Vietnam brings AI into high school classrooms by decree: mandatory curriculum and fully digital records

By Zendoric · September 17, 2026.

In Can Tho, a city in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, secondary schools have started the academic year applying two new rules from Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training: Circular 02/2025/TT-BGDĐT, which sets out a digital competency framework for students, and Decision 2422/QĐ-BGDĐT, which establishes what artificial intelligence (AI) content must be taught in secondary education. According to Tran Hien Hoa, head of Secondary Education at the city's Department of Education and Training, 100% of Can Tho's high schools, secondary schools and vocational training centers now have digitized academic records. And at least one of those schools, the city's ethnic boarding secondary and preparatory school, has already set the number of AI lessons at 12 per grade and class each school year, according to its principal, Nguyen Huu Dinh.

The approach is not to teach computing theoretically, but to embed AI tools into existing subjects. According to teacher Lieu Tan Son, of the Tan Thanh ethnic boarding school, in Literature, History or Geography classes students already use mind-mapping software, search applications or data visualization tools to complete assignments and present them on online platforms. One student at the school, Thach Ly Bao Tran, sums it up this way: AI "is like a smart assistant, always ready to answer my questions at any time".

Chau Van Liem high school, for its part, has emphasized safe use: specific training for all students on how to formulate requests to AI —known as prompting—, verify its answers and protect their personal data. Its principal, Tran Thi Lua, frames it as a way to avoid dependence on or misuse of the tool, not merely to teach how to operate it. In parallel, schools are training their teaching staff to digitize administrative tasks —attendance, timetables, records, lesson plans— and free up management time in favor of teaching.

As sector context, Vietnam is not an isolated case: several countries are now bringing AI literacy into the compulsory secondary curriculum, given the certainty that this generation will live alongside these tools in whatever job they hold. What is distinctive here is the degree of regulatory specificity: it is not a generic recommendation, but a framework with figures for lessons per year and a requirement for full digitization of records, with an education department accountable for compliance.

This connects with something we have been pointing out about AI's impact on education: the teacher who learns to orchestrate the tool wins —guiding the student toward self-discovery, as the source describes it— and the one who merely transmits content passively loses. Seeing that idea turned into public policy, with teacher training at several schools and, at least at one, a formal syllabus of twelve AI classes per grade, is a sign that this transition no longer depends solely on each school's willingness.

The missing piece, and the report itself admits it, is infrastructure: Can Tho's Department of Education acknowledges that it must still "overcome limitations in facilities, teaching equipment and digital infrastructure" for the digitization of records to be consistent across all schools. Therein lies the short-term problem that should not be downplayed: an ambitious regulatory framework is of little use if schools with fewer resources lack the computers or connectivity to apply it, and that can open a gap between those who reach university or the job market with real fluency in AI and those who have only seen it on paper. In the long run, however, the bet makes sense: a generation that learns from secondary school to think critically about what AI answers, instead of merely consuming it, is the one best placed to take advantage of the abundance of tools —and of time— that this technology promises further down the line.