Early childhood education in Vietnam, called giáo dục mầm non, is the first level of the national education system and serves children from three months to six years old in two stages: nursery (nhà trẻ, three to 36 months) and kindergarten (mẫu giáo, three to six years). It is regulated nationally by the Ministry of Education and Training, delivered through public, people-founded and private settings, and every school, whatever its ownership, is expected to follow the national preschool programme. Children then start grade one of primary school in the year they turn six.
For an international teacher, a curriculum lead arriving from abroad or a partner organisation looking at Vietnam for the first time, that one-paragraph answer hides a lot of useful detail. This guide walks through the legal frame, the two stages and their age groups, the kinds of institutions you will meet, what the state decides and what schools decide, and the recent policy changes that are reshaping the sector. The aim is simple: to help you understand the system you are working inside, so that whatever you bring from elsewhere fits it rather than fights it.
Where preschool sits in the national education system
Vietnam’s Education Law, passed by the National Assembly in 2019 and in force since 1 July 2020, describes the national education system as a set of levels running from early childhood education through general education, vocational education and higher education. Preschool is not an optional extra outside that system; it is named as its first level, with its own purpose of nurturing, caring for and educating young children so that they develop physically, emotionally, intellectually and aesthetically and are ready to enter grade one.
That wording matters in practice. In some countries, care for babies and toddlers belongs to a social or health ministry and only the year before school counts as education. In Vietnam, the whole span from three months to six years is treated as education, under the same ministry, with one national programme that covers both stages. The Vietnamese phrase used again and again in official texts is nuôi dưỡng, chăm sóc, giáo dục: nourishing, caring and educating. Teachers are expected to do all three, which is why lunch, the midday sleep and hygiene routines are written into the programme alongside learning activities.
Preschool attendance is not compulsory in the way primary school is, but the state has a policy of universal preschool education. It began with five-year-olds, for whom universal attendance was reached nationally in 2017, and in 2025 the National Assembly extended the goal to children aged three to five. In everyday terms, almost every Vietnamese child now spends at least the year before school in a kindergarten class, and in cities most start much earlier.
Two stages and their usual age groups
The programme and the preschool charter divide the early years into two stages, and schools group children by age within each stage. The Vietnamese class names below are the ones families and teachers use every day, so it helps to know them from the first week.
| Stage | Age | Usual group | Everyday name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery (nhà trẻ) | 3–12 months | Infant group | nhóm trẻ 3–12 tháng |
| Nursery | 13–24 months | Young toddler group | nhóm trẻ 13–24 tháng |
| Nursery | 25–36 months | Older toddler group | nhóm trẻ 25–36 tháng |
| Kindergarten (mẫu giáo) | 3–4 years | Youngest kindergarten class | lớp Mầm (bud) |
| Kindergarten | 4–5 years | Middle kindergarten class | lớp Chồi (shoot) |
| Kindergarten | 5–6 years | Final year before grade one | lớp Lá (leaf) |
The plant names, bud, shoot and leaf, are not official categories in the law, but they are almost universal in Vietnamese schools and on the doors of classrooms. Bilingual schools often add their own English class names on top, which can confuse new staff. It is worth keeping a simple table in the staffroom that matches each in-house name to its official age band, because reports to the education authorities always use the official bands.
Ages are counted by the year of birth for kindergarten placement in most schools, so a child born late in the year can be among the youngest in a class. Teachers coming from systems with different cut-off dates should expect a wider spread of maturity in a single class than they are used to.
The kinds of institutions you will meet
The Education Law lists the forms an early childhood setting can take. The names describe size and age range more than quality, and each has its own licensing rules.
- Nursery school (nhà trẻ): takes children from three to 36 months only.
- Kindergarten school (trường mẫu giáo): takes children from three to six years only.
- Preschool (trường mầm non): combines both stages under one roof, from three months to six years. This is now the most common form in cities.
- Independent nursery groups and kindergarten classes (nhóm trẻ độc lập, lớp mẫu giáo độc lập, lớp mầm non độc lập): small settings, often in residential or industrial areas, licensed separately and limited in size.
Cutting across those forms is ownership. A setting can be public (công lập), funded and staffed by the state; people-founded (dân lập), set up by a local community; or private (tư thục), invested in by individuals or companies, including foreign-invested schools that operate under separate rules on foreign investment in education. The quality range inside each category is wide. A well-run public kindergarten can offer a richer day than a glossy private one, and the reverse is equally true, so the ownership label tells you about funding and governance, not about pedagogy.
What the state decides, and what schools decide
Several national documents set the frame every setting works within. The national preschool programme defines goals, content, expected outcomes and how children’s development is evaluated. The preschool charter, issued as a ministerial circular, sets out how schools are organised: age groups, maximum group sizes, the duties of principals and teachers, and how schools relate to families and local authorities. Professional standards for preschool teachers and principals describe what staff are expected to know and do. Separate rules cover school health, food safety, safe school environments and quality accreditation.
Within that frame, schools have more room than outsiders often assume. The programme describes outcomes and principles rather than a lesson-by-lesson script, so each school builds its own year plan, chooses its themes, sets its daily timetable within the guidance, decides how to arrange classrooms and materials, and can add supplementary programmes such as English familiarisation, music, movement or a named curriculum framework. Private schools in particular use this space to differentiate themselves, but public schools also vary a great deal in how creatively they interpret the same programme.
For a curriculum lead, the practical rule is that an imported approach has to be mapped onto the national programme, not placed beside it. Global Nexus, for example, plans around six dimensions of development, language, emotion, life skills, independence, creativity and thinking, but those dimensions are layered on top of the five national areas of development so that every child still meets the national expectations. A school that runs two parallel curricula, one for inspection and one for marketing, usually ends up doing neither well.
Recent policy directions worth knowing
Free preschool in public settings. In 2025 the National Assembly decided that children in public preschools would be exempt from tuition from the 2025–2026 school year, with support towards fees for children in private settings. Earlier, tuition support had applied mainly to five-year-olds and to disadvantaged groups.
Universal preschool for ages three to five. Also in 2025, the National Assembly adopted a resolution on universal preschool education for children from three to five years old, building on the earlier programme for five-year-olds. For schools this means more children entering earlier, and steady pressure on space and staffing.
Higher qualification requirements for teachers. The 2019 Education Law raised the minimum qualification for new preschool teachers to a college diploma in early childhood teacher education, with a roadmap for serving teachers to upgrade. The Law on Teachers passed in 2025 sets out a broader framework for the profession.
More attention to foreign languages. Since 2020 there has been a national programme for familiarising kindergarten children with English, used on a voluntary basis where conditions allow, and national policy has since set a long-term goal of making English a second language in schools.
Local government reorganisation. Vietnam reorganised its local government into two tiers in 2025, removing the district level and merging provinces. Responsibilities that used to sit with district education offices have been redistributed, so school leaders should check which office now handles licensing and reporting in their area.
Who does what inside a Vietnamese preschool
Inside the school, authority is clearly layered. The principal (hiệu trưởng) is legally responsible for the programme, safety and staff, and works with one or more vice-principals, usually one for professional matters and one for care and nutrition. Together they form the leadership team. Teachers are organised into professional teams by age stage, each with a team leader who checks plans, arranges peer observation and passes on guidance from the education authorities. Kitchen staff, a school nurse or health officer, accountants and security staff complete the picture, and in larger schools a care assistant (bảo mẫu) supports teachers in the nursery groups.
Each class normally has two teachers who share the day in shifts, one opening and one closing, with an overlap in the middle for lunch and nap. In bilingual schools an English-speaking teacher may join for part of the day or for specific sessions, and the arrangement varies from school to school. A parents’ representative committee exists for each class and for the school, and it is consulted on matters such as events and the use of contributions. Knowing this structure helps new staff understand why decisions sometimes take longer than expected: a change to the routine of one class may need the agreement of the team leader, the vice-principal and sometimes the class parents’ committee.
What this means if you are new to the system
Three habits make the first months easier. The first is to learn the official vocabulary early. Words such as chủ đề (theme), hoạt động học (the planned learning activity), hoạt động góc (corner or centre play), bán trú (full-day attendance including lunch and nap) and ban giám hiệu (the school leadership team) appear in every planning meeting. Knowing them signals respect and saves a great deal of translation.
The second is to read the national programme itself, at least the goals and expected outcomes for the age group you teach. It is shorter and more child-centred than many newcomers expect, and it uses the same language of play, exploration and individual development that international teachers are trained in. Many of the frictions between foreign and Vietnamese colleagues come from assumptions about the programme rather than from the programme.
The third is to remember that care and education are one job here. A teacher who treats lunch, nap and toileting as someone else’s responsibility will be seen as not doing the work. In a bilingual setting these routines are also some of the richest language moments of the day, so the expectation is an opportunity rather than a burden. The other articles in this section look at each part of the system in more detail: the national programme, group sizes and staffing, universal preschool policy, school types, English in the framework, the daily routine, the teaching profession, health and nutrition, and the transition to grade one.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
At what age do children start preschool in Vietnam?
Settings may admit children from three months old, and the nursery stage runs to 36 months. Kindergarten covers three to six years. In practice many urban families start between 18 months and three years, and nearly all children attend at least the final kindergarten year before grade one.
Is preschool compulsory in Vietnam?
Preschool is not compulsory in the same sense as primary school, but the state has a policy of universal preschool education. Universal attendance for five-year-olds was reached nationally in 2017, and in 2025 the goal was extended to children aged three to five.
Which ministry is responsible for preschools in Vietnam?
The Ministry of Education and Training sets the national programme, the preschool charter and professional standards. Provincial departments of education and local authorities handle licensing, supervision and day-to-day management, with health and food safety rules issued jointly with the health sector.
What do the class names Mam, Choi and La mean?
They are the everyday names for the three kindergarten years: Mam (bud) for three to four years, Choi (shoot) for four to five years and La (leaf) for five to six years. They are not legal categories, but almost every Vietnamese school uses them.
Do private and international preschools follow the national programme?
Vietnamese private schools are expected to implement the national preschool programme and may add supplementary programmes on top. Foreign-invested schools operate under separate rules on foreign investment in education, so their obligations depend on their licence and the children they enrol.
What does ban tru mean in a Vietnamese preschool?
Ban tru means full-day attendance in which children stay at school for lunch and the midday sleep. It is the standard model in most urban preschools, so the school day includes meals, rest and hygiene routines as well as planned learning and play.