Students in Vietnam work and study very hard. Their success in school could help them and their family later in life. School is very rigorous, and teachers are strict. They give frequent oral tests, and lots of work to make sure the student is learning.

Starting at age five, children attend government run schools. They go to school 6 days per week, from September until May. The first three years of elementary school are free, and after that, parents must pay for their children's education. Books and other supplies are purchased by the family. If a family is too poor to pay for books, the child's education is delayed. Students must walk or find their own transportation to school. There are no buses. Children also take turns cleaning their school to keep it looking nice.

Children start attending school when they are five. Elementary school lasts for five years; until they are ten or eleven. Because many families need their offspring to help work, school only lasts for half the day. Over crowding of schools is a major problem, so students go to school in shifts. One group goes for the morning half of the day, the other shift in the afternoon. Poorer families have students who miss many days of school to work, or have children who don't start elementary school until they are much older. Aside from all the difficulties families are faced with on the matter of their children's education, most complete elementary school, and learn how to read, write, and do mathematics.

After elementary school, students have the option, depending on class rank, to continue on to several years of secondary school and then maybe college, attend a vocational or technical school and learn a useful occupation, or go directly to work. If their grades and test scores are high enough, and their parents can afford to pay, they attend secondary school. In secondary school, they learn history, government, literature, science, foreign languages, home care, and crafts. Some students are unable to finish secondary school. Others do, and some go on to pursue a higher education, even out of the country.