Investigating student satisfaction in public education: the case of Ho Chi Minh city

Vietnam's education is still facing challenges in spite of constant innovation and increased investment in recent years. Thus, this research investigated student satisfaction perception with educational aspects of public education as a mean to monitor service quality and redirect resources to student priorities. As education is a service, student satisfaction is considered a form of customer satisfaction. The research model of the study was adapted from the student satisfaction framework by Marzo Navarro et al. (2005). The data were collected via a survey instrument from a sample of 150 higher secondary students attending public schools in Ho Chi Minh City and statically analyzed using SPSS software. The result indicated below average student satisfaction with public institutions. 48.7% of participants were dissatisfied with their institutions and 52.7% of students felt the education quality was underwhelming. Students with different demographic background as region and grade had substantial different level of satisfaction. Urban students and freshmen are commonly more satisfied with the service quality. Regression analysis found that course administration, learning environment and academic staff are factors that had significantly influence student satisfaction. In order to maintain public education quality, it is necessary that the school board and the department of education must monitor important institutional aspects closely in order to implement appropriate policies