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What Explains Vietnam's Exceptional Performance in Education Relative to Other Countries? Analysis of the 2012, 2015, and 2018 PISA Data

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  • Dang, Hai-Anh
  • Glewwe, Paul
  • Lee, Jongwook
  • Vu, Khoa

Abstract

Despite being the poorest or second poorest participant, Vietnam outperformed all other developing countries, and many wealthier countries, on the 2012, 2015, and 2018 PISA assessments. We investigate Vietnam's strong performance, evaluating several possible explanations for this apparent exemplary achievement. After correcting for potentially non-representative PISA samples, including bias from Vietnam's large out-of-school population, Vietnam remains a large positive outlier conditional on its income. Possible higher motivation of, and coaching given to, Vietnamese students can at most only partly explain Vietnam's performance. The child-, household- and school-level variables in the PISA data explain little of Vietnam's strong PISA performance relative to its income level. At most, they explain about 30% of Vietnam's exceptional performance in math and reading. Further research is needed to understand the exceptional performance of Vietnamese students.

Suggested Citation

  • Dang, Hai-Anh & Glewwe, Paul & Lee, Jongwook & Vu, Khoa, 2023. "What Explains Vietnam's Exceptional Performance in Education Relative to Other Countries? Analysis of the 2012, 2015, and 2018 PISA Data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:96:y:2023:i:c:s027277572300081x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2023.102434
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hai-Anh H. Dang & Paul W. Glewwe, 2018. "Well Begun, but Aiming Higher: A Review of Vietnam’s Education Trends in the past 20 Years and Emerging Challenges," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 1171-1195, July.
    2. Abhijeet Singh, 2020. "Learning More with Every Year: School Year Productivity and International Learning Divergence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1770-1813.
    3. Marta De Philippis & Federico Rossi, 2021. "Parents, Schools and Human Capital Differences Across Countries," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1364-1406.
    4. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Perera, Liyanage Devangi H. & Xiao, Saizi, 2020. "Vietnam’s extraordinary performance in the PISA assessment: A cultural explanation of an education paradox," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 913-932.
    5. Pelin Akyol & Kala Krishna & Jinwen Wang, 2021. "Taking PISA Seriously: How Accurate are Low-Stakes Exams?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 184-243, June.
    6. Das, Jishnu & Zajonc, Tristan, 2010. "India shining and Bharat drowning: Comparing two Indian states to the worldwide distribution in mathematics achievement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 175-187, July.
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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; student learning; test scores; enrollment; PISA; Vietnam;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • P36 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

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