English 'rescue' for schools in mountainous areas

Ky Son is a mountainous district of Nghe An province with 33 primary schools. However, only 17 schools have English teachers. Including primary and secondary schools, the district is short of 64 English teachers. Similarly, Tuong Duong district is also short of more than 20 English teachers at primary and secondary levels. In 2025, this district has 8 targets for recruiting English teachers, but only 3 applications are received. The remaining four mountainous districts are in a similar situation.

To fill the gap in English teachers, in recent times, the Department of Education of the above mountainous districts has had to "make do" and mobilize teachers from other schools to come and teach for the school that has no teachers. Teacher Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong (50 years old), who is an English teacher at Huu Kiem Primary School (Ky Son District), has to teach for Pha Danh Primary School, more than 20 km away. Ms. Phuong is in charge of nearly 20 classes of grades 3, 4 and 5 with the actual number of teaching periods per week being 34 (11 periods more than the regulation). To "take on" all the work, the classes Ms. Phuong is teaching must be combined by grade.

At Na Ngoi 2 Primary School (Na Ngoi Commune, Ky Son District), the Ky Son District Education Department had to transfer an English teacher from another school, more than 10 km away, to teach a combined class.

An English lesson taught online by a teacher in Do Luong District to students in Tuong Duong District (The teacher standing on the podium is the homeroom teacher who also accompanies the students)

PHOTO: KHANH HOAN

From the 2022-2023 school year, implementing the 2018 General Education Program, English and IT will become compulsory subjects for all students from grade 3 and above, putting even more pressure on schools lacking English teachers.

This reality makes the quality of English in schools in mountainous districts very low. According to the synthesis of the Department of Education and Training of Nghe An, the entrance exam scores for grade 10 English of high schools in these districts in previous years had schools with an average score of only 1.88 - 1.55 points.

After the Ministry of Education and Training made English an elective subject instead of a compulsory subject in the high school graduation exam, the rate of 12th grade students in mountainous districts registering to take the English exam in this year's high school graduation exam was very low. There were schools with hundreds of students taking the exam but only 13 students registered.

To prevent students in mountainous areas from being deficient in English, the Nghe An Department of Education and Training must mobilize the spirit of mutual support from teachers in the lowlands. Up to now, the Department of Education of Do Luong, Dien Chau districts and Vinh City have "sponsored" to support online English teaching for schools in 3 mountainous districts.

Nghe An’s mountainous districts are short of about 100 English teachers. In order to support schools lacking teachers, including English, Nghe An Provincial People’s Council recently issued a resolution to provide financial support to 83 primary and secondary schools in mountainous districts to pay for additional teachers.

Mr. Thai Van Thanh, Director of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, said that the department is continuing to advise the province to have priority policies, support the implementation of programs and attract teachers to work long-term in mountainous districts.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cuu-tro-tieng-anh-cho-cac-truong-vung-cao-185250416183404368.htm