Editor’s note: Ensuring the right to education and creating opportunities for ethnic minority children, particularly those from the country’s smallest ethnic groups, to advance through knowledge has long been a consistent policy of the Party and State.

At a 2025 meeting honoring outstanding ethnic minority students and young people, that commitment was taken a step further when Party General Secretary To Lam, then Party General Secretary and State President, called for stronger support mechanisms and policies, including overseas scholarships for high-achieving ethnic minority students.

Drawing on years of practical experience and following broader policy directions, Vietnam’s approach to ethnic minority education is shifting from simply ensuring access to schooling toward more targeted investment in high-quality human resources. For the smallest ethnic groups, which face particular challenges, this is expected to become a long-term investment in developing human capital and expanding opportunities for their communities.

Based on an assessment of the results and real-world impact of existing policies, the series “From education support to investing in talent among Vietnam’s smallest ethnic groups” examines existing gaps and the need to improve policies for a new stage of development.

After nine years, Decree 57/2017/ND-CP has significantly expanded educational opportunities for Vietnam’s smallest ethnic groups. But circumstances have changed, including population sizes, criteria for determining levels of hardship and the broader system of related policies.

That widening gap has made a review and revision of Decree 57/2017/ND-CP necessary to ensure that support reaches the right people while also meeting new development needs.

Population changes expose policy mismatches

W-tiếp cận 1.jpg
Despite a multidimensional poverty rate of 86.6%, the La Hu were not included on the list of ethnic groups facing specific hardship for 2021-2025 under Decision 1227/QD-TTg because their population had exceeded 10,000. Photo: Tao Dat

Decree 57/2017/ND-CP sets out education support policies for Vietnam’s smallest ethnic groups. The designation itself effectively defines beneficiaries as ethnic groups with populations below 10,000, based on the definition of a “very small ethnic minority” under Decree 05/2011/ND-CP on ethnic affairs.

When “specific hardship” is redefined

During the 2021-2025 period, ethnic groups facing specific hardship were defined as very small ethnic minorities that also met criteria related to high mortality rates among children under one and the proportion of people aged 15 and above unable to read or write. These criteria were stipulated in Decision 39/2020/QD-TTg.

From 2026, the criteria for determining ethnic groups facing specific hardship have been revised.

Under Decree 255/2025/ND-CP, such groups are those with a nationwide population below 10,000 according to population management data and which meet at least one of two additional criteria: their multidimensional poverty rate is higher than the national average for ethnic minorities, or their nationwide population according to population management data has declined from the figure recorded in the 2019 Population and Housing Census.

When Decree 57/2017/ND-CP was drafted, the Ministry of Education and Training, using data from the 2009 population census, identified 16 ethnic groups that met the population threshold for support: O Du, Pu Peo, Si La, Ro Mam, Brau, Cong, Bo Y, Mang, Lo Lo, Co Lao, Ngai, La Ha, Pa Then, Lu, Chut and La Hu.

Yet by the time Decree 57/2017/ND-CP took effect in July 2017, the populations of several ethnic groups had already changed significantly.

This created considerable mismatches in policy implementation, particularly as some of the accompanying eligibility conditions also changed.

The La Hu, who live mainly in Lai Chau Province, are one example. In 2009, the group had a population of 9,651.

By 2015, the first survey of the socioeconomic conditions of Vietnam’s 53 ethnic minority groups showed that the La Hu population had risen to around 10,500. By 2019, it had reached 12,113.

Because its population had surpassed 10,000, the La Hu were not included on the list of ethnic groups facing specific hardship for 2021-2025 under Decision 1227/QD-TTg.

The change directly affected the identification of beneficiaries under several policies, including education support provided through Decree 57/2017/ND-CP in Lai Chau.

For preschool children alone, the Ministry of Education and Training’s report reviewing nine years of the decree showed that from the 2017-2018 to the 2020-2021 school year, around 1,000 La Hu children across the province received support each year.

By the 2021-2022 school year, however, the figure had fallen to just 303. From 2022-2023 onward, the policy was virtually no longer applied to La Hu children, with only three to four students receiving support each school year.

Population is no longer the only measure

The Ministry of Education and Training described Lai Chau’s gradual reduction of education support for the La Hu as an issue requiring attention in the implementation of Decree 57/2017/ND-CP.

The La Hu currently have the highest multidimensional poverty rate among Vietnam’s 53 ethnic minority groups, at 86.6%, according to the 2024 survey on their socioeconomic conditions.

The situation in Lai Chau also highlights the need for consistency among legal documents guiding policy implementation.

Since 2021, local authorities applying education support under Decree 57/2017/ND-CP have had to consider both population figures and the official list of ethnic groups facing specific hardship. When these two sets of criteria do not align, local interpretations and applications of the policy can differ.

The La Ha in Son La Province provide another example. Although their population reached 10,157 in the 2019 census, the La Ha remained classified as an ethnic group facing specific hardship during the 2021-2025 period.

As a result, Son La continued without interruption to provide education support under Decree 57/2017/ND-CP to La Ha preschool children, school pupils and students.

The case of the Brau is also notable. With a population of fewer than 1,000, the group was included on the list of ethnic groups facing specific hardship under Decision 1227/QD-TTg.

However, because the Brau are concentrated in Bo Y, a commune recognized as meeting new-style rural development standards rather than being classified as an area facing exceptional hardship, they were not eligible during 2021-2025 for policies intended for ethnic groups facing specific hardship.

The former Kon Tum Province nevertheless continued providing education support to Brau preschool children, school pupils and students under Decree 57/2017/ND-CP.

Over the nine years from 2017 to 2026, 103 Brau preschool children, 593 primary school pupils, 272 lower-secondary students, 66 upper-secondary students and three university students received preferential direct admission and monthly education support.

The cases of the La Hu, La Ha and Brau show that the same population criterion can produce different outcomes when applied alongside different eligibility conditions, geographical classifications and policies.

This points to the need for policy adjustments to ensure consistent implementation from the central to local levels and avoid different interpretations and applications among localities.

Changes in population, socioeconomic conditions and the education system also mean policies need to accurately cover the groups that genuinely require support, while avoiding gaps at critical stages in the educational journey of students from Vietnam’s smallest ethnic groups.

While awaiting a replacement decree, the Ministry of Education and Training has asked local authorities to continue effectively implementing preferential admission and education support policies under Decree 57/2017/ND-CP.

The ministry has also asked the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs to consider replacing the category of “very small ethnic minorities” with provisions covering ethnic groups facing specific hardship, with the aim of making policies more appropriate, coordinated and consistent in the new period.

It has also called for stronger coordination in inspecting and evaluating the implementation of policies related to ethnic minority education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

(Ministry of Education and Training report reviewing nine years of implementation of Decree 57/2017/ND-CP)

From supporting the “right people” to meeting the “right needs”

After nine years of implementation, Decree 57/2017/ND-CP has demonstrated the value of a targeted policy in expanding access to education and developing human resources among Vietnam’s smallest ethnic groups.

However, changes in population size, socioeconomic conditions, eligibility criteria and the broader policy framework have created a need to reconsider the underlying approach.

In practice, support mechanisms have not always kept pace with the development conditions and degree of hardship facing each ethnic group. At the same time, Vietnam’s human-resource development needs have evolved.

Support policies in the new period should no longer focus solely on ensuring that students “have access to education.” They should also create the conditions for students to learn successfully, continue to higher levels of education, find employment and contribute to their communities.

Revising Decree 57/2017/ND-CP, therefore, is not simply about addressing problems that have emerged after nine years of implementation. It is also an opportunity to redesign the policy approach — moving from identifying the right beneficiaries to meeting their actual needs, and from prioritizing access at the point of entry to supporting the entire educational journey and its outcomes.

A policy originally designed to open the door to education for communities with very small populations now needs to become flexible enough to ensure that the door not only opens for the right people, but also enables them to complete their journey and develop into a meaningful source of human capital for their own communities.

Sy Hao