Abstract :
This study examines the critical role of local educational management in Vietnam, with a particular focus on how provincial-level authorities implement national education policies in practice through school network planning, resource allocation, and teacher deployment. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative document analysis with descriptive analysis of official statistics published by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Finance. To capture regional variation in governance capacity and educational demand, the study contrasts two major metropolitan centers, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with two large North Central provinces, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, where broader rural and mountainous contexts create distinct challenges in access and resource distribution. The findings reveal a clear divide between large metropolitan centers and territorially extensive provinces. Major cities face rapid enrollment growth, higher staffing pressures, and intensified demand for educational services, while large provinces confront persistent infrastructure gaps, dispersed settlement patterns, and access inequalities, particularly in rural and mountainous areas. Fiscal analysis further indicates uneven local spending capacity across regions, alongside persistent limitations in data integration and reporting consistency within subnational education administration.
Keywords :
Local educational management; Education governance; Public administration; VietnamReferences :
- Bray, T. M. (1999). The Shadow Education System: Private Tutoring and Its Implications for Planners. UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning.
- Chen, D. T., Wang, L. Y., & Neo, W. L. (2015). School-based curriculum development towards a culture of learning: Nonlinearity in practice. British Journal of Educational Studies, 63(2), 213-228.
- Danh Trung (2023). Literature review on local education for high school students. Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Đồng Tháp, 12(3), 89-99.
- Greany, T., Cowhitt, T., Noyes, A., Gripton, C., & Hudson, G. (2025). Local learning landscapes: conceptualising place-based professional learning by teachers and schools in decentralised education systems. Journal of Educational Change, 26(1), 1-28.
- Hảo, N. N., & Thống, H. V. (2024). Thực trạng quản lý hoạt động giáo dục địa phương cho học sinh trong trường trung học phổ thông ở thành phố Cao Lãnh, tỉnh Đồng Tháp. Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Đồng Tháp, 13(01S), 74-82.
- Heikkilä, M. (2021). Finnish teachers’ participation in local curriculum development: A study of processes in five school contexts. Policy Futures in Education, 19(7), 752-769.
- Kizys, D., Lotter, C., Perez, L., Gilreath, R., & Limberg, D. (2025, May). Integrating community assets, place-based learning, and career development through project-based learning in rural settings. In Frontiers in Education(Vol. 10, p. 1577093). Frontiers Media SA.
- Nỏn, H. V. N. H. V., & Thạch, P. N. T. P. N. (2024). Thực trạng quản lí hoạt động giáo dục địa phương cho học sinh các trường tiểu học ở huyện Vị Thủy, tỉnh Hậu Giang. Tạp chí Giáo dục, 219-224.
- Thống, H. V., Đệ, N. V., & Nam, T. V. (2023). Nghiên cứu quy trình tổ chức hoạt động bồi dưỡng năng lực cho đội ngũ giáo viên đáp ứng yêu cầu triển khai nội dung giáo dục địa phương ở trường phổ thông. Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Đồng Tháp, 12(01S), 19-25.
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2021). Developing indicators to support the implementation of education policies (OECD Working Paper). OECD Publishing.
- Osborne, S. P. (Ed.). (2010). The new public governance? Emerging perspectives on the theory and practice of public governance.
- Rondinelli, D. A., Nellis, J. R., & Cheema, G. S. (1983). Decentralization in developing countries. World Bank staff working paper, 581, 13-28.
- Rhodes, R. A. W. (1996). The new governance: governing without government. Political studies, 44(4), 652-667.
- Wang, L. Y., Chen Victor, D. T., & Neo, W. L. (2019). Studying the enactment of school-based curriculum development (SBCD) in Singapore. Educational Research, 61(3), 337-355.
- World Bank Group. (2025). Education Statistics | Available Indicators. World Bank Datatopics. https://datatopics.worldbank.org/education/indicators.

