Page 70 - EW August 2023

International News

The sale of the London Institute of Banking and Finance
(LIBF) to IU International University of Applied Sciences
was completed on March 31, but announced in June, just
after IU announced it had also bought a Canadian online
institution, the University of Fredericton.
IU, an online provider, describes itself as Germany’s
“largest and fastest-growing university with more than
100,000 students”, and as “the first university worldwide
to use ChatGPT-4 technology within its dialogue-based AI-
powered teaching and learning assistant Syntea”.
The deal would give IU appeal to “students who are
looking for a UK-accredited degree”, and LIBF “has a very
good fit for our vision to democratise education” given its
strong focus on “career education”, says Sven Schuett, the Vietnamese children: “one of the world's best schooling systems”
IU Group chief executive.
Asked whether IU is planning to shift the nature of pecially in the early years.
LIBF’s course provision beyond finance, Dr. Schuett says: In a 2020 study, Abhijeet Singh of the Stockholm School
“We have already launched eight new degrees outside the of Economics gauged the greater productivity of Vietnam’s
relatively narrow focus of what LIBF has been doing.” schools by examining data from identical tests taken by stu-
New online courses at LIBF “are focused on data and dents in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. He showed that
computer science, artificial intelligence and international between the ages of five and eight, Vietnamese children race
business management — critical skills needed in finance ahead. One more year of education in Vietnam increases the
and business today”, according to a press release on the probability that a child can solve a simple multiplication
sale. problem by 21 percentage points; in India the uplift is six
points. The biggest reason is the calibre of its teachers. Not
VIETNAM that they are necessarily better qualified; they are simply
Schooling success story more effective at teaching. One study comparing Indian
with Vietnamese students attributes much of the difference
HO CHI MINH, THE FOUNDING-FATHER OF in scores in mathematical tests to a gulf in teaching quality.
Vietnam, was clear about the route to develop- Vietnam’s teachers do their job well because they are
ment. “For the sake of ten years’ benefit, we must well-managed. They receive frequent training and are giv-
plant trees. For the sake of a hundred years’ benefit, we en the freedom to make classes more engaging. To tackle
must cultivate the people,” was a statement he liked to re- regional inequality, those posted to remote areas are paid
peat. Yet despite years of rapid economic growth, the coun- more. Most important, teacher assessment is based on
try’s per capita GDP is still only $3,760, lower than in its the performance of their students. Those whose pupils do
regional peers, Malaysia and Thailand (higher than India’s well are rewarded through prestigious “teacher excellence”
$2,200) and barely enough to make the average Vietnam- titles.
ese feel well-nurtured. Still, Ho Chi Minh was alluding to Besides such carrots, a big stick is the threat of running
a Chinese proverb extolling the benefits of education, and foul of the ruling Communist Party. The party apparatus is
on that front Vietnam’s people can have few complaints. obsessed with education. This percolates down to school
Vietnam’s children go through one of the best schooling level, where many head teachers are party members.
systems in the world, a status reflected in outstanding per- The obsession has other useful effects. Provinces are re-
formances in international assessments of reading, maths quired to spend 20 percent of their budgets on education,
and science. The latest data from the World Bank show that, which has helped regional equity. That the party pays such
on aggregate learning scores, Vietnamese students outper- close and relentless attention also ensures that policies are
form not only their counterparts in Malaysia and Thailand adjusted to update curriculums and teaching standards.
but also in Britain and Canada, countries more than six Society at large shares the fixation. Vietnam’s families are
times richer. Even in Vietnam itself, student scores don’t committed to education because of its ingrained Confu-
reflect the scale of inequality so common elsewhere between cianism, suggests Ngo Quang Vinh, a social-sector officer
the genders and different regions. at the Asian Development Bank. He says that even poorer
A child’s propensity to learn is the result of several fac- parents fork out for extra private tutoring. In cities, many
tors — many of which begin at home with parents and the seek schools where teachers have won “excellence in teach-
environment they grow up in. But that is not enough to ing” titles.
explain Vietnam’s stellar performance. Its distinctive secret All this has reaped rich rewards. As schools have im-
lies in the classroom: its children learn more at school, es- proved, so has Vietnam’s economy.

70 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2023