VietNamNet Bridge - The quality of English teaching and learning at general schools has once again become a hot topic of discussion after the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) announced that students got an average of 3.3 marks out of 10 at the national high-school finals. 

The English scores were described as ‘dramatically low’, which showed that the goal of universalizing foreign languages throughout the country is still far from reach.

A local newspaper commented that the test results were ‘really shameful’ if noting that Vietnam has been developing English programs for 30 years. 

English is now a compulsory learning subject for students from the third to 12th grades. 

It is also compulsory for civil servants under the Government’s Program No 422 launched in 1994. English is a compulsory learning subject at most universities.

Thousands of English centers have been set up in Vietnam. A series of national and local programs on teaching and learning English operate, including a huge project worth trillions of dong which has been implemented for six years.

The quality of English teaching and learning at general schools has once again become a hot topic of discussion after the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) announced that students got an average of 3.3 marks out of 10 at the national high-school finals.

MOET’s Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga said the average English score is low because of the poor results gained by students in rural and remote areas, especially ethnic minority students who don’t have good conditions to study English properly at high school.

However, analysts pointed out that the English scores received by urban students, including the ones in Hanoi, were also low, affirming that this must be blamed on problems in teaching English.

“Up to 90 percent of students got scores below average in English test at a national exam, disappointing any teachers,” said Nguyen Quoc Hung, former deputy rector of the Foreign Languages University which has been renamed Hanoi University.

Hung denied that students got low marks because of the difficult exam questions. “The exam questions include both easy and difficult ones. Meanwhile, many students could not answer easy and average questions,” he said.

A high school teacher in Hanoi agreed with Hung that the low English scores must not be blamed on the way the exam questions were raised, but on the teaching method being applied at general schools.

“The discouraging result of the English test is predictable. I know many students who cannot speak English despite 10 years of learning English at school,” he said.

He cited a MOET report as saying that more than 74,000 students got 2.25 scores only in English in 2015.

Tran Xuan Nhi, former Deputy Minister of MOET said he would propose MOET allow English at preschool as well and apply English teaching methods used in some other countries.


Thanh Mai