Tran Dinh Tro, is teacher of the 12th grade at Huong Son High School. After questioning his students, Tro recorded all the answers and learned that most of them were unable to perform a shocking number of everyday things, such as cooking. None of them regularly read anything but textbooks, even though Tro keeps a free library for them. In fact, the two students who did borrow books were made to stop when their parents found out.

Teacher Tran Dinh Tro

Their general goals were all similar - to graduate university and work for the state.

Tro's explanation was that parents keep such strict control over their children in order to give them better career options in the future. Many schools hold extra classes to better prepare them for this path, but they take away time for students to socialise and develop other healthy interests.

“I’m very surprised that parents would prevent their children from reading books in order to force them to study only textbooks. Parents try to do as much as they can for their children, but this may prevent them from learning life skills," said Tro.

He added that this is a really warning sign for the education system in Vietnam and that unemployment among university grads could continue to rise unless real efforts are made change the situation.