Vietnam succeeds in universal education coverage for 5-year-old children  Vietnam has qualified as successful universal education coverage for 5-year-old children according to Vice Minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Thi Nghia. Speaking at the International Conference on Early Childhood Education (ECE) held on Monday morning in Hanoi, Nghia said that the “Enhancing School Readiness for Pre-school Children” is considered a historical project which contributes significantly to the universalization of ECE for 5-year-old children. “Development of ECE and enhancing school readiness for children are significant factors in the development of quality human resources for Vietnam,” Nghia added. The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in partnership with the World Bank and UNICEF organize the International Conference on Early Childhood Education (ECE) with the theme “Ensure access of all children to quality early childhood education and school readiness” on 12th and 13th June 2017.  This ECE International Conference is organized in conjunction with the Conference to review the “Enhancing School Readiness for Pre-school Children” Project with the expectation to share success stories and good practices to further develop ECE in Vietnam in the future. The ECE International Conference was co-organised by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in partnership with the World Bank and UNICEF, attracted 290 participants from 11 countries, including Vietnamese education officials, international scholars, researchers and ECE leaders together with senior leaders of the World Bank and UNICEF, and representatives from various NGOs. Speaking at the conference, Minister Phung Xuan Nha emphasizes that ECE plays an important role and lays the first bricks for physical, intellectual, emotional and aesthetic development of children.   Minister Nha highly appreciates the support from the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO and other NGOs for ECE development in Vietnam. He also requested continued support from the World Bank and UNICEF as well as other international organizations for ECE in Vietnam in the future. Country Director of the World Bank in Vietnam, Ousmane Dionne, highlighted “Vietnam is strongly committed to education development. Through the universal early childhood education programme for 5-year-old children, Vietnam has ensured the right to at least one year pre-primary education for children and continue to primary and secondary education. However, we need to be more ambitious and should state that the right to education, just simply by sitting in the classrooms, is not enough. Education should be high quality to ensure that children can really learn…

Vietnam seeks early childhood education  International and domestic participants are discussing and identifying solutions to ensure a high-quality, comprehensive approach to early childhood care, education and development at a two-day conference launched yesterday in Hà Nội.  The International Conference on Early Childhood Education with the theme “Ensuring access of all children to quality early childhood education and school readiness”, jointly organised by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), the World Bank and the UNICEF, has attracted 290 participants from 11 countries including the US, Singapore, China, Australia, India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Laos…

The role of preschool quality in promoting child development: evidence from rural Indonesia Sally Anne Brinkman, Amer Hasan, Haeil Jung, Angela Kinnell, Nozomi Nakajima, and Menno Pradhan, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal: This article examines the relationship between preschool quality and children’s early development in a sample of over 7900 children enrolled in 578 preschools in rural Indonesia. Quality was measured by: (1) classroom observations using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R); (2) teacher characteristics; and (3) structural characteristics of preschools. Children’s development was measured using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The article proposes two methodological improvements to preschool quality studies. First, an instrumental variable approach is used to correct for measurement error. Second, ECERS-R is adjusted to the local context by contrasting items with Indonesia’s national preschool standards. Results show that observed classroom quality is a significant and meaningful positive predictor of children’s development once models correct for measurement error and apply a locally-adapted measure of classroom quality. In contrast, teacher characteristics and structural characteristics are not significant predictors of child development, while holding observed classroom quality constant.

Laos: Going beyond basic indicators: A new tool to measure education service delivery  A new tool is aiming to provide comprehensive data to better understand the complexities of an education system…

Human Capital and Income Inequality: New Facts and Some Explanations

Healthy, Literate, and Smart: The Global Increase in Human Capital since 1870

ASEAN fight to keep manufacturing edge ” Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia…have the highest number of workers at risk from automation. There are estimates that over 50 per cent of jobs in the region could be automated”

The Future of Work: the number of jobs is not the only thing at stake

Education inside China: a longitudinal (1989-2011) analysis

Prospects 46(2) Issue: Brain science, education and learning: Making connections