Harry ’28 is bridging the gap between theory and real-world application in Vietnamese schools by leading a 7-day tech education program—developed alongside peers from MIT—that delivered laptops, built infrastructure, and empowered students to turn textbook knowledge into practical solutions for the AI era.
As I stepped into the dilapidated math classroom, the tropical heat pressed against me like a searing pan. Clay walls littered with dust, empty desks filled the space, and two dead ceiling fans hung under the 40°C sun. I wondered why ACs were not installed. I wondered who had last tried to cool this place and what they hoped to learn here. Speaking with the headmaster, I learned that the school doesn’t receive enough money from the government to install air conditioners. This is the reality of my region. Here in Ho Chi Minh City, where ACs are a common necessity and a laptop is an everyday tool that everyone takes for granted. Yet there lies An Giang, only 90 miles west, where an AC is a luxury that few get to indulge in, and for a secondary school student, a functional laptop for school is like a dream of a lifetime. This inspired me to develop a 7-day program in collaboration with students from institutions like MIT to provide students with the tools and mindset to implement theory into solving real-world problems.
After the opening ceremony, I sat beside the headmaster as we ran over the survey results to ensure that the curriculum matched the skill level of students. It claimed that around 40% of students have basic ICT skills, which is significantly higher than the 2022 UN average of 28% for basic ICT skills amongst youth. The data looked optimistic, yet reality lagged. When we ran a basic typing test, only 2 out of 16 students passed. I realized that the damage of poor educational infrastructure is far worse than any studies could estimate, forcing us to recalibrate our curricula and assumptions about student readiness.
Under the shade of the mango tree on the first day of our program, my team gathered the students to try out my experimental curriculum. They swept through the curriculum with ease, acing every question. However, when asked to implement those concepts into a simple program, the students struggled. I was aware of this issue before I developed this program. Despite this, the stark gap between theory and implementation seemed more serious and demanded urgent attention. Students, especially in Vietnam and poorer regions, can excel at solving textbook problems, yet find themselves unprepared for the practical demands of our AI era. This problem also stems from the lack of infrastructure; students were taught everything on paper but lacked the equipment to translate that knowledge into application. To tackle this issue, I’ve further simplified the application part of my program and focused more on teaching students the “how” of applying theory.
Drawing from these challenges and more, my team and I quickly adapted our curriculum. This learning curve allowed us to gain invaluable experience in curriculum development and program management. Through our refined lenses, we noticed that our program stability was weak without a contingency plan for rare cases such as technical failures. This drove us to build an emergency curriculum. Our hard work paid off during days 2 and 3 when a whole-day power outage occurred. We were able to seamlessly teach even though our key infrastructure, laptops and the internet, were unavailable. The following days were easier as hours of preparation done beforehand began to work. This strong will to adapt ultimately contributed to the program’s success. We completed our goal of delivering and deploying over 16 laptops to the school, building a complete PC room for more students to learn. Besides, we finished teaching our curriculum with an over 90% satisfaction rate from surveys. The students were also extremely eager to absorb new knowledge and showed great perseverance in applying theory to real-life scenarios designed by us. All students completed their end-of-program project exceptionally well, with many exceeding the given guidelines. Throughout our 7-day program, students not only learned how to integrate math into AI and coding but also developed a learner’s mindset, enabling them to continue exploring new realms of knowledge even after the program ended. But this is just the start. I’m constantly working to improve the program, adding new features that will inspire even more students to get involved. I’m already planning more ambitious projects, such as an AI tutoring engine that’s designed specifically for mathematics and its real-world applications. Over the next few years, I’ll travel to more places in Vietnam and inspire even more young minds. Detailed day-to-day updates and key announcements are available on Instagram Independent Blog/News outlet. Học sinh miền Tây ứng dụng học Toán học và công Nghệ từ dự án ‘Numbers to Networks’
