A study, conducted by the Ministry of Education and Training, found that 1.1 million children between 5-14 years of age do not attend school, a workshop in Hanoi on September 11 heard.

The statistic on out-of-school children includes dropouts and children who have never been enrolled in school.

The study suggests that 2.67% of Vietnamese children aged between 5 and 17, mostly belonging to ethnic minorities, have never gone to school.

It examines the educational differences between migrant families and non-migrant families, concluding that the out-of-school rate for five-year-olds in the former group is 1.3 times higher than for non-migrant families.

At the primary school level the rate is 1.8 times higher, while at the high school level, the rate reaches 2.4 times higher.

It also points out a number of barriers to education including poverty, low awareness of the value of education, insufficient facilities, and a shortage of teachers.

The report makes numerous recommendations to ensure educational equality in the future, such as raising the public’s awareness of children’s rights and the long-term value of education, and investing more in teaching staff and educational facilities in rural areas.

The study is part of a global initiative on out-of-school children launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics to promote the development goal of universal primary education.