Pod Academy

This podcast looks at how even disadvantaged kids in Vietnam are educationally years ahead of their counterparts in India, despite per capita GDP being broadly the same in both countries. Amanda Barnes talked to Professor Jo Boyden, director of the Young Lives research programme at the Department of International Development at Oxford University, about their research findings. Amanda Barnes: The Young Lives study has been following the progress of thousands of children in the developing world.  And you’ve got some new findings from a survey of ten year-old pupils in Vietnam.  What did the Young Lives study find out about education in Vietnam? Jo Boyden: Young Lives has established that pupil performance is really exceptional in some very important ways.  Around 19 out of every 20 ten year-olds, for example, can add four -digit numbers.  At the same time 85% can subtract fractions and 81% are able to find X in a simple equation. This is partly to do with the school systems but it’s also to do with the fact