In the mountains of northern Vietnam, many children from ethnic minority groups like the Thái and H’mông face big challenges in school because their communities speak their own languages, but the curriculum is all in Vietnamese. So language barriers and limited access to books in their own languages often leave them years behind their peers, despite their eagerness to learn. That was the case for seven-year-old Mai*, who struggled with reading and writing and found it hard to keep up.
Everything changed when her teacher introduced Happy Read – an app designed and built by Save the Children in collaboration with Vietnamese education experts. The app combines e-books, interactive games and fun quizzes that make literacy exciting – and best of all, it includes multilingual support, so students from ethnic minority backgrounds have extra help learning Vietnamese. For Mai, it was like a light switching on.
“Before, I didn’t know which words I was reading wrong,” Mai says. “But now, I can listen to my own voice and fix my mistakes. Since I started using the app, I feel like I read better, more clearly, and much faster.”
With her teacher’s guidance, Mai’s skills and confidence quickly grew.
Today, she has caught up with her peers and even practices reading with her mother at home: “I usually use the app in the evening or on weekends. At home, I use it with my mum, and at school I use it with my classmates.”
The app features e-books, interactive games, and quizzes designed to make learning fun.
The Happy Read app is changing education all over Vietnam – being used by at least 1,400 teachers in 110 schools across 90 communities. And because it also works offline, children in remote villages can keep learning anytime, anywhere.
“We hope that the app can be expanded even further,” says Mai’s school principal, Ms. Hương, who has seen the difference first-hand. “It is truly effective and beneficial.”
For Mai and thousands of other children, learning no longer feels like a struggle – it feels like an adventure.
This project is supported by the Australian government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
Images: © Jadeite / Save the Children Vietnam
*Names changed to protect identity