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The English skills of many domestic teachers in Vietnam still fail to meet requirements, though a national foreign language scheme has been in place for three years.

Students that are not specialised in foreign languages often have weak English skills when they first enter university, but many universities have high graduation requirements, making it important for teachers to train students even though their majors may not be in foreign languages.

On December 11, officials from the Ministry of Education and Training gathered in Danang to discuss the problems and shortcomings of the national foreign language 2020 project.

The project management committee said as of September 30, about 97% primary school teachers and 90% high school teachers in 42 provinces and cities still failed to meet the requirements.

Nguyen Hoang, deputy head of Nghe An Province Department of Education and Training said, "Teachers' skills were very limited before the project was implemented, but since they have become more active and hard-working."

Meanwhile, the representative from Haiphong City Department of Education and Training said the focus should be put on primary school teachers. Listening and speaking are two most important skills for primary school students but teachers often lack these skills themselves.

The experts agreed that the government should place priority on building a coherent testing framework for both teachers and students.

Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Thi Minh, suggested hiring overseas consultants to assess English language skills in Vietnamem. However the vice head of Hanoi University disagreed, saying that what was needed was more accurate testing tools.