Teaching English from Grade 3: Need 24,000 Teachers

It is expected that by 2018, all third graders will learn English, but the most difficult problem in the education sector today is the lack of supply of primary school English teachers, because low salaries make it difficult to attract good people, and at the same time, colleges of education do not have a major code for primary school English teachers.

Nearly 100% of primary school teachers are not qualified

After testing 147 primary school English teachers to implement a pilot English teaching program for third grade students, only 92 teachers met the knowledge standards and could participate in the pilot teaching program, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien said at a recent conference held in Da Nang.

“Nearly 100% of primary school English teachers today are not qualified. Because for teachers with pedagogical qualifications, English is not guaranteed, while teachers with foreign language skills have not received pedagogical training,” Mr. Hien told Thanh Nien newspaper.

English class in grade 3. Photo: Bich Ngoc

According to Professor Nguyen Loc, Deputy Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, there are currently 4,000 teachers participating in teaching English at the primary level nationwide.

"In reality, the professional qualifications of primary school English teachers are still different. Some teachers cannot express themselves fluently in the language they are teaching, have limited pronunciation, and their teaching methods are more suitable for adults than children...

In a survey of nearly 150 primary school English teachers recently conducted by the Ministry, only nearly 100 teachers had guaranteed English proficiency. Most primary school English teachers work on contract with salaries agreed with parents, with low salaries and not on the payroll, so most of them are not confident in their work," Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga told Tien Phong.

The Ministry of Education and Training is giving the green light for primary schools across the country to proactively increase English teaching: "The Ministry has just selected 72 primary schools to pilot the program, but if any locality is qualified to pilot the program, we will also support it, even teaching English 8 periods/week," said Le Tien Thanh, Head of the Primary Education Department - Ministry of Education and Training, on Tuoi Tre.

What is the mechanism for having primary school English teachers?

Mr. Le Tien Thanh is most concerned about the requirement for the teaching staff: "Each province or city needs to develop an English teaching plan with its own roadmap for its locality, which needs to take into account the specific needs of teachers, so that by 2018-2020, 100% of grade 3 students can learn English.

In addition to the facilities, we need to consider the treatment of teachers. After a period of time when we train and develop teachers to be "strong", will they stay with us to receive a salary of a few million dong each month or "say goodbye" to us to move to work for businesses?

"By 2017-2018, we will need 24,000 primary school English teachers, while currently pedagogical colleges do not have a major code for primary school English teachers," said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hung, permanent member of the Steering Committee of the 2020 National Foreign Language Project.

He proposed a solution: "This is very difficult, but we can temporarily solve it in many ways. We can let students who have graduated from other English majors, such as tourism English, take a few more credits to teach elementary English. Or teacher training colleges that teach until the second year can reorient students, and if they agree, they can switch to studying elementary English pedagogy."

In the 2010-2011 school year, the Ministry piloted the English program for grade 3 primary schools in 18 provinces and cities across the country with 88 schools. However, the biggest challenge now is the team of teachers with sufficient foreign language skills and pedagogical methods suitable for the psychological characteristics of the age group, Tien Phong reported.

Ms. Thai Thi Phuong Thuy, English specialist of the Department of Education and Training of Tra Vinh province, suggested: "The Ministry of Education and Training needs to have a mechanism for teachers and specialists to study and exchange experiences abroad to improve their professional skills."

However, Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien said: The Ministry does not advocate following trends or quantity but focuses on quality. Where conditions are met, it will be implemented first, where conditions are not met, it will be implemented later, but it must be done urgently to ensure these conditions...

Schools and localities focus on the tasks of training and fostering teachers, and surveying the existing team of primary school English teachers. In the immediate future, the Ministry of Education and Training will support with training materials and programs. Students can study different programs and schools, but the output is guaranteed to meet requirements.

According to VietNamNet