Nghe An: Difficulty in managing the issuance of foreign language proficiency certificates

(Baonhean) - A foreign language proficiency certificate according to the Common European Framework of Reference is one of the mandatory requirements for teachers participating in teaching the new English program. However, the training and certification are currently difficult to manage, especially in terms of quality.

Conflicts within the same type of certificate

Huynh Thuc Khang High School is one of three high schools in the province that organizes the 10-year foreign language program. However, up to now, it has only been implemented in two classes (one of which has graduated).

Teacher Cao Thanh Bao - Principal of the school said: The implementation is still difficult because students are not interested in the new program, the learning process still has many shortcomings in exams, and purchasing materials is difficult.

Besides, what the Board of Directors of Huynh Thuc Khang High School is concerned about is the quality of teachers, although currently 80% of teachers in the school have a C1 foreign language proficiency certificate (according to the European reference framework) in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

The reason is that among these, only one teacher, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, was granted a foreign language certificate through the training program of the Department of Education and Training. The rest were granted by Vinh University and some domestic universities through self-study by teachers.

In theory, according to teacher Cao Thanh Bao, this is normal and follows the procedure, because Vinh University is currently one of 10 universities authorized by the Ministry of Education and Training to issue 6-level foreign language proficiency certificates according to the European reference framework. However, what this principal is concerned about is: "The school's teachers who participated in the training program of the Department of Education and Training struggled for a long time to get a C1 certificate. Meanwhile, the remaining teachers only needed a short training period to be granted a certificate."

Foreign language class of students at Tra Lan Secondary School (Con Cuong).

Also being an “insider” and having gone through a process of “hard training” to get a certificate from the Department of Education and Training, currently when doing the work of managing and monitoring the teaching and learning of English and the teaching staff in the area, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan has many concerns; because the ratio of 10 teachers being granted international and internal B1 or B2 certificates through exams organized by the Department of Education and Training (many teachers have to take the exam 2, 3 times) out of the number of teachers taking the exam is quite low. There are quite a few teachers with master’s degrees, who have achieved provincial excellent teachers but still fail. However, currently, through other exams, getting a certificate is very easy, even many teachers only need to register at the Vocational Training Center and only review for a few days to get a B2 certificate...

Difficult to control quality

One of the 7 important tasks of the Project "Teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in the national education system for the period 2008 - 2020" signed by the Prime Minister is to develop and promulgate a unified foreign language proficiency framework consisting of 6 levels. This framework clearly defines the requirements for listening, speaking, reading and writing skills compatible with the criteria for determining 6 levels issued by the European Association of Foreign Language Testing Organizations, in which level 1 is the lowest and level 6 is the highest (including A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2).

Previously, foreign language certificates were issued by the Cambridge University Examination Center (called international certificates). Since 2014, the Ministry of Education and Training has recognized 10 educational and training institutions to participate in reviewing the foreign language proficiency of English teachers and to issue foreign language certificates according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam (called internal certificates).

Foreign language class at Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted - Illustration photo

In Nghe An, since 2011, the Department of Education and Training has coordinated with a number of local English centers to organize training and exams to obtain international foreign language proficiency certificates (issued by the Cambridge University Examination Center). Since 2015, exams and certificates have been issued by domestic universities (under the supervision of the Department of Education Quality Management) and teachers only have internal foreign language proficiency certificates.

Monitoring also shows that although the exam review program was extended for 3 months, the teachers sent to study were all capable people, but the results were not high and the number of people granted certificates reached about 50% (821/1657 teachers).

Perhaps because of the difficulties in taking exams and obtaining foreign language certificates, in reality, the number of teachers participating in foreign language training programs organized by the Department of Education and Training is not large and often does not meet the target even though teachers participating in the courses are completely free. On the contrary, teachers go to centers to register to study and take exams to obtain certificates.

Sharing about this, a teacher in Con Cuong district said: “I was invited by a teacher at a vocational training center to study and promised to get a B2 certificate. However, I did not study because I was concerned about the quality. Meanwhile, many teachers, in order to cope with the degree, registered to study and got the certificate after only... a few weeks”.

In the province, it is not difficult to find addresses with many invitations to study to get foreign language proficiency certificates, and most of them are short-term courses. Some places even commit to 100% pass rate. However, quality control is lax.

Mr. Phan Chi Nghia - Specialist of the Secondary Education Department, Department of Education and Training said: “According to regulations, if centers organize certificate exams, they must be supervised by the Department of Education and Training or the Department of Testing and Education Quality Assessment - Ministry of Education and Training. However, in reality, when organizing exams, the centers do not notify the department for us to monitor. The quality of foreign language certificates issued by universities is beyond our “control”. Many teachers have also reported negative and chaotic phenomena such as charging too high exam review fees, insufficient review time according to regulations, and results that do not accurately reflect the actual English proficiency of teachers”.

My Ha