By July 2000, sixty-one provinces and cities throughout Vietnam had completed the programmes of “Universalization of Primary Education” and “Illiteracy Eradication”.
However, by that time, only 94% of the population was able to read and write. This meant that more work had to be done to eradicate illiteracy in the country.
In the summer of 2000, the Vietnam Society of Learning Promotion started a campaign for illiteracy eradication. In the campaign, six hundred ethnic minority students from the northern highlands were asked to provide reading and writing skills to 1,200 illiterate people living in their home villages.