At a junior high school in Hanoi's Hoang Mai district, a history teacher is carefully navigating the wave of AI flooding into her and other classrooms. She sees the potential of technology, but isn't entirely sure it can be delivered to her students. “I sometimes use AI,” she told Vietnam Economic Times/VnEconomy. “Mainly to make lessons more engaging or to design little interactive games. However, the tools still have many flaws, and the content is not always accurate or perfectly aligned with the actual curriculum. That is why it is difficult to rely on AI for serious education.”
But her students have embraced the technology enthusiastically, sometimes taking it a little too far. “Many people use AI to answer questions or prepare class presentations, and they blindly trust the results,” she noted. “It often ends up being poorly understood or misleading. At this age, they don’t yet have the skills to evaluate and filter information, so it’s easy to rely on AI.”
AI is no longer just a digital tool. In education, it has been hailed as a catalyst for change, promising to reshape both the quality of education and school management. As one of the 11 strategic technologies identified in Decision No. 1131/QD-TTg dated June 12, AI is currently being actively researched for integration into teaching and learning across Vietnam's education system.
AI comes to the classroom
The Politburo issued Resolution No. 71-NQ/TW on August 22, setting the national goal of universalizing digital and AI technologies in the management and organization of education at all levels. The resolution emphasized promoting the use of AI to innovate teaching, learning, assessment, and evaluation methods, as well as fostering the development of digital education models, AI education, and governance for smart education.
Vietnam Education Publishing House has completed a full set of AI education textbooks for students from grades 1 to 12, designed around a knowledge framework suitable to Vietnamese students' learning abilities and incorporating local psychology and cultural elements to make the content approachable. In addition to theoretical lessons, the book contains a variety of practical exercises adapted to different local learning conditions.
Professor Chu Duc Trinh, Rector of Vietnam National University of Engineering and Technology (VNU-UET), told Vietnam Economic Times/VnEconomy that the application of AI in today's industry can be imagined as an equation of “x + AI”. Combining AI with any field has the potential to improve operational efficiency and workplace productivity.
According to the professor, incorporating AI into education is an inexorably necessary trend. “AI not only helps students absorb textbook knowledge faster, but also expands their understanding across many areas of society,” he said. However, he cautioned that while the output produced by AI can be accurate and useful, it can sometimes be illusory or based on unverified sources, so proper guidance is needed, especially for primary and secondary school students. “The introduction of AI in education needs to be carried out carefully and deliberately, at a pace that is neither too slow to miss opportunities nor too fast to introduce risks,” he said.
Today's AI can already solve most problems at the general education level, which explains why so many students are quick to turn to AI for help. However, Professor Trinh warned that over-reliance on AI could cause students to lose sight of the true purpose of education. “Schools need to help students understand that the real value of learning lies in the process of thinking, discovering and practicing, not just getting the answer right.”
Therefore, AI needs to be introduced selectively, rather than indiscriminately across all subjects. Students still need time to develop critical thinking, accumulate knowledge, and learn how to use these tools appropriately. “Take writing, for example,” he said. “AI can correct sentences, correct grammar, suggest writing styles, add context, etc., but it cannot replace the emotion, creativity, and personal voice of a writer. Writing is an expression of the soul, and a machine cannot fully reproduce it.”
smarter education
According to Professor Trinh, one area where AI can already have an immediate impact is school management, from primary school level to university level. It helps you optimize tasks such as scheduling, student management, teaching quality evaluation, and administrative tasks. “With Vietnam's growing computing infrastructure and existing technological capabilities, schools can start implementing the 'smart school management' model right now,” he believes.
However, the introduction of new technologies, especially AI, involves major changes. While some traditional processes may be phased out, new management challenges will emerge. “Schools therefore need to be prepared mentally and structurally to embrace innovation and move towards leaner, modern governance models,” he added.
Efforts to bring AI into education are not the sole responsibility of the Department of Education and Training. At a press conference in September, Ho Duc Tan, director of the Ministry of Science and Technology's National Institute of Digital Technology and Digital Transformation, said the AI bill positions the spread of AI technology as a national goal and comprehensively incorporates it into the education system.
Importantly, in primary education, the introduction of AI will be subject to strict safeguards. Mr Tan stressed that a dedicated list of AI tools will be carefully reviewed for safety and ethics before being introduced into classrooms.
With increased investment in infrastructure, continued improvements in digital readiness, and rapidly developing AI curricula, many experts believe that AI will be widely adopted across Vietnam's education system within just a few years. But they still stress that for innovation to truly lead to lasting progress in education, attention must always remain at the core.
