When Ms. Le Thi Van returned to her preschool classroom after a three-day training on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), she didn’t just bring back a set of new tools, she brought a shift in mindset.
“As teachers, we observe and assess children every day. This training helped me understand how to, not just label or classify children, but truly support them,” said Van, a teacher at Hoa Thuy Tien Preschool, a public school in Hanoi. “For example, if a child doesn’t know how to wait their turn, we don’t just correct them. Instead, we create opportunities for them to practice, through play, daily routines, and real-life situations.”
This shift comes from UNESCO’s initiative to integrate SEL in early childhood education in Viet Nam. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training, the National College for Education, and the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), UNESCO recently launched the Vietnamese adaptation of its “Asia-Pacific ECCE Teacher Training Handbook for Social and Emotional Learning (APETT-SEL) and ten corresponding modules.”
The resource pack includes a teacher training manual and 10 practical modules, providing both a theoretical foundation and everyday strategies to help teachers nurture emotional intelligence in young learners.
The training in July 2024 brought together 40 preschool educators and trainers from across Viet Nam for a three-day workshop led by experts from UNESCO Bangkok and partner universities. The impact was immediate, and personal.
I’ve taught SEL before, but never in such a structured way. For the first time, we unpacked social-emotional competencies in detail. The modules are extremely practical, which is essential in early childhood education, where every action needs to be clear, intentional, and rooted in the child’s world.
Mr. Bac emphasized that SEL forms the foundation of all aspects of child development: cognition, relationships, physical health, and is even more critical in the age of digital technology and AI. “What machines can’t replicate is human emotion. And that’s where education must lead,” he noted.
As a teacher trainer, Ms. Hoang Thi Hien brought home not just knowledge, but three words she plans to carry into every future session: calm, clarity, and kindness.
“Teachers are human. And in early childhood settings, we’re constantly tested - by noise, by uncertainty, by the emotions of 30 little ones at once,” she said. “So learning to pause, even for five seconds, to observe, to breathe, to notice our own reaction, was one of the most valuable lessons.”
Hien added that beyond technical planning, teaching also requires emotional clarity. “We often prepare lessons based on what we want to teach, not what children are ready to receive. SEL reminded me to see the lesson through the child’s eyes.”
For many participants, the training also filled a long-standing gap in pre-service teacher education.
“Most of our early childhood training focuses on content: language, math, health,” Bac said. “But this gave us a way to integrate SEL intentionally into the curriculum, teacher development, and eventually classroom culture.”
UNESCO’s initiative marks an important step toward embedding SEL into both teacher training and everyday preschool practice in Viet Nam. But as Van reminds us, the transformation starts with the teachers themselves.
We want school to be a happy place for every child, but that only happens when the teacher is happy first.
Looking ahead, UNESCO will stand ready to provide technical support and collaborate with national partners to expand the rollout of SEL across Viet Nam, by strengthening teacher capacity as well as integrating SEL into the curriculum and daily routines to promote both teacher wellbeing and children’s emotional development. The goal is not a one-time intervention, but a long-term shift in how early education is taught, experienced, and felt.
