Vietnam makes school attendance a legal requirement for children
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The Vietnamese government issued a new decree making elementary and secondary school attendance a legal obligation for children rather than just a right. These regulations replace rules that stood for over a decade and specify the ages by which students must complete each level of education.
The law requires children aged 6 to 14 to attend elementary school and adolescents aged 11 to 18 to complete secondary education.
Parents and legal guardians must now ensure their children have the necessary conditions and opportunities to finish these programs. The decree distinguishes between universal education and compulsory education to clarify that completing these curricula is a duty for citizens. The government also created flexible learning paths for adults and older students who have missed standard school ages. Local authorities can organize classes for illiterate people aged 15 to 60 through a continuing education system with schedules that fit working lives.
The state will provide budget funding for textbooks and school supplies for those in literacy programs. To manage these requirements, the government is digitizing all compulsory education data and linking it to the National Population Database. This move removes the need for paper declarations and simplifies administrative work. Commune-level People's Committees will assign personnel to monitor the policy, and the state will cover all implementation costs through annual budgets.
