Highest educational attainment

8.4.1. Educational attainment

More than one-third of the population aged 15 years and over graduated from upper secondary school or a higher educational level. There was a big gap in educational levels between urban and rural areas, among socio-economic regions, and among population groups classified by income quintiles.

Educational attainment is an essential indicator for measuring population quality. Educational attainment was classified into five groups, including: (1) not yet graduated from primary school, (2) graduated from primary school, (3) graduated from lower secondary school, (4) graduated from upper secondary school, and (5) higher educational level than upper secondary school. Results from the 2019 Census showed that 36.5% of the population aged 15 years and older graduated from upper secondary school or higher, nearly a two-fold increase compared to 2009 (20.8%).

There was a difference in the highest education attainment of the population aged 15 years and over between urban and rural areas. The proportion of the population aged 15 years and over with low education levels (have not graduated from upper secondary school) in urban areas was lower than in rural areas, and the proportion of the population aged 15 years and over with higher levels of education (graduated from upper secondary school or higher) in urban areas was higher than in rural areas. The proportion of the population aged 15 years and over who had not completed primary education in rural areas was nearly 3 times higher than in urban areas (4.7% and 12.5%, respectively), and the proportion of the population aged 15 years and over who had graduated from upper secondary school or higher in urban areas was nearly 3 times higher than in rural areas (31.6%

and 12.4%, respectively).

50 60 70 80 90 100

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84 85+

Male Female

Age group

124 / RESULTS - THE VIET NAM POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF 00:00 HOURS ON 1 APRIL 2019 RESULTS - THE VIET NAM POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF 00:00 HOURS ON 1 APRIL 2019 | 121 This suggests that socio-economic and infrastructure development in urban areas have created opportunities for easier access to educational services, offering an advantage to urban populations to complete higher levels of education. In addition, urban areas are also more attractive destinations for highly qualified populations to live and work.

Table 8.6: Proportion of population aged 15 years and over by highest education attainment, sex, urban and rural area, and socio-economic region

Unit: % Total

Not a primary

school graduate

Primary school graduate

Lower secondary

school graduate

Upper secondary

school graduate

Higher than upper

secondary

ENTIRE COUNTRY 100.0 9.8 21.4 32.3 17.3 19.2

Male 100.0 7.7 20.1 33.3 18.6 20.3

Female 100.0 11.8 22.6 31.3 16.2 18.1

Urban 100.0 4.7 14.8 26.5 22.4 31.6

Rural 100.0 12.5 25.0 35.5 14.6 12.4

Socio-economic region

Northern midlands and mountain areas 100.0 15.0 19.3 33.2 14.4 18.1

Red River Delta 100.0 2.7 11.7 37.3 20.4 27.9

North Central and Central coastal areas 100.0 8.7 21.6 33.7 17.5 18.5

Central Highlands 100.0 14.9 25.3 32.4 13.5 13.9

South East 100.0 6.3 20.5 30.2 22.2 20.8

Mekong River Delta 100.0 18.4 34.6 26.0 11.3 9.7

Living standard quintile

Poorest quintile 100.0 32.2 30.3 24.6 7.6 5.3

Poor quintile 100.0 15.5 28.7 31.7 13.3 10.8

Middle quintile 100.0 10.0 24.1 33.8 16.2 15.9

Rich quintile 100.0 5.1 15.6 32.1 20.3 26.9

Richest quintile 100.0 2.4 8.2 22.4 20.0 47.0

The Red River Delta and South East were the two socio-economic regions with the highest economic growth rate in the country, attracting a highly qualified population to study and work. The proportion of the population aged 15 years and older that had graduated from upper secondary school and higher in these two regions were 48.3% and 43.0%, respectively. The Mekong River Delta and Central Highlands regions had the lowest proportion of the population aged 15 years and over that had graduated from upper secondary school and higher, with just 21% of the total population aged 15 years and over in the Mekong River Delta reaching that level of schooling.

There was a strong link between education and wealth. The population in the poor quintile had lower education levels than those in the rich quintile: only 12.9% of the poorest quintile graduated from upper secondary school or higher, 54.1 percentage points lower than the richest quintile (67.0%) and 23.6 percentage points lower than the national average. About 47% of the richest quintile graduated from upper secondary school and higher, more than two times higher than the national average and 41.7 percentage points higher than the poorest quintile (5.3%).

RESULTS - THE VIET NAM POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF 00:00 HOURS ON 1 APRIL 2019 / 125 122 | RESULTS - THE VIET NAM POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF 00:00 HOURS ON 1 APRIL 2019

8.4.2. Technical and professional qualifications

The proportion of the population with university or postgraduate degrees more than doubled in the last decade. The higher the living standard, the higher the proportion of the population with professional and technical qualifications. The Red River Delta region had the highest rate of trained populations in the country: for every 100 persons aged 15 years or over, nearly 28 persons had technical and professional qualifications.

Across the country, 80.8% of the population aged 15 and over did not have technical and professional qualifications. Half of the 19.2% of the population with technical and professional qualifications had university or postgraduate degrees (9.3%). The proportion of the population with technical and professional qualifications increased significantly compared to 2009, rising 5.9 percentage points to 13.3%. The proportion of the population with university or postgraduate degrees increased most significantly, more than doubling the rate of 4.4% in 2009. Thus, Viet Nam's university and higher education has made measurable progress in the last decade, contributing to improving the quality of the country’s human resources. However, Viet Nam needs to focus on and make additional efforts toward vocational education and training for skilled manpower to better serve the development of the country.

Table 8.7: Proportion of population aged 15 years and over by technical and professional qualification, sex, urban and rural area, and socio-economic region

Unit: % Total No technical/

professional

qualification Primary Intermediate College

University and post-graduate

ENTIRE COUNTRY 100.0 80.8 3.1 3.5 3.3 9.3

Male 100.0 79.7 3.7 3.9 3.0 9.7

Female 100.0 81.9 2.5 3.2 3.5 8.9

Urban 100.0 68.4 4.7 4.8 4.4 17.7

Rural 100.0 87.6 2.2 2.9 2.6 4.7

Socio-economic region

Northern midlands and mountain areas 100.0 81.9 3.4 4.8 3.2 6.7

Red River Delta 100.0 72.1 5.3 4.7 4.4 13.5

North Central and Central coastal areas 100.0 81.5 2.4 4.1 3.7 8.3

Central Highlands 100.0 86.1 1.6 3.1 2.6 6.6

South East 100.0 79.2 3.3 2.6 3.3 11.6

Mekong River Delta 100.0 90.3 1.1 1.8 1.6 5.2

Living standard quintile

Poorest quintile 100.0 94.7 1.7 1.4 0.9 1.3

Poor quintile 100.0 89.2 3.7 2.4 2.0 2.7

Middle quintile 100.0 84.1 4.6 3.4 3.0 4.9

Rich quintile 100.0 73.1 6.0 5.3 4.7 10.9

Richest quintile 100.0 53.0 7.9 6.9 6.0 26.2

126 / RESULTS - THE VIET NAM POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF 00:00 HOURS ON 1 APRIL 2019 RESULTS - THE VIET NAM POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF 00:00 HOURS ON 1 APRIL 2019 | 123 The percentage of the population aged 15 years and over with technical and professional qualifications in urban areas was higher than in rural areas: the college and lower level rates in urban areas was almost twice as high as that in rural areas, and the university and postgraduate degree rate in urban areas was nearly four times higher than in rural areas. However, there was not a significant difference between sexes; the proportion of males with at least primary vocational education was 20.3%, just 2.2 percentage points higher than females with 18.1%.

The Red River Delta and South East regions had the highest proportion of the population aged 15 years and over with university or postgraduate degrees at 13.5% and 11.6%, respectively. The Mekong River Delta region had the lowest proportion of the population with university or postgraduate degrees, accounting for 5.2%.

The population aged 15 years and older in the richest quintile had the highest rate of trained populations among the income groups with 47.0%, or 27.8 percentage points higher than the percentage of the total population with technical and professional training, and 41.7 percentage points higher than the percentage of the technically trained population aged 15 years and older of the poorest quintile (5.3%). The proportion of the population with university or postgraduate degrees was the lowest in the poorest group and gradually increased in the higher income quintiles, reaching the highest level in the richest quintile.

Although there have been a number of improvements in enhancing technical and professional qualifications, Viet Nam needs to expand its efforts in training human resources to meet labor market needs, including manpower requirements to implement the fourth industrial revolution and effectively take advantage of the demographic window of opportunity.