60% of Vietnamese students fail to reach basic reading proficiency
As many as 59% of Vietnamese students cannot use reading comprehension knowledge and information to handle real-world situations, according to a global assessment of 15-year-olds by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the OECD, revealed that 60% of Vietnamese students failed to achieve basic reading proficiency. Organized in 194 secondary schools, the assessment comprised nearly 7,350 students from Vietnam. Their scores on reading, science, mathematics, and computational problem-solving were notably lower than in the 2022 assessment, with reading proficiency scoring 392 points on average.
Only 41% of students attained Level 2 or higher in reading, a significant drop of nearly 30 percentage points compared to the OECD average. Level 2 is deemed the baseline minimum proficiency, enabling students to grasp the main idea from a moderate-length text, locate explicit information, and reflect on text purpose and form. Vietnamese students surpassed other nations in science and mathematics, with 71% and 58% reaching Level 2 or above, respectively, slightly below OECD averages of 74% and 65%.
The Ministry of Education and Training attributed the disparity to the shift from paper-based to computer-based testing, acknowledging the need for improvement in reading comprehension across subjects. They emphasized the responsibility of teachers to expose students to diverse information types and conduct regular assessments. Despite strong educational resources, such as students' diligence and teachers' monitoring, the Ministry called for a balanced approach to PISA results, avoiding turning it into an exam or test-preparation course.
Vietnam participates in PISA every three years, with the latest assessment involving 765,000 students from 91 participating countries and economies.
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