VietNamNet Bridge - Parents in Hanoi complain that they cannot decide which English learning programs to choose for their children because there are too many programs and they don’t have sufficient information about the quality of the programs.

According to Giao duc Viet Nam, nearly 10 English learning programs are being carried out in Hanoi. 

Under the current regulations, students begin learning foreign languages officially when they enter the third grade. However, at many schools in Hanoi, first graders also learn English on a voluntary basis, following joint teaching programs provided by schools in cooperation with foreign language centers.

Parents in Hanoi complain that they cannot decide which English learning programs to choose for their children because there are too many programs and they don’t have sufficient information about the quality of the programs.

There are many such joint teaching programs. The Hoang Liet Primary School in Hoang Mai district, for example, joins forces with a foreign language center to teach English in accordance with Family & Friends curriculum. 

Every student there has to pay VND150,000 a month to attend the English lessons. 

Meanwhile, at Le Van Tam School, students learn English with teachers from Language Link center and each of them has to pay VND6 million for the academic year.

Some schools run two programs at the same time with different tuition levels targeting different groups of students. 

The parents whose children go to Ai Mo Primary School in Long Bien district can choose either the program of DynEd or the program of Language Link. They have to pay VND200,000 a month to follow DynEd’s program and VND6 million a year to follow Language Link’s program.

A parent, who has a child going to Thanh Xuan Trung Primary School, said his son has been learning English at a foreign language center for the last three years, but still has to attend the English class at school as well.

“I was told that the English class is not compulsory for students. However, my son has no other choice than attending the class,” he said.

“If my son did not attend the class, he would have to sit idle while his classmates are at English lessons,” he explained.

Ha Ngoc Thanh, a parent whose son goes to Hoang Liet School, said on Cong An Nhan Dan that she cannot understand why there are so many English programs with different tuition levels.

“Why doesn’t the city’s education department try the programs at some schools for a certain trial period and then choose the single best program for application in a large scale?” she asked.

Regarding the teaching quality, Giao duc Vietnam quoted a teacher as saying that it is difficult to tell the difference between the programs with low tuition and ones with high tuition. The only visible thing is that the students who pay high tuition can learn in classes with 25-30 students, while the others have to learn in classes with 40-50 students.

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