VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese parents urge their children – the primary school students – to learn hard to get English certificates, though they don’t know the real value of the certificates.

Hoang Lan, an office worker whose daughter is a student of the Nguyen Thai Son Primary School in district 3 in HCM City, said she sends the girl to different foreign language centers where she practices to obtain Cambridge standard certificates.

The girl not has experienced the English courses at different levels, from Starters, Movers to Flyers. She has also been practicing for KET certificate, which is equal to A2 designed for secondary school students, and PET, equal to B1 in accordance with the European reference standards.

Meanwhile, the girl still follows the English intensive education program at the Nguyen Thai Son School.

Tran Le Nguyen Khanh, a student of the Hai Ba Trung Secondary School in district 3, goes to foreign language centers three times a week to practice English to prepare for the exams for English certificates.

Khanh’s mother told her that she would go studying in Australia after she finishes the ninth grade. Therefore, Khanh needs to learn English be well prepared for the high school and university study in Australia.

However, the girl admitted that she does not know which certificates the Australian schools would require. Therefore, she tries to obtain as many certificates as possible.

At present, besides the two best-known TOEFL and IELTS, western universities may require international students to have SAT I (Scholastic Assessment Test - Reasoning Test), SAT II (Scholastic Assessment Test - Subject Test), depending on the education levels and training majors.

According to a consultancy expert, general schools nowadays also require certain English certificates. These include Key English Test (KET), then Preliminary English Test (PET) for secondary school students, and First Certificate of English (FCE) for high school students.

This is the reason why parents nowadays rush to bring their children to foreign language centers to practice English for obtaining certificates. However, the consultant also said a lot of parents still don’t know why their children need to obtain certificates, as they still don’t have any idea for the children’s overseas study plans.

Cao Huy Thao, Headmaster of the Vietnam – Australia International High School, also noted that parents and students have been following the opposite direction when studying English.

Students just try to learn English as hard as possible and try to obtain any certificates the foreign language centers advertise, while they don’t have clear purposes for the learning.

Meanwhile, parents urge their children to learn English, but don’t care if the learning can serve their study plan in the future, and if the children like learning English.

“Primary school students should only familiarize themselves with English, while parents should not be too demanding on their children,” Thao said.

“Parents should only begin thinking about the long term study plan of their children when the children enter the 6th grade,” he added.

Nguyen Ho Thuy Anh from the HCM City Education and Training Department said following the English curriculum set by the city education department is enough for children. A lot of students in difficult areas still got high results at the exams, though they did not attend any extra classes.

Chi Mai