Competency Based Assessment Reform in the Republic of Vietnam

Project Lead

Dr Cuc Nguyen

Project Details

The Assessment Research Centre has a long and successful partnership, working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education in Hanoi on a series of large scale reform initiatives. For almost two decades, the Centre has collaborated with Vietnamese counterparts to strengthen the capabilities of educators and researchers in transformative education projects.

Largely focussed on building capacity in the development, and subsequent measurement, of standards and achievement, recent projects undertaken in Vietnam include:

  • Development of teacher standards in primary schools
  • Development, design and report of large scale surveys of student achievement
  • Targeted training for leading Vietnamese researchers in designing teacher standards for secondary schools
  • Targeted training for leading Vietnamese researchers in conducting large scale surveys of student achievement
  • Targeted training for leading Vietnamese researchers to reform primary and secondary school curriculum design, in a shift towards competency-based education
  • Targeted training for leading trainers to reform teaching and assessment in Vietnamese schools, in a shift towards competency-based education

Reports generated from our partnership with Vietnam have been used as best practice examples of collaboration and capacity building in education by the World Bank.

Furthering our capacity building role, an increasing number of Vietnamese students have requested to undertake doctorate and postgraduate studies at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, as our partnership with Vietnam continues and strengthens.

Published Research

Griffin, P., & Nguyen, C. (2009) Secondary analysis of data on education outcomes in Vietnam, report to the World Bank (pp. 142). Melbourne: Assessment Research Centre.

Nguyen, C., Griffin, P., Ure, C., & Pavlovic, M. (2008). Study in Teacher Quality: Report on survey for primary school principals and teachers, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam School Education Quality Assurance Project (pp. 160). Melbourne: Assessment Research Centre.

Griffin, P., Nguyen, T.K.C. & Gillis, S. (2006). Vietnam primary school teacher development project (Report to the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam). Melbourne: Assessment Research Centre, The University of Melbourne.

Griffin, P., Nguyen, T.K.C., Gillis, S., Mai, T.T. (2006). An Empirical Analysis of Primary Teacher Standards in Vietnam. Curricular Reforms in Southeast Asia, Planning and Changing, 37(1&2), 71-92.