Vietnam seeks stronger education partnership with US

Along with attending the Transforming Education Summit, Son had meetings with the US Secretary of Education and representatives from the World Bank, Microsoft and New York University.

He also had a working session with President of the US Educational Testing Service (ETS) Amit Sevak, and held a Vietnam-US education cooperation forum that drew leading US educational organisations. Participants at the event discussed major cooperation issues in education-training between the two sides.

On the sidelines of the forum, the minister had a meeting with leaders of College Board - a global non-profit organisation connecting students to universities and career opportunities.

College Board Vice President Rushi Sheth said that the number of Vietnamese students joining the advanced placement programme has increased 219% since 2018, while those taking SAT tests rose 45%, showing the increasing demand for international education programmes.

He said that online SAT tests are likely to be made online from March 2023, helping save cost and time for students across the world.

College Board hopes to become a strategic partner of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in expanding opportunities to approach high quality education for students, he said.

At a meeting with General Director of c Encyclopeadia Britannica (EB) Jorge Cauz, Son expressed his hope that EB will partner with Vietnam through cooperation activities with the national foreign language training project and the Vietnam Academy of Education Science, while helping the country develop general education and creating a firm foundation for the training of high quality human resources in the country.

Son also had a meeting with Andrew B. Raupp, CEO of STEM, one of the oldest education organisations of the US that has provided services for 4,500 schools and organisations in more than 25 countries, including Vietnam.

On September 22, he received Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Lee Satterfield and Acting Assistant Administrator for Asia at USAID Ann Marie Yastishock.

Son and the Vietnamese delegation also visited a number of educational facilities in the US, including Arizona University and Jacson Reed High School.