, armed with superficial knowledge, loudly criticize the entire system. This cacophony of emotional and unfounded opinions is tolerated because “education” is seen as a social right everyone can comment on, unlike a surgical procedure or flying a plane.
- The conflict: This creates an impossible environment for private schools, who face endless scrutiny. A school that lacks conviction will be spun like a top by public opinion, losing valuable time and energy needed for actual teaching.
III. A mandate for rigor and integrity
The practice of selling low-quality educational products by exploiting parental anxiety and confusion is deeply unscrupulous. If a financial product or appliance was this flawed, consumers would immediately boycott it.
As someone committed to education, I implore the State to make a fundamental change:
- Demand quantitative rigor: The State must adopt a strict, scientific process for evaluating proposals, demanding quantifiable metrics for investment, quality, and results.
- End market looting: Systematically eliminate the exploitation of the market by unprincipled companies. Open the door to truly transformative reforms that prioritize genuine educational value.
- Trust the market: Implement fair, clear evaluation procedures that stop treating proposals with suspicion and subjective “feeling” (cảm tính).
The failure to enact tough, fair evaluation criteria creates opacity, which allows unscrupulous actors to thrive. We need transparency and rigorous assessment to ensure that only genuine educational reformers—and not just those exploiting fear—can succeed.
