VietNamNet Bridge - It is estimated that Vietnam will need 7,770 more teachers of English by 2020 to implement the national program on teaching English, under which third, fourth and fifth graders would have four English sessions a week.

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The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) decided that from the 2016-2017 academic year, 100 percent of third, fourth and fifth graders nationwide will have English lessons. 

By 2018, teachers of English will have to meet the standard English skills as set for education levels: the 3/6 or 4/6 level for primary school, 4/6 for secondary school and 5/6 for high school.

This is an important step to be implemented within the English teaching program under which general school students will have English lessons for 10 years, commencing from the third grade.

However, observers commented that the target is unattainable as Vietnam is now seriously lacking teachers of English.

According to MOET’s Primary Education Department, there are 15,883 primary schools with 7,784,685 students and 151,329 classes, including 89,465 third, fourth and fifth graders. 

With 21,430 teachers available now, the ratio of teacher to every class is 0.1-0.2 percent. This means that every teacher has to cover 5-10 classes and has 20-40 teaching periods a week.

Under the current regulations, one primary school teacher must not have more than 23 teaching sessions a week, while a teacher of English has 18.
Meanwhile, under the current regulations, one primary school teacher must not have more than 23 teaching sessions a week, while a teacher of English has 18.

Due to the lack of teachers, 48.48 percent of third, fourth and fifth graders now have two English lessons a week.

A report of the MOET’s Primary Education Department showed that there are 275 primary schools in Cao Bang province, but there are only 86 teachers of English. 

This means that the province has less than 30 percent of the total number of teachers needed to implement the program on providing four English lessons a week.

The report also showed that by the 2015-2016 academic year, 711,000 third, fourth and fifth graders still could not learn English.

There are 21,430 primary school teachers of English in the country. 
However, of this amount, only 7,360, or 29.11 percent, are officially employed. This means that Vietnam would need 7,770 teachers more.

As of July 2015, only 6,000 out of 18,900 primary school teachers of English, or 31.37 percent, had been recognized as meeting the standard English skills.

In principle, the remaining teachers must attend refresh training courses to improve their skills to satisfy the new requirements. 

However, the training has encountered problems because of the lack of training establishments.

MOET has paved the way for schools to employ enough teachers of English by allowing fourth-year university students of English to assist in English teaching. 


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