According to the annual report, the Ministry of Education and Training completed the development and issuance of curriculums for foreign languages in the 2018 general education programme.

So far, the curriculum for English has been used for Grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 10 in all 63 provinces and centrally-run cities of the country. In the 2022-2023 school year, children at preschools in 53 out of the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities have accessed activities to get to know English.

According to the report, 84% of English language teachers in primary schools, 87% in secondary schools and 77% o in high schools in Vietnam have met the requirements for foreign language competence to implement the new foreign language teaching programmes.

Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences Le Anh Vinh said that in the past ten years, the teaching and learning of foreign languages in Vietnam have developed rapidly, especially in regions with favourable socio-economic conditions and big cities. The quality of teaching and learning has also improved, reflected in the diversified approaches of learners and teachers.

However, the teaching and learning have still faced difficulties, including a lack of teachers, qualifications of teachers, limitations in implementing teaching/learning activities and applying information technology in the teaching and learning process.

Nguyen Thi Mai Huu, Head of the National Foreign Languages Project Management Board, said that according to data from the IELTS organisation, the average test score of Vietnamese people in 2022 was 6.2/9.0, ranked 23rd out of 40 countries organising the IELTS exams, and in the same rank as the Republic of Korea, Pakistan and India.

The age of Vietnamese people taking the IELTS tests is getting younger and younger. Specifically, in 2018, more than 50% of IELTS test takers were over 23 years old, only nearly 1.5% of the test takers were 16-18 years old, and more than 13% were 19-22 years old. Now, in Vietnam, 62% of IELTS test takers are aged 16-22, and 30% are aged 16-18.

Vietnamese students have strengths in reading and listening skills but face difficulties with speaking as their average speaking score for the TOEFL exam is 14/30 and for the IELTS test is 5.8./.VNA