Students of gifted high schools now have to study natural science subjects in English, but they have to take final exams in Vietnamese. Therefore, teachers have proposed organizing some national exams in English.

The “schools must not fail” pressure

The Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in HCM City started a trial program of teaching natural science subjects in English three years ago. This is the first school in Vietnam is implementing the program. Students of the school still follow normal curricula stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training, but they have additional intensive lessons in English. The school has eight English intensive classes with 250 students.

As a preparatory step for the trial program, in 2022, the school decided to make English a compulsory exam subject in the school entrance exams. Most of the students, who passed the exams, scored eight and higher on the English test. Therefore, when it comes to teaching subjects in English Le Hong Phong has bigger advantage than other schools: all of its students are good at English.

Meanwhile, the gifted high schools under the Hanoi National University and Hanoi University for Education do not have such an advantage. “Our school has two classes, where students learn natural science subjects in English. However, in every class there are only a few students good at English,” said Luu Thi Lan Huong, a biology teacher of the gifted high school under the Hanoi National University.

Meanwhile, the gifted school under the Hanoi University for Education only provides lessons in English to improve students’ English skills. At the school there are only special classes that teach natural science subjects in English.

However, even Le Hong Phong, which has big advantages in implementing the trial program also finds it difficult to successfully implement the program. At first, the school planned to provide eight hours of lessons in English a week. However, it had to reduce the number of lesson hours to four a week, including two mathematics hours, one physics and one chemistry).

According to Nguyen Vu Luong, Headmaster of the gifted high schools under the Hanoi National University, the biggest difficulty for the schools is the pressure of “schools must not fail” .

“A good beginning makes a good ending”, he said, adding that it would be disastrous to taste defeat and it will be nearly impossible to start again.

Learning in English, taking exams in Vietnamese?

Students are excited about the trial program on learning in English, but many of them complain that the documents are not well prepared.

“Of course we can find documents on Internet, but no one can access the internet. Besides, it takes us much time to search,” a student complained.

Tran Huong Ly, a student of 10A2 class of the Hanoi National University’s gifted high school, said teaching hours still cannot create an “English environment”. As many students cannot listen to lectures in English, teachers sometimes lecture in Vietnamese.

Especially, educators have pointed out that the current examination mechanism is a problem because it does not encourage students to learn in English. All national exams including final exams, national competitions for excellent students and university entrance exams are all in Vietnamese. Therefore, “the students, who learn in English, will still have to take exams in Vietnamese, which could be a disadvantage for students” according to Quach Pham Huyen Trang, a chemistry teacher of the Hanoi University for Education.

At a recent workshop held by the Ministry of Education and Training on reviewing the teaching of some subjects in English, Tran Duc Huyen, Deputy Headmaster of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted suggested setting up an independent institution which specializes in assessing the quality of teaching of subjects in English.

A teacher from the Hanoi National University believes that besides a traditional national final exam, the ministry should organize an exam to grant certificates to the students who study social sciences in English. The certificates will help ease students’ worries on the final exams.

C. V