On March 20, 2026, the Hai Phong City People's Committee officially issued Decision No. 1042/QD-UBND approving the Project "Development of Education and Training in Hai Phong City to 2030, with a Vision to 2045". This is considered a "master plan" for the future knowledge of the Port City, set against the backdrop of Hai Phong’s powerful breakthrough to create a global position. Based on deep analysis of the current situation and strategic forecasts, the project provides a comprehensive look at the roadmap for fundamental and comprehensive innovation of the city's education over the next two decades.
- The Current Picture: Massive Scale and Core Values
As of early 2026, Hai Phong’s education system operates a large-scale network with 1,662 educational institutions ranging from preschool to university. This system serves nearly 1.1 million learners, with the public sector playing the leading role, accounting for 87% of institutions and nearly 92% of learners. A noteworthy point is the strong development of the non-public education sector, especially at the preschool level (accounting for 21.98% of schools) and the high school level (accounting for 36.43% of schools), showing that the city's efforts toward educational socialization is on the right track.
Regarding quality, Hai Phong continues to affirm its position as one of the leading training centers in the country. The city's average high school graduation exam scores consistently rank in the top 10 nationwide, reaching 4th place in 2025. In particular, "elite education" continues to be the pride of the Port City people as the number of national excellent student awards has grown continuously, reaching 208 awards in the 2025-2026 school year, ranking 4th in the country. International gold and silver medals in Mathematics, Physics, and Biology have become vivid evidence of the city's elite training quality.
In terms of management, Hai Phong is proving to be a leading locality in digital transformation. The city has digitized 100% of exchanged documents, issued digital signatures to more than 40,000 officials and teachers, and implemented comprehensive digital student records. The fact that 100% of administrative procedures have reached the "full-process online" level has significantly cut time and costs while increasing citizen satisfaction.
- "Bottlenecks" to Resolve: The Personnel and Infrastructure Puzzle
Despite achieving brilliant successes, Hai Phong's education also faces systemic challenges, which the Project frankly points out as "bottlenecks" that need to be resolved:
- Local teacher shortages: The entire sector is currently short about 3,245 personnel compared to the assigned quota, and this number reaches 5,775 people if calculated according to the standards of the Ministry of Education and Training. The teacher shortage is most severe at the secondary school level and for new subjects such as Information Technology, Foreign Languages, and Arts. The teacher-to-class ratio at most levels is lower than the standard (for example, primary school reached 1.37 compared to the standard of 1.50).
- Land and infrastructure bottlenecks: Hai Phong is currently lacking about 91 hectares of land for education, especially in rapidly urbanizing areas and industrial zones. Class size overcrowding still occurs locally in some central areas. Additionally, teaching equipment currently meets only about 65% of the minimum demand, making it difficult to implement the 2018 General Education Program.
- Financial contradictions: Although the absolute scale of spending on education has increased sharply (the East Hai Phong area spent more than 33,700 billion VND in the 2020-2025 period), the local budget expenditure rate currently stands at around 13-14%, failing to reach the minimum target of 20% according to orientation.
- Vocational training not aligned with the market: The link between "School - Business" in the vocational and higher education sectors remains loose. Scientific research products have not yet created a distinct impression in the city's key economic sectors, such as high-tech industry or seaports.
- Vision 2030 – 2045: Aspiration for Leadership and Integration
The project defines the goal that by 2030, Hai Phong will become a leading education and training center in the country and an international center for research associated with the marine economy.
Some ambitious quantitative targets have been established for 2030:
- 100% of schools will apply artificial intelligence (AI) in management and teaching.
- Hai Phong will become a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities by 2027.
- At least 85% of high schools will meet national standards, with 15 facilities implementing high-quality bilingual programs.
- There will be 02 international universities and at least 01 national key university in the city.
Vision to 2045: Hai Phong’s education must reach an advanced level, belonging to the leading group in Southeast Asia, and have higher education institutions among the top 100 leading universities in Asia.
- Five Breakthrough Solution Groups: "The Keys" to Transformation
To realize the above vision, Hai Phong city has outlined 5 groups of key breakthrough tasks:
- Breakthrough in special mechanisms and policies: The city is determined to implement teacher incentives according to Resolution 71-NQ/TW, raising professional incentive allowances to at least 70% for preschool and general education teachers, especially reaching 100% for teachers in island areas as early as 2026. Simultaneously, it ensures that the budget for education accounts for at least 20% of the total annual budget expenditure.
- Breakthrough in the "Socialist School" model: This is a model of exemplary education with level 2 infrastructure standards and 100% smart classrooms. The city plans to spend more than 251 billion VND to implement the pilot model at 09 schools in the 2026-2030 period, serving as a premise for city-wide replication.
- Breakthrough in personnel and AI training: The city will focus on completely resolving the teacher shortage before 2030 through a training order mechanism with Hai Phong University and Hai Duong University. Management work will be modernized through the application of annual KPI evaluations for educational administrators. In particular, AI will be included in the curriculum associated with experiential activities, STEM, and robotics.
- Breakthrough in foreign languages and integration: Hai Phong aims to make English the second language. The plan includes training 100 core teachers to teach science subjects in English and piloting international programs such as Cambridge, IGCSE, or A-level in public schools.
- Breakthrough in the digital data ecosystem: Building a Smart Education Operation Center and a digital data ecosystem linked with labor market data to accurately forecast human resource needs, avoiding local surplus or shortage of training.
- Resource Commitment and Implementation Roadmap
The total expected budget for implementing the Project is very large: 22,874.77 billion VND. Of this, the local budget plays the leading role with more than 16,855 billion VND (accounting for nearly 74%), focusing heavily on public investment for infrastructure (12,625 billion VND). The city also expects to attract more than 5,900 billion VND from socialization sources for high-quality private school projects and modern educational complexes.
The implementation roadmap is divided into stages: the first quarter of 2026 focuses on establishing the Steering Committee and issuing component plans. The 2026-2030 period will be the peak time to completely resolve "bottlenecks" regarding classrooms and equipment.
With Decision 1042/QD-UBND, education in Hai Phong is not merely about teaching and learning but has become a strategic breakthrough to develop high-quality human resources for the pillars of the marine economy and high-tech industry. The synchronization of political determination, strong financial resources, and innovative thinking based on AI and international integration promises to transform Hai Phong into a model "Learning City," where people are the center and education is the key to reaching the world.