There are large gaps in child educational outcomes between the Kinh majority and non-Kinh minorities in Vietnam. This paper seeks to understand the reasons for these ethnic gaps. Various estimation methods and decomposition techniques for linear, Probit, Tobit, and multilevel regression models are used. The results show that Vietnam’s ethnic gap in school enrolment is mostly attributable to household characteristics such as household expenditure and father’s education. Gaps in schooling progress and performance are explained by a broader set of variables.