The Scholarship Program to Enhance Literacy and Learning (SPELL) ia a highly innovative program designed to prevent poor Vietnamese students from dropping out of school, SPELL targets the poorest ten percent of students in some of the poorest communities in Vietnam. In this group, in the late 1990s fewer than 8% of students were able to progress as far as 10th grade.

An overwhelming majority of poor students in Vietnam, especially those in rural areas, would never be able to finish high school without SPELL’s assistance. At least half would be forced to drop out before even beginning high school. In modern Vietnam, as in other countries, a high school degree is essential to being a productive member of society.

SPELL provides poor students with funding for school fees, books, uniforms and other expenses. It also mandates and pays for after-school tutoring. The program starts with children in the third grade (although the first year of the program included some children from grades 4 and 5). Each student in the program is guaranteed that if he or she stays in school, the scholarship will remain available through their graduation from high school.

The program launched at the start of the 2004/2005 school year with 1,500 children in six provinces in central Vietnam. There are more than 60 schools participating, with each school hosting between 20 and 30 SPELL scholars. By providing a substantial number of scholarships in each school, the SPELL team - led in Vietnam by Hoang Tung - can build strong relations with each school, engaging teachers, administrators and the local community in a common effort to help keep these children in school.