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Vietnam has achieved near-universal access to compulsory schooling over the past two decades. However, inequalities between ethnic majority and minority students are stark at post-compulsory levels, where progression is selective based on academic criteria and ability to pay. In this article, we adopt a mixed-methods approach to examine quality and equity for ethnic minority students in upper secondary education. Across five provinces, we find that ethnic minority students attend "less effective" upper secondary schools than ethnic majority students. However, an in-depth case study of an ethnic minority boarding school in Lao Cai province provides an example of positive deviance. Guided by a targeted affirmative action policy, the provincial government invests a relatively high level of resources to provide fee-free, high-quality schooling for gifted ethnic minority students. We consider the extent to which such policies can redress socioeconomic inequalities in Vietnam, and wider lessons for creating more equitable education systems.

Universalization of basic education in India has increased demand for access to secondary schooling, yet concerns about quality and equity remain. While evidence of poor learning attainment continues to accumulate, less is known about classroom interactions or how these relate to student outcomes. In this article, we employ a unique data set that links school effectiveness and classroom observation data to examine the relationship between these dimensions. We show that teacher classroom practices represent a potentially distinctive aspect of school quality only weakly associated with effectiveness measures in two states in India. We discuss the implications of this for understandings of equity of learning opportunities.