Despite the ministry's great efforts to improve the quality of foreign-language instruction, the expected goals had not been met. This was the comment of the Minister of Education and Training recently.
According to the Ministry's Education Quality Management Agency, the average score in English in the last three years from 2017 to 2019 was below 5.0 (of the 10-score scale). The most common scores were 3-3.4.
Many students in provinces in the mountainous northern and Mekong Delta regions had the lowest scores, while students in large cities such as Hanoi, Da Nang and HCM City had higher scores than the national average. HCM City had the highest average score in English over the last three years (5.92 in 2017, 5.06 in 2018 and 5.79 in 2019). It also had the highest number of students with a score of 8 or more. Many students in the city had good English skills because they study at foreign language training centres after main classes. Currently, there are about 700 English language teaching centres in HCM City, while Hanoi is home to 399 foreign language centres and 27 foreign-invested centres, employing nearly 3,000 full-time and part-time teachers in the centres, of whom 847 are foreigners.
Vietnam seriously lack qualified teachers of English for the school system and to meet the high demand of learning English from the public. Many Vietnamese students believe their English skills can be improved only if they are taught by native speakers. However, many expatriate teachers employed by private language centres haven't got quality training in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL).
According to a senior academic manager at the Vietnam USA Society English Centers, “for teachers to become good at their profession, they need to see what good teaching looks like. Many teachers, both foreign and Vietnamese, suffer from a lack of access to these professional development activities", he said.
Sources:
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/society/minister-of-education-concerned-about-…
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/society/foreign-languages-key-for-development-…
https://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/education/204354/foreign-language-cen…
https://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/education/206919/hanoi-tightens-contr…
Comments from Lien Ta, Senior Education Services Manager:
Low English language proficiency continues to be one of main barriers of Vietnamese students who want to study in the UK. Our recent scoping to Vietnamese institutions having TNE activities with UK universities also revealed that there is a low progression rate of Vietnamese students to study at the UK partners' campuses under articulation agreements because few of them meet the English language requirement. When setting up TNE training programmes, English language requirement is also one of key issues that often takes long time to consider and cause delay in the process of getting approval. It requires UK universities to be careful in choosing appropriate local institutions in TNE activities who can really provide a source of potential students with good English level.
On the other hand, there is an increasing demand of Vietnamese students to study TESOL programmes overseas, including in the UK. This is triggered by the high demand in qualified English teachers of both public and private schools, universities as well as hundreds of foreign language centres in key cities. Some Vietnamese universities have expressed interest in partnering with UK institutions in English language training programmes, which opens an opportunity for UK institutions to tap into and showcase this traditionally academic excellence of UK education.