Full Day Schooling Performance of Primary Schools in Disadvantaged Areas in Vietnam: A Comparative Case Study

Abstract: To enhance the quality of education in primary schools in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Government decided to implement a full day schooling regime and in 2010 a School Education Quality Assurance Program (SEQAP) was piloted for this purpose. After an implementation period, a case study of nine schools in disadvantaged areas in Vietnam, both the SEQAP support and non–SEQAP support had been carried out from October to December 2013 to identify those factors that facilitate or inhibit the transition by a school from half day to full-day schooling (FDS), the importance of SEQAP’s supports and draw lessons for the ongoing implementation of SEQAP and ultimately the national roll-out of FDS. Different findings were found. This article will not analyse all the findings, but focus on discussing FDS implementation and student learning achievement; factors that affected on it. The case study proves that FDS has improved student education quality and for a well FDS performance, a school needs at least minimum physical conditions (e.g. adequacy of classrooms and spaces for school activities, availability of kitchen for lunch, toilets...) but more importance is leadership and teachers’ qualification, parents’ and community participation and support. Keywords: Full day schooling (FDS), well performing school, student achievement, ethnic minority student, SEQAP.