What has the nearly 9,400 billion foreign language project done after 8 years?

The long journey costs thousands of billions of dong, but when parents ask "Will my child be able to use a foreign language?", many managers have to avoid it.

The Project on Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages ​​in the National Education System for the 2008-2020 Period (referred to as the Project) was approved in 2008. The goal is to comprehensively innovate the teaching and learning of foreign languages ​​in schools, so that "by 2020, the majority of Vietnamese youth graduating from secondary schools, colleges and universities will have sufficient foreign language proficiency to use independently, confidently communicate, study and work in an integrated, multilingual and multicultural environment, making foreign languages ​​a strength of the Vietnamese people".

The project has a total budget of nearly 9,400 billion VND, of which2008-2010 period is 1,000 billion VND, 2011-2015 period is nearly 4,400 billion VND, 2016-2020 period is about 4,000 billion VND.But after 8 years of implementation, what has the Project done so far?

Many localities still have a serious shortage of English teachers, not to mention native teachers. Photo: Ngoc Thanh.

Big goals but far away destination

The focus of the Project is the 2016-2020 period with the task of implementing a 10-year foreign language program nationwide, from grades 3 to 12; enhancing English in all vocational schools, colleges and universities. Up to now, the project has spent a large amount of money but has not achieved the desired results.

In 2016, the whole country had about 1.6 million students in grades 3, 4, and 5 out of a total of nearly 7.8 million students studying English 4 periods/week, accounting for about 20%. The remaining students had access to English for 2 periods/week. Compared to the target of 100% of grade 3 students studying the 10-year English program, the destination is still far away. The serious shortage of teachers is the biggest difficulty, with only over 33% of junior high school students meeting the standards and over 26% of high school students.

The number of qualified teachers in many localities is much lower. For example, Cao Bang currently has only 86 English teachers while there are 275 schools. Many other provinces are in a similar situation, such as Ha Giang, Bac Kan, Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Ha Tinh, Kon Tum, Khanh Hoa...

Evaluating the effectiveness of the past period, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha said that the quality of the project was still low, especially in English, which was clearly shown in the national high school exam. The new period needs to implement more standard teaching and learning."If teaching and learning a foreign language is not standard, it's better not to teach it at all," he said.

A team of "standard but not standard" teachers

Looking back at the 8-year implementation, many provinces and cities have a number of "qualified" teachers, but their actual capacity is a big question. At the conference to deploy the project in the first phase2016-2020 organized by the Ministry of Education and Training on September 17, in the new phase plan there is no mention of the achievements and limitations of the years 2008-2015.

Leaders of many education departments frankly pointed out the shortcomings in the work of training and educating teachers to meet standards.Mr. Nguyen Minh Tri, Deputy Director of the Department of Education of Quang Ngai, said that the province currently has 80% of English teachers are qualified, but qAfter surveying professional capacity, it was found that all skills are still very weak. Meeting the standards is possible.Whether it reflects the reality or not is a big question, so managers often say to each other, "It meets the standards but not yet standard."

"So when pparents asked"Can my child use a foreign language like that? It seems easy but it's actually difficult to answer and many training staff avoid it," he said.

Leaders of many Departments of Education said that regional conditions are different, so when implementing the project, it is impossible to "progress horizontally". Photo: Ngoc Thanh.

Mr. Tri assessed that in teacher training, units have not really taken the initiative. Most teachers, general schools and education departments have a mentality of dependence and waiting for the training classes organized by the Department and the Ministry.Whether the project to have all teachers meet standards by 2025 is realistic and scientific is a matter that needs to be discussed carefully.

Dr. Do Tuan Minh, Principal of the University of Foreign Languages ​​(Hanoi National University), said that foreign language teacher training is the number one priority, but it must be year-round, not just in the summer and seasonal. Currently, training is short, organized only once until teachers meet the standards. Sometimes, facilities just do it for the sake of it, but lack post-training activities for teachers to apply.

Director of Hai Phong Department of Education Vu Van Tra assessed that English learning is currently still struggling with two skills: reading and writing, and mainly serves the purpose of exams and is not really highly applied in practice. Many people have this degree or that certificate, but when attending seminars or interacting with foreigners, they do not dare to speak. The assessment of students' abilities also stops at the national high school exam. According to Mr. Tra, teaching English must follow the motto "Teach to what extent, use to that extent".

Currently, there is no specific survey on learners' capacity, but Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong, Deputy Head of the Foreign Language Department, Tay Nguyen University, said that outside of the classroom, there is almost no environment for students to practice foreign languages. Of the students who still owe credits for graduation, up to 79% do not meet the output standards in foreign languages. "The above number says a lot about the capacity of learners at the current level of education," she said.

According to Ms. Phuong, the Central Highlands region currently has a shortage of specialized language and subject teachers.For nearly 40 years, the school has had a foreign language lecturer who is a foreign volunteer and has just finished a 9-month working program at the school. Not to mention,General teacher training programs have not yet been developed and implemented.TEnglish is still an optional subject in the graduation exam, leading to a very low rate of students choosing to take the exam.

The 2016-2020 project provides a roadmap for English teachers at all levels of general education to meet the standards set by the 6-level foreign language competency framework for Vietnam. In 2016, it was 45% of primary school teachers, 55% of secondary school teachers, and 65% of high school teachers.From 2017 to 2019, the standard rate will increase by 10% each year for teachers at all levels. The target for 2020 is to have 100% of teachers at all levels meet the standard. For university and college lecturers, the project sets a roadmap for 2018 to have 100% of teachers meet the standard.

In particular, in the roadmap for implementing teaching and learning new foreign languages ​​in general education institutions, the Ministry of Education has set a pilot goal of teaching Russian, Chinese, and Japanese as the first foreign language and French, Korean, and German as the second foreign language. Many people are wondering, "If English is not taught well, is it okay to add other foreign languages ​​to the program?"

Local leaders said that conditions in each region are different, if the project continues to "progress horizontally" as before, it will encounter difficulties and suggested that the Ministry should provide guidance.Teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in accordance with regional conditions, expanding the framework and standards to increase choices for provinces and cities.

According to VNE