VietNamNet Bridge - State agencies have not yet examined the quality of bilingual teaching programs used in local schools.

Under the national program on teaching & learning foreign languages in the 2008-2020 period, set by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), students learn foreign languages from the third to 12th grade.

However, in many cities and provinces, students began learning English in Grade 1 under programs set up by schools in cooperation with foreign language centers.

Nguyen Chi Anh, a parent in Long Bien district in Hanoi, said he has been informed by the school about two English learning programs.

“I had to pay nearly VND5 million for the English course in October alone. This included VND3 million for Language Link tuition, VND350,000 for books, VND400,000 for the bilingual program, and VND130,000 for books for the bilingual program,” he said.

Also according to Anh, though parents were informed that the learning was not compulsory, all parents registered for the course.

Anh said what worries him the most is not the big sum of money, but whether his son can follow the program. 

“My son now struggles with reading and wring in Vietnamese. I am not sure if learning English at this moment is a good idea,” he said.

State agencies have not yet examined the quality of bilingual teaching programs used in local schools.

Ngo Van Luc, whose daughter is a third grader at a primary school in Dong Da district, said the girl has two English subjects, and that she follows two different programs, including the official one set by MOET, and the other a voluntary program organized by the school. 

“Though she has seven books in English and many English lessons a week, she is very bad at English. Sometimes my wife raises questions to her, but she cannot answer,” he complained.

According to Luc, his daughter began learning English when she was in the first grade. The tuition was VND8 million a year.

The quality of English teaching remains questionable. There are many different teaching programs and no one has examined the quality of the programs.

Nguyen Thi Quynh Trang, whose daughter is a first grader of a primary school in Hai Ba Trung district, said she has no information about why the school cooperated with this foreign language center, but not others, and why it decided to apply this program, but not others.

“They (the teachers) just told me that the program is the best,” she said.

Pham Xuan Tien, deputy director of the Hanoi Education Department, said that foreign languages are not a compulsory subject for first and second graders. 

Le Huyen