VietNamNet Bridge – One more new English standard has been added to the primary school curriculum, causing even more confusion among parents and students in HCM City.

At a workshop on teaching and learning English in HCM City organized by the city’s education department on July 22, participants heard the IIG’s presentation about the TOEFL Primary test, a new standard to assess English skills that was applied in February.

Before February, the English skills of primary school students had been assessed under the Cambridge ESOL system with three certificate levels: Starters, Movers and Flyers.

On February 17, the HCM City education department decided to add one more assessment system to primary schools – TOEFL Primary of the US ETS (Educational Testing Service).

The HCM City education department said TOEFL Primary is just a “suggestion” for the international English standard for the primary schools to apply.

The watchdog agency said that teachers have been prohibited to force students to attend extra classes that offer instruction in accordance with the new standard.

However, teachers and students still say they feel confused with many different English standards, even though they have been told that they can choose to apply TOEFL Primary on a “voluntary basis”.

An English teacher of a primary school in District 10 said the city education department encourages students to follow many English learning programs and take many different exams.

However, the problem is that it is very costly to take an exam. Students have to pay VND460,000 on average for an exam, VND100,000 to get certificate, and spend fees on materials and documents.

“It is really a problem for both teachers and students when many exams are organized at the same time, which makes it hard for students and teachers to review the exams,” the teacher said.

She went on to say that things would be really troublesome for fifth grade students, who have to study a lot to finish primary school and prepare for English exams.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, head of the primary education division of the HCM City Education and Training Department, said the department would plan the exams in a way so that there is only one exam every month. This would help ease pressure on students.

Vinh also said that the city’s education department introduced TOEFL Primary just to give students one more English standard system to choose from.

However, many teachers still think there is no need to burden students with one more exam, if it is not really necessary.

The teachers at the workshop raised questions about the strong and weak points of TOEFL Primary and Cambridge standards. However, they did not receive clear answers.

NLD