Vietnam's 2018 National Curriculum (GDPT 2018) made Experiential Activities a mandatory subject, aligning with SDG Target 4.7. In practice, however, schools were not equipped to deliver life skills consistently. Before developing Novastars, we worked with both adult and youth learners and observed a clear pattern: when life skills are not built early, they are difficult to develop later.
Three years of working with over 400 schools revealed interconnected challenges. Teachers operate within tight timetables, leaving life skills reduced to occasional activities that rarely shape behaviour. These skills also span a wide range — from communication and emotional regulation to online safety and decision-making — making it difficult to design a coherent learning pathway. In low-resource settings especially, learning remains theoretical and does not transfer into daily life.
Novastars was developed to address this gap. It provides a structured system for learning and practising life skills within everyday classroom practice, organised as a progressive curriculum from preschool to secondary. Each skill is broken into sequenced components and revisited over time, so students move from basic awareness to confident, independent use. Rather than treating life skills as occasional activities, Novastars makes them a continuous part of schooling — supported by clear structure that works for teachers across diverse contexts.
Novastars provides a dedicated life skills session embedded in school timetables from preschool to secondary, with content that builds progressively. It combines foundational skills with context-specific life situations, supporting long-term development, immediate real-world application. Schools adopt the program through collaboration with Provincial Departments of Education, supported by school clusters.
Each skill is broken into sequenced components for repeated practice across levels. In a typical 35–40 minute session, students work through a scenario: when receiving a suspicious online message, they identify the issue, consider options, evaluate consequences, and decide how to respond through role-play, discussion, and games. Each choice leads to different outcomes, helping students connect decisions to real-life impact.
Teaching materials are structured across three resource levels — hands-on practice, simulation-based activities, and printed takeaways — so any school can implement fully regardless of equipment. All materials are provided to adopting schools, including printed versions for rural schools without internet access. Learning continues through guided family activities. To date, Novastars has reached 250,000+ students with 8,000 teachers. End-of-year school assessments across 400+ schools, combining student surveys and parent feedback, found that 98% of students reported stronger confidence and decision-making, and 91% of parents observed improvement at home.
Three years ago, Novastars began as a pilot. Today it operates across 400+ schools in Vietnam, reaching 250,000+ students and 8,000+ teachers across preschool, primary, and secondary.
Scale has come through partnerships with Provincial Departments of Education (DOETs), with the programme embedded in existing teacher development systems. Implementation runs through school clusters — neighbouring schools that share training, peer observation, and quality monitoring. Hybrid training (online and in-person) keeps delivery consistent across urban centres and 80 remote schools running entirely on printed materials. A dedicated monitoring team conducts classroom visits, and continuous teacher feedback drives hundreds of refinements every year.
Continued use is supported by 97% student retention, positive teacher feedback, and stronger school–family connections in urban and underserved areas alike.
In the next 2–3 years, Novastars will adapt this model for Southeast Asia, beginning with Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia — countries with comparable public school infrastructure. Early talks are underway with education NGOs, foundations, and provincial authorities to support the first international pilots. The core structure — dedicated session, school clusters, family bridge — stays intact; content adapts to local culture and curriculum.
Novastars has been refined over time through real classroom use.
Findings come from repeated measurements across cohorts, using structured tools to track how students actually apply skills. Each year, Novastars gather feedback from students, parents, and teachers. This helps show where skills are not yet visible in daily life, which activities lose engagement, and which parts are harder for teachers to run. We also look at new issues that students are facing. This feedback is reviewed and used to adjust the program. Updated versions are tried in classrooms, and teachers share what works and what doesn’t. Some changes are small, but they make a noticeable difference in how smoothly lessons run. Over time, this has become a steady process of testing, learning, and improving. You can see the changes every year. Around 20% of lessons are redesigned, while others are simplified to make participation more active. For example, bullying lessons now focus more on how students respond as bystanders, including situations on social media. Students are encouraged to think through options and consequences, rather than stay passive. Safety lessons such as fire response have also been strengthened, helping students act quickly and more confidently in emergencies. The program now runs as a continuous, year-long structure. It is supported by multiple forms of assessment and stronger family involvement, so learning is reinforced beyond the classroom and becomes part of everyday practice.
Schools can adopt Novastars through a simple process: contact us to access materials, train teachers through a short orientation, schedule sessions in the timetable, deliver lessons using ready-to-use resources, and extend learning through guided family activities. Sample lessons are available at https://en.novastars.vn . The model works in both digital and low-resource settings.
