Big challenges for Vietnam's education policy

The article introduces in its first part some considerations about the connection between economic development, social change and education for successful developing strategies. Then the present situation in Vietnam is sketched. Against this background, challenges and  above all  opportunities for educational basic orientations will be discussed as they are relevant for a country like Vietnam being in a comprehensive transformation process which is about to shake the very foundations of the whole of society. Finally some of the most urgent actual reform tasks of the Vietnamese educational sector are discussed.