However, what is the subject of much debate, is how the new technology-driven age could stand to broaden and deepen the inequality gap between those who possess the ability to prosper, and those untold millions of uneducated Vietnamese that don’t have access to quality education and hence won’t flourish in this new era.
Then there are also the monumental issues surrounding the need to change current perceptions and raise awareness about the omnipresent importance of improving the education of women and girls throughout the country.
It is short-sighted at best to think that an illiterate mother raising her children in a rural village in Vietnam will be able to benefit from the cutting-edge products or services being produced in the country in the new era, or that one of her daughters will be empowered to benefit without fundamental change being effectuated.
In this age of ‘fake news’ in Vietnam it is all too easy for critical issues—such as the fact that gender-biased sex selection continues to skew the ratio between males and females born in the country, with projections showing that by 2035 there will be 10% more men than women in the population if current trends are not halted—to be ignored.
Gender biased sex selection is a real issue with tangible consequences highlighting the need for the country to focus on putting the necessary resources into education to obtain the highest return on investment as it enters the new age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
It is not logical to assume the Fourth Industrial Revolution will magically solve the national crisis of illiteracy or that cloud-based learning or virtual instruction will in any meaningful way eradicate health epidemics or alleviate the security challenges or threats to its sovereignty that Vietnam currently faces.
It is crucially important that Vietnam as a country continue to focus on effectively training teachers and educating its youth to ensure children continue to improve their literacy— and that advancing their language and communication skills above all else remain the central focus and lay the proper foundation for the advancement of the country.
Additionally, the country must put at the forefront the support of girls to complete secondary school and foster in them the skills needed to succeed beyond the classroom – like confidence, financial planning and self-awareness.
If these interventions are not universally put in place, millions of today’s youth in low-income families will never reach their full potential and therefore will be precluded from the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In short, the country cannot afford to overlook making further progress towards building the human capacity of its people to fully participate in the benefits that the Fourth Industrial Revolution may offer.
Regardless of all the ‘fake news’ that circulates throughout the Vietnam media daily, the country can only shape its future by putting the education of its young first and foremost and then concentrate its efforts on empowering them.
Education and the ability to effectively communicate in foreign languages is the indispensable path forward to accelerating the country’s economic growth and raising the quality of life for its citizens that the country—must get right—if it is to prosper in the new age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
