The Relationship Between Students’ Achievement and Early School Leaving in Rural Vietnam

There are several terms such as early school leaving, early school departure and dropping out from school to categorise the phenomenon of students ceasing to attend school before completing a certain school cycle. While the term 'early-school leaving' has been used in Australian literature, the term 'dropping out from school' is used in most of academic literature in the United States. In Vietnam, the term 'dropping out from school' has also been widely used in literature. Compulsory education in Vietnam is only for primary education. There are three cycles or levels in the Vietnamese education system: primary (grade 1 to grade 5); lower secondary (grade 6 to grade 9); and secondary (grade 10 to grade 12). There has not been an agreement reached as to what grade, levels or age students can leave school. Thus in Vietnam, the term 'dropping out' from a certain grade or school cycle is used frequently as it facilitates the specification of the cycle from which students withdraw from school. In this article, in order to avoid the stigma associated with the expression 'dropping out from school', the term 'early school leaving' will be used. Early school leaving students referred to in this article are those students who ceased school before completing lower secondary education. In Vietnam, early school leaving issues were largely ignored until the rates of students leaving school early became unusually high in the 1988-1989 academic year. Since 1986, Vietnam has implemented a policy of economic renovation (Dot mot), which has profound effects not only on economic growth but also on social