Quynh Thu Nguyen’s research while affiliated with Thai Nguyen University and other places

Vietnam at its initial announcement of independence, in 1945, had a remarkably high rate of illiteracy. The many wars that followed have contributed to slow down the government effort in delivering literacy education to its citizens. Yet, from the 1980s, Doi Moi marked the big shift in politics, economic policies, as well as educational practices. The privatization of economic factors in Doi Moi went with the liberation of social activities in other cultural fields. The late 1980s and 1990s saw the booming education market, which helped to increase the rate of literacy. Subsequently, in the second decade of twenty-first century, there has been another intensive innovation of education policies on literacy education, responding to increasing social and economic globalization. This chapter provides an overview of literacy education in modern Vietnam and brings those historical marking stones into a discussion of current challenges toward the future for Vietnamese literacy education. The chapter also unpacks current practices in the twenty-first century with some significant landmarks of development toward globalization. Taking the outline of literacy education in Vietnam to the point where it is today, the chapter shows a shift from the centralized nationalist discourse toward a more critical approach, looking outward to global standards and inter-connected settings.