In a video posted by the NBC’s Today Show the same day, the former first lady said she will join the show's co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager on the trip as part of the Girls Opportunity Alliance, a program launched a year ago by the Obama Foundation to empower adolescent girls around the world through education.

Former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at a school in Illinois, U.S., November 12, 2018.

Hager is the daughter of former U.S. president George W Bush.

She did not reveal specific dates and activities undertaken during her Vietnam visit, her first to the country, but said it was part of helping girls stay in school instead of dropping out.

"98 million adolescent girls are not in school around the world and yet the evidence is clear that when girls get the opportunity they deserve, the whole world benefits. That's why we've been working to lift up grassroots leaders and organizations around the world who improve girls' life every day," she said in the NBC's video.

The Obama Foundation will team up with the Today Show and YouTube Originals to meet "some of these amazing girls" in the nation and "share their incredible stories," she said.

Barack Obama visited Vietnam in May 2016.

Other guests that will join this trip include actress Julia Roberts, Vietnamese American actress Lana Condor, who spent her early years in a Vietnamese orphanage before being adopted by an American couple, and Vietnamese actress Ngo Thanh Van.

The Girls Alliance program has contributed to providing more than 1,500 bikes for girls in Vietnam's rural areas to allow them to get to school more easily and prevent them from dropping out of school because they have to walk a long way to get there.

Vietnam this year climbed one place to 95th in the Global Childhood Report's ranking of 176 countries in protecting and providing for children.

According to the NGO, Save The Children, the report ranks countries based on eight factors - malnutrition, child labor, being out of school, teen pregnancy, homicide, being displaced by conflict, child marriage, and death before age five. Vietnam scored 831 out of 1,000, up from 816 last year.

The report says Vietnam has used additional resources from social investment and economic growth to create highly effective programs benefitting children.

Vietnam has also cut its child labor rate by two thirds since 2000 to 9 percent. Its progress in tackling poverty has improved living conditions for many families and reduced their need to send children to work.

The nation has also invested heavily in education, ensuring high enrollment rates, with a particular emphasis on ethnic minority children and children in remote mountainous areas, the report says.

Dong Nai pilots programme to give pre-schoolers sex education

The People’s Committee of the southern province of Dong Nai on July 9 held a working session with the Institute of Researching Educational Sciences (IRES) on piloting a sex education programme for children from 3-5 years old to prevent sexual abuse against them.

Educational leaders discuss higher education management models

Leaders, academics, researchers, and professionals from around the world discussed the diversity of practices and models of leadership and management in higher education at an international conference that ended on July 5 in HCM City.

Electronic information and education system launched

The Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee's Commission for Information and Education launched its electronic information and education system VCNET at a ceremony in Hanoi on June 11.

Private schools to take more important role in education development

The Government recognises the importance of private schools to development of the national education system, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children Phan Thanh Binh has said.

Awards encourage young intellectuals to contribute to education innovation

Five top prizes worth VND100 million each, accompanied by the opportunity to receive development assistance for each outstanding project, will be granted to winners of the "Young Intellectuals for Education Innovation" Awards 2019, aiming to encourage youngsters to contribute their initiatives to facilitate education in Vietnam.

Source: VNA