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Despite being implemented for four years, HCM City’s programme to use English for teaching science subjects has faced many difficulties.

In this school year, under the programme, 1,600 pupils from 10 local high schools could learn maths and science subjects in English.

Most of the schools do not have official teaching syllabus and lack teachers for the programme.

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School, one of the city’s pioneers in the programme, does not have an official teaching syllabus for this; therefore, its teachers have to construct the course via internet research. Meanwhile, teachers are not offered a chance to attend specialised training courses for the teaching methods.

Gia Dinh High School has 270 students taking part in the programme, divided into nine classes of maths, physics, chemistry and economics. The schools has five teachers for the programme, however, four among them are visiting teachers.

Representatives from many schools said each school had a different teaching method. Some translate content from textbooks, while many others select international programmes or content chosen by their teachers.

Teachers who have good English are not good at all subjects; meanwhile, those who are good at some specialist subjects are not good at English. As a result, many schools have to find external English-speaking teachers.

A representative from Luong The Vinh High School said using English for teaching science lacked a long-term strategy. The programme does not mention a specific grade for the application and pupils are not informed that they will attend tests in Vietnamese or English.

He also added that, schools will find it hard to attract teachers when offering low pay and also lacked activities to help them improve teaching quality.

Le Hong Son, Director of the HCM City Department of Education and Training, said the programme was still being piloted, so many schools continued to face difficulties. In the coming time, the department would plan a common syllabus for schools. It will also pay attention to co-operation with schools to improve the quality of the teaching.

Nguyen Vinh Hien, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said Vietnamese should be integrated flexibly during the teaching time. He suggested that the amount of time teachers had to spend in the classroom should be cut when they joined the programme so that they could have more time to improve their English.