VietNamNet
Bridge – The project to teach English to secondary school students has been
described as “setting many ambitious goals”. Teachers still have worries about
the feasibility of the project, because they do not have much time – just 9
months – to prepare for to execute the program.

According
to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien, under the English
teaching program to secondary school students, the teaching will be provided to
students from 6^th grade, and students will have a total 420 teaching
hours during secondary school.

English
teaching programs will be implemented nationwide by 2020.

Under the
project, upon finishing secondary school, students will reach the second level
in English skill standards (in all four skills of listening, speaking, reading
and writing). Meanwhile, students finishing high school (12^th grade)
will reach the third level of English skill standards. Right from the 2011-2012
academic year, science subjects will be taught in English at gifted high
schools. For the momnt teaching in English will be applied to mathematics and
informatics.

Hien said
that in the first stage of the program only selected schools will to carry out
the program. After that, the program will be applied in all secondary and high
schools nationwide.

Meanwhile,
teachers remain cautious when talking about the feasibility of the project. Many
experienced English teachers have worries that nine months will not be long
enough to develop a high quality curriculum for teaching English for 6-12^th
graders, including 420 teaching hours for secondary schools and 315 hours for
high schools.

Haste
makes waste

One of the
most important conditions necessary to execute the program in the trial period
is that schools must have teachers who can meet the set requirements. Meanwhile,
educators all say that it is very difficult to find qualified teachers.

Nguyen
Thanh Lich, Director of Lao Cai province’s Education and Training Department
said even universities still do not have lecturers who have IELTS 6.0 English
certificates, let alone secondary or high school teachers, especially in schools
in small provinces.

In fact,
in order to prepare for the program the Ministry of Education and Training plans
to organize training courses, both in Vietnam and foreign countries, for the
teachers of the schools. However, educators still warn that even if there is a
good teaching and learning environment, where students can join activities to
communicate in English, but there are no good teaching aids and good material
facilities, the program will fail.

Headmasters of many general schools have asked the Ministry of Education and
Training to set up standards for English teachers, i.e the skills teachers must
have to be able to teach English at secondary and high schools. Besides, they
have also urged the ministry to prepare for the program soon, saying that it is
necessary to learn lessons from the English teaching program for 3^rd
graders. A few days before the new school year, primary school teachers attend
necessary training courses. Meanwhile, there has been no common and shared
syllabus for teaching and every school has used its own methodology for teaching
English.

Source:
Nguoi lao dong