Vietnam Calls on Int’l Organizations to Support English Training Project

Vietnam is calling on embassies and international organizations to assist it in carrying out a national English training project in the 2011-2020 period, which has been postponed due to teacher shortages and a dearth of funds. Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien made the statement at a meeting on Nov 29, the An Ninh Thu Do newspaper reported on Nov 29.  Hien admitted that the shortage of qualified teachers is the biggest barrier to the project, followed by poor infrastructure and facilities. The project is designed to give pupils an early grounding in the language. The Ministry of Education and Training wanted at least 20% of primary school pupils to be taught English in the 2010-2011 academic year. Under the project, English will be a compulsory subject for third-grade to the fifth-grade students who will have four lessons per week. About 15 cities and provinces would be selected to pilot the project in the 2010-2011 school year. However, the barriers have forced the ministry to halt the plan. Though the project was launched in 2003, the results have been disappointing, admitted Hien. Currently, there are more than 4,000 teachers teaching English in primary schools across the country, said Nguyen Loc, deputy director of the Vietnam Education Science Institute, adding that about 2,000 more teachers needed to be trained each year. Only by so doing would primary schools be able to meet the ministry's requirements. At present, the majority of Vietnamese university graduates cannot use English in their jobs. (An Ninh Thu Do – Capital’s Security Nov 30 p6)