A parent complained on an internet education forum that her son, who had studied English for five years at the Le Van Sy Primary School in Tan Binh District, now has to follow an English learning curriculum for beginners in the sixth grade.

“I cannot understand why students have to repeat the lessons they learned five years ago,” she said. “It is really a great waste of parents’ money and students’ time and efforts.”

“I had to pay big money to fund my son’s English learning at primary school. Parents were asked to pay money for material facilities, software products and foreign teachers. I know the students made great efforts to follow the program, hoping to obtain English international certificates,” she said.

The parent also complained that her son was bored with English lessons at secondary school because “there was nothing new” in the lessons.

Therefore, she had to send her son to a privately run English class, where he takes intermediate lessons.

“I am afraid that my son will feel tired of learning English if he finds English lessons boring,” she added.

A teacher of a school in District 1 said different English teaching programs were being used in schools in HCM City.

For example, students might follow an intensive English program at primary school but then upon entering secondary school, they have to follow an English curriculum designed by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for sixth to 12th graders.

Also according to the teacher, those students who followed an intensive English program at primary school would already be at the level of seventh graders who follow MOET’s program.

Tran Dinh Nguyen Lu, a senior official at the HCM City Education and Training Department, said he was aware of the problem but was not sure of the solution.

“MOET curricula are the formal curricula that must be followed by all schools in Vietnam,” he explained.

“Only when MOET makes changes to the curricula and textbooks, and gives more power to local authorities, will the HCM City Education and Training Department be able to set up a reasonable roadmap for English teaching. At that time, students will not have to repeat lessons,” he said.

At some secondary schools in HCM City, students follow two different English curricula at the same time, the MOET curriculum, which is a must, and the extra English lessons with the Solutions textbooks from Oxford Publishing House.

A teacher of English at Nguyen Gia Thieu Secondary School in Tan Binh District said that it was boring for students to learn English under two different curricula.

However, most  parents in HCM City want their children to attend intensive English classes to improve their English skills, because they are not satisfied with the simple lessons given in the MOET curriculum.

Tien Phong