Harnessing power of digital transformation in schools
One of the hallmark achievements for HCMC’s education and training sector has been the successful rollout of the “Standardized Framework for Digital School Recognition.” Launched at the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, this framework doesn’t just serve as a benchmark for accrediting educational institutions. It’s also a foundational guide, steering innovative solutions to accelerate digital transformation across the entire sector.
This comprehensive framework is structured around six key pillars:
- digital policy,
- digital infrastructure,
- digital data,
- digital human resources,
- digital governance,
- digital education.
A significant portion of investment has been channeled into digital facilities and infrastructure, leading to the construction of smart classrooms, the implementation of digital lecture management systems, and the acquisition of state-of-the-art online teaching equipment.
On the back of this framework, the HCMC People’s Committee officially recognized the first 100 “Digital Schools” in late April 2025. Junior secondary schools led the charge with 38 institutions, followed by 35 primary schools and 25 senior high schools. Building on this momentum, schools across the city are now developing specialized classrooms for digital citizenship skills and STEM labs integrated with artificial intelligence.
Principal Bui Thi Thanh of Nguyen Hue Primary School in Ben Thanh Ward affirmed that this integration is transformative. “Fusing STEM education with AI allows our students to learn, experience, and practice in a truly digital environment,” she explained. “It links their studies to the real world, which in turn maximizes their initiative and creativity.” Many other schools are following suit, establishing smart libraries and modern laboratories to meet the ever-increasing demands of innovative teaching and learning.
Alongside infrastructure investment, the education sector has correctly identified human resources as the core for successful digital transformation. Regular training sessions and workshops are held to bolster the digital competencies of administrators and teachers. Crucially, digital citizenship skills have been integrated into the curriculum, starting right from the primary school level.
Following a recent administrative restructuring, HCMC now leads the nation in student population, with nearly 2.6 million students across 3,500 educational institutions. For the 2025-2026 school year, we’re set to open 1,287 new classrooms funded by the state budget, including 151 for preschools, 585 for primary, 412 for junior secondary, and 112 for senior secondary levels. An additional 200 preschool and 190 general education classrooms are expected from private investment. This massive expansion helps guarantee our goal that 100 percent of residents have access to well-equipped schools, fully meeting the program's requirements.
On November 14, 2025, we will host a festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the sector. Themed “50 Years of Educational Innovation: A Generational Hallmark - An Aspiration for the Future,” the event will honor a half-century of remarkable achievements and chart the course for future policies, all while inspiring a new wave of innovation among our staff and students.
Director Nguyen Van Hieu of the HCMC Department of Education and Training
According to teacher Le Van Thien from Gia Dinh High School in Thanh My Tay Ward, developing students’ digital capacity is essential. It’s not just about proficient tool use; it enhances research abilities and fosters critical thinking and problem-solving. This digital fluency is crucial for students to thrive in a tech-driven world and adapt to modern society’s challenges.
Deputy Director Nguyen Bao Quoc of the HCMC Department of Education and Training announced that for the 2025-2026 school year, all schools are mandated to implement a formal plan for teaching digital citizenship skills. He stressed that a core focus will be on universalizing digital literacy and cybersecurity awareness to ensure students meet the criteria laid out in the Ministry of Education and Training’s national Digital Competency Framework.
Spearheading push to make English second language
In November 2024, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong lauded HCMC’s decade-long Integrated English Program. The groundbreaking initiative, which combines UK/VN curricula, is considered a game-changer that laid the foundation for making English a national second language. Following its success, the Ministry has now tasked HCMC with continuing to pilot the initiative, calling for a synchronized deployment of resources.
Reflecting on this success, Director Nguyen Van Hieu stated that HCMC has long fostered a favorable environment for foreign language instruction. The journey began in the 1998-1999 school year with a pilot for an intensive English program. This was followed by a city-wide project to enhance English proficiency, which acted as a catalyst for quality improvement.
These early efforts paved the way for the integrated program in public schools, giving the city’s students a strong linguistic foundation. The results speak for themselves, with students consistently achieving top honors in international academic competitions and keeping HCMC at the forefront of English education in Vietnam.
For the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, English language instruction will be further enhanced by a digital classroom model. This initiative aims to provide students in remote areas, where qualified English teachers may be scarce, with access to modern learning programs, thereby ensuring a more uniform improvement in language proficiency across the entire city.
Reaping rewards for nurturing gifted students
For two consecutive academic years, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, HCMC has firmly held its position as second in the nation for the number of national-level academic award winners. This builds on a consistent track record of being in the top 10 localities for the three preceding years.
Now, entering the 2025-2026 school year, the first since the administrative reorganization, the city’s academic team is its largest ever, with 480 students set to compete in 12 subjects at the national level.
A defining feature of HCMC’s program for gifted students is the growing number of individuals making their mark on the international stage.
In the 2024-2025 school year, Le Phan Duc Man, a 12th grader from Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, secured an impressive Silver Medal at the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
Prior to this, a project on using deep learning for music composition to preserve Southern Vietnamese amateur folk music, developed by fellow students Nguyen Tan Duc and Ha Nhat Bao, won a Fourth Prize at the prestigious 2025 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
