Vietnam Education Ministry to Add Chinese, Russian to School Curriculum

Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) will issue a teaching program for Russian and Chinese as first foreign languages for students from grade three at elementary schools to grade 12 at high school from next year, state media reported. The program will serve as the basis for preparing textbooks and learning material. However, parents have criticized the plan, particularly unhappy with the decision to make Chinese and Russian mandatory languages. Many argue that the ministry should invest more in English teaching as many Vietnamese students are unable to communicate with foreigners after years in school. Recently, the MoET has also started trial teaching of Japanese as the first foreign language for third graders from the 2016-2017 school year. The trial started earlier this month at some schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Korean and French are also being taught as second foreign languages from this school year. Korean is being taught in the sixth grade and the 10th grade at some schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. However, the government will still focus on enhancing the quality of English teaching but the learning of additional languages should be encouraged, said Phung Xuan Nha, minister of MoET. (giaoduc.net Sep 19, danviet.vn Sep 19)