Although primary school enrolment in Vietnam is high (91 per cent), most primary school students receive little more than half the annual teaching time defined by international norms. The Vietnamese school year is short by international standards, covering only 33 weeks. In addition, only around 20 per cent of children in Vietnam receive a full-day of schooling (5 or 6 hours according to international standards).

Extra classes are increasingly observed in both developed and developing countries. In Vietnam, a country where education reforms are at their height, extra classes are proliferating and have become a concern to society and the government. Although the government has banned extra classes that are independent of school administration, teachers often run home-based classes to supplement their income.

Increasingly, academics and researchers working on poverty issues recognise that poor people's own experiences and opinions should be heard. However, it is not just a question of encouraging participation. More attention needs to be paid to the ethics of research reciprocity –ensuring that participating communities are part of the research process and help shape the findings and recommendations that flow from it.

It is well established that mothers' education has positive effects on child nutrition in developing countries. In school, girls can acquire skills which are later used to access modern health services and comprehend health messages. Less explored, however, is the effect exerted by the education of other individuals —the mothers' friends, neighbours and family — which may influence child nutrition directly or modify the effect of maternal education.

Background: Private health care services were officially recognized in Vietnam in 1989, and for the last 15 years have competed with the public health system in providing primary curative care and pharmaceutical sales to rural populations. However, the quality of these private and public health care services has not been evaluated and compared.