Aug 31, 2011

Vietnam - Healthcare - Unhealthy relationship


When his brother was pronounced dead after an hour of treatment in the emergency room, 18-year-old Nguyen Van Dung went berserk and made good on a threat he’d made earlier.

He took a knife and stabbed two doctors, one of them to death.
The murder, which happened on August 16 in Thai Binh Province, was the most tragic of a series of violent acts against doctors and nurses that have taken place of late at public hospitals across the country.

The increasing incidence of such attacks has trained the spotlight on the often strained relations between doctors and patients as well as between all medical staff and patients’ relatives.

Dung’s brother, 20-year-old Nguyen Van Hung, was brought to the emergency room in a critical condition, his limbs cold, lips purple and barely breathing.

After Hung’s family was informed of the death, three doctors and a nurse invited his mother and relatives into a room to explain the cause of death, the reflux syndrome – in which food flows back into the gullet and blocks the respiratory system.

Dung suddenly entered the room, pulled a knife and stabbed Dr. Ngo Duy Hoan in the stomach. When the relatives held Dung, another doctor and a nurse managed to run away. Sixty-year-old Dr. Pham Duc Giau, however, could not escape as Dung struggled out of the relatives’ arms and stabbed Giau in the chest.

Hoan survived, but Giau, who ran into another room after he was stabbed, collapsed and died soon after. Dung fled the scene but was arrested more than five hours later.
Police said Dung had threatened to kill the doctors if they could not save his brother shortly after Hung was rushed to the emergency room.

Doctors and nurses on duty in emergency rooms are at risk of facing the ire of patients and their relatives.
On July 5, the family of a 12-year-old patient, who’d been brought to the Binh Dinh General Hospital with a stomachache, kicked up a fuss in the emergency room after they were told the patient would not receive health insurance funding. They screamed, damaged the hospital’s computers and threatened to beat up the doctors.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital recently reported a case in which the family of a patient, accompanied by gangsters, threatened a doctor and demanded that she pay them VND200 million (US$9,600) in compensation because the patient’s condition did not improve after a month’s treatment. Security officers had to be deployed to protect the doctor that day.

On June 29, the family of Duong Thi Thu Huyen, 17, in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau, who blamed doctors at the Nam Can General Hospital for her death, put her body on a cart and took it around town in protest. They claimed that the doctors on duty had not fully examined the patient and thus failed to detect the brain injury that led to Huyen’s death.

They said Huyen was in a coma when she was brought to the hospital, but the doctors kept telling them she was okay.

The family also said that Dr. Nguyen Duy Tu and two nurses ignored a request to transfer her to a provincial hospital.

A large number of residents joined the protest and they gathered at the hospital as well as the district police station. They demolished the gates of the offices, damaged some property at the Nam Can Hospital and chased doctors.

The group later stormed into the houses of Dr. Tran Thien Thanh, director of the Nam Can Hospital, and Dr. Nguyen Duy Tu, who was on duty the day Huyen was admitted. The group smashed furniture in the two houses and also took away some of their belongings.

On March 2, the family of a 56-year-old woman who was rushed to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi in critical condition repeatedly insulted and yelled at doctors and nurses. The woman’s son kicked a female doctor in the stomach until she passed out.
Security officers stepped in but they were also beaten up by the woman’s sons, who later attacked other doctors.
They only stopped after emergency police showed up.

Cause and effect

As for the murder case in Thai Binh, police said they are still investigating the conduct of the doctors on duty to see if they were slow in responding after the patient was rushed to the emergency room.
Colonel Tran Xuan Tuyet, chief of the Thai Binh Province Police Department, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper that Dung had demanded that doctors save his brother immediately and kicked the post from which infusion cords were hanging.

Giau had asked him to get out of the emergency room, Tuyet said.
Investigations did not find any wrongdoing by the doctors in the treatment process, police said.
In trying to explain why more and more people are attacking doctors and medical staff at hospitals, some doctors admit they are to blame. Such actions are the result of repressed anger at the indifferent attitude of many doctors, they say.

“A number of doctors have an arrogant attitude towards the patients and their families. They don’t bother to talk or explain the causes of the patients’ deaths or complications,” said Dr. Tang Ha Nam Anh of Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital in HCMC.

“Some doctors have made mistakes in diagnosis and treatment, as well as in their conduct,” he said.
In Huyen’s case, the doctor who failed to detect the brain injury was dismissed from his post and transferred.

Dr. Vo Thi Bach Suong, a teacher at the HCMC Medical University, said the direct cause for the increased assaults is stress due to overwork.
“If we look further, the doctors’ heavy workload and stress as well as overloading at hospitals may be to blame for the situation,” she said.

Dr. Truong The Hiep of the Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC said the perpetrators of violence were just a group of extremists, and that doctors are still much respected by patients and their families.
“When people bring their loved ones to emergency rooms, they always want them to be treated first.
“Meanwhile, doctors decide to treat the most severe cases first, which may lead to several people getting angry.”

Dr. Anh said most of the patients complained about the time doctors took to attend to or examine a patient in the emergency rooms. They forget that doctors must examine the patients carefully before deciding on the proper course of treatment, he said.

Changing behavior

Sociologist Tran Thi Kim said hospitals should train their doctors in proper conduct and behavior to reduce misunderstanding between patients and doctors.

“Doctors should provide patients’ families with enough information and give them clear explanations in instances of death or other complications,” said Dr. Phan Van Dien of the Lam Dong General Hospital.
Several hospitals across the country, including the Dong Nai Hospital, Quang Ngai General Hospital and the Viet-Tiep Hospital, have employed more security officers in an effort to curb assaults on hospital staff.
“We have also hired a group of police officers to keep order,” said Dr. Bui Thanh Doanh, deputy director of the Viet-Tiep Hospital.

Several doctors have proposed that patients’ families be restricted from entering emergency rooms so that doctors can do their job without undue interference.
“We should build a lounge room for patients’ families while the patients are taken to a separate room,” said Dr. Anh.

The HCMC Medical University Hospital has piloted a program using volunteers during peak hours to reduce the workload of doctors.

“The student volunteers will give instructions about the hospitalization process to the patients, or lead them to the examination rooms,” said Dr. Nguyen Hoang Bac.

“They are also in charge of guiding handicapped patients and the elderly.”
“The volunteers are very helpful,” said Phuc, an officer of the HCMC Medical University Hospital.

Thanh Nien News

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Vietnam - Casinos still awaiting legal framework

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the Ministry of Finance to finish the compilation of the draft decree regulating the business of lottery electronic games for foreigners in September 2011. The decree has been awaited by foreign investors, who have joined the quiet race for building casinos to attract more visitors and earn more money.


“Lottery electronic games” and “casino” different concepts


To date, “lottery electronic games” have been understood as a kind of gambling, and “joining electronic games” for prizes, means “going to casino”. Therefore, the document released by the Prime Minister has caught the special attention from the public, because it points out that the lottery electronic games for foreigners do not include “casino”.

The Prime Minister has asked the compilation agency to write down in the draft decree that only the people, who have foreign passports, can join these kinds of lottery electronic games.

“Casino” has always been considered a “sensitive” word and sensitive issue in Vietnam. Gambling has been prohibited in Vietnam for many years, because this is believed to come contrary to the Vietnamese habits and customs. Experts warn that if Vietnamese people can go to casinos, this may lead to unimaginable consequences.

This explains why only a few casino projects have been licensed so far in Vietnam. When joining WTO, Vietnam accepts to open its doors to foreign investors in many sectors. However, it still does not want to open the market of gambling and betting services, but it has only committed to allow to provide lottery electronic games.

In the past, the Ministry of Finance once submitted to the Government a draft decree on lottery electronic games for foreigners in 2009. However, the document has not been approved so far.

A controversial issue

The idea of licensing casino projects was put forward several years ago, when the decentralization mechanism in investment licensing was applied. Local authorities, who always try to attract foreign investment, have proposed to license casino projects in order to help develop local economies.

In May 2008, ACDL Group got the investment license to build the Ho Tram Complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which includes a casino item. After that, Silver Shore Hoang Dat project in Da Nang was also licensed. And in 2010, the public heard about the licensing to Nam Hoi An resort project which includes a casino item.

In fact, Vietnam has just allowed to open only one casino in Phu Quoc island, and the project even needed the ratification of the Communist Party’s Politbureau.

Most recently, the Kien Giang province has reserved a land plot of 130 hectares in Phu Quoc Island for the opening of a resort with casino. The provincial authorities said they will find out the foreign investors who are financially capable enough, for the project.

To date, viewpoints remain different about whether to license casino projects in Vietnam. An official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said that localities want to open casinos, because the local economies can benefit soon from the casinos. 

The people, who “vote for casino”, said that since Vietnam still does not have casino for Vietnamese, people still have to go abroad to gamble, bringing foreign currencies with themselves, which has caused the so called “foreign currency bleeding”. It is estimated that about one billion dollars goes abroad every year. 

Meanwhile, those, who are against casino, said that casino should not be considered as the decisive factor in attracting tourism. They said that Vietnam should learn lessons from Russia, where too many casinos were set up, which has led to the boom of social evils. Though the Russian government has been applying drastic measures, it still cannot eliminate the consequences.

In an interview given to the local press, Lloyd Nathan, Managing Director of Asian Coast Development Limited, the investor of the Ho Tram project, revealed that MGM Grand Ho Tram project would be completed by early 2013.

When asked about the competitiveness of the casino in comparison with the casinos in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia, he said that the wonderful natural landscapes with 2.2 kilometers of the coastal line, this would be a good choice of destination for foreigners.


Source: TBKTVN

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Vietnam - Private helicopter service opens in VN



Vietnam Air Service Company (VASCO) under Vietnam Airlines Corporation will cooperate with the Azur Helicopter Company (AHC) of France and the Vinacopter Company to open Vietnam’s first private helicopter service.

The charter service was expected to be operational by the end of October, using the Eurocopter AS350 B2 of AHC, which can transport four passengers and two pilots.

Flights will depart from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City to popular sites in the southern cities and provinces.

According to Jussi Hoika, Commercial Director of Vinacopter, apart from transporting passengers, the helicopter was also suitable for filming and aerial photography./.



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Vietnam - Government urged to take actions to prevent rivers from degrading

Experts have rung the alarm bell over the “health” of the river system in Vietnam, saying that a lot of rivers are perceptibly degrading.



Vietnam has 2360 rivers and 26 river branches, more than 7000 kilometres of river and sea dykes, a lot of dams and water reservoirs.
River protection not a priority task in the eyes of local authorities
The poll conducted by PanNature on 1300 households in nine communes of three provinces and cities located on the valleys of Hong, Thai Binh, La, Vu Gia and Thu Bon rivers showed that only 30 percent of people’s reports to the management agencies about the river degradation have got replies. Meanwhile, over 30 percent of the community circle does not know what to do to protect rivers.

Nguyen Thi Hieu, an official from the Centre for Conservation and development of water resources (Warecode), said that when working with local authorities, she always gets troubles due to the complicated administrative procedures and the limited qualifications of local officials.

Hieu also said that the coordinating units usually do not care about the long term benefits of the projects, while they only focus on the short term goals of the activities. Meanwhile, the benefits from the water resource protection campaigns cannot be visible shortly.

“Water resources are changing and not in accordance to any natural laws, which may lead to a disaster,” Nguyen Ty Nien, former Director of the Department for Dyke Management and Flood and Storm prevention under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The unreasonable water exploitation has led to the alarming depletion of the natural resource. On the Red River’s valley, the water use level in dry season is up to 83.5 percent, far exceeding the safety threshold of 30 percent. On the Dong Nai River’s valley, while the safety line is set up at 4000 cubic metres per capita per annum, the actual level is just 2093 cubic metres per capita per annum, or short by 50 percent.

Rivers should not be managed in accordance with administrative boundaries
Nguy Thi Khanh, Head of the Management Board of the Vietnam River Network (VRN), which acted as the independent supervisor for the Trung Son hydropower plant project funded by the World Bank, said that the project was then considered a medium-scaled project, therefore, at first, detailed assessments were not required.

However, later VNR successfully proved that this was a big scaled project, which then forced the investors to work out on the measures to minimise the bad impacts on the environment.

“There should be effective channels, through which people and organisations can give feedback and provide information to policy makers, as soon as possible,” Khanh said.

When talking about the role of the community in the water natural resource management, Shana Udvardy, Director of the US Flood Management Policy at American Rivers, said that in the US, the government only approves hydropower plant projects after it can see detailed and convincing reports on the possible impacts on the environment. People have the right to protest against the building of dams if they believe the dams would affect their lives.

In 1960, the US people succeeded in preventing from building some big dams. There is no dam built on Delaware River, which has the length of 330 miles.

Also according to Mrs Udvardy, Vietnam should draw up policies based on the river valley boundaries instead of administrative boundaries. Besides, the government should collect licensing fees as one of the measure to raise funds for the programs on environment protection.

The expert thinks that Vietnam should reconsider the plan to develop hydropower plants based on the calculation of the power demand. Vietnam can develop alternative power generation sources instead of hydropower plants.



VietnamNet 
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Vietnam - Vietnam to test 2.0 HIV treatment therapy


Vietnam is among a few countries that will test the 2.0 therapy for HIV treatment, a health official has said.

Associate Prof. Dr. Bui Duc Duong, Deputy Head of the HIV/AIDS Control Department, announced the information at the 10 th International Congress on AIDS in Asia – the Pacific (ICAAP10), held in Busan city of the Republic of Korea on August 29.

The new therapy will be piloted in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho and the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien from October, 2011 to December, 2012.

As a joint initiative between the World Health Organisation and the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the project aims to simplify, reduce costs and improve efficiency of HIV treatment.

According to the delegates, almost Asia – Pacific countries, including Vietnam which is one of 11 regional countries that most heavily affected by HIV, are still far from targets of accessing HIV prevention, treatment as well as care and support to HIV patients.

The latest statistics released by UNAIDS showed that the number of newly-infected HIV cases in the Asia-Pacific region decreased by 20 percent from 2001 to 2009. However, it was estimated that 4.9 million people were living with HIV in the region in 2009.

Vietnam, one of 11 regional countries that are most heavily affected by HIV, has seen a 18-fold increase in the number of HIV patients receiving treatment in the past five years, but more than half of adult patients have yet to access to anti-viral treatment therapy.

Participants emphasised the need to work out programmes for high risk groups, strongly reform legal and policy frameworks related to HIV and mobilise resources to ensure sustainable budget for the fight against HIV/AIDS./.

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Vietnam - VN investors at disadvantage

Conflict between researchers, manufacturers and investors hampers the application of research results to real life, says Doctor Nguyen Chi Sang, director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, who spoke with Tin Tuc newspaper.
What has led to the conflicts of interest?
Investors mostly want to play it safe, utilising low cost investments, yet expecting the best machines and equipment from prestigious foreign suppliers. Many Vietnamese investors also prefer hiring foreign contractors to complete projects from start to finish (EPC - Engineering, Procurement and Construction).
A few big investors do however prefer Vietnamese researchers and manufacturers in order to place themselves in pro-active positions in terms of equipment design, technology transfer, operation and maintenance, believing that capital viability would be higher this way round than with an EPC modality.
None of the big Vietnamese investors have been able to do this as yet however, having neither the capacity nor the power to gather researchers and manufacturers to work together while lacking suitable amounts of funding.
Most Vietnamese researchers and manufacturers are unable to arrange sufficient project and testing capital, often dealing with potential investors who are unwilling to apply their R&D results.
In the long run, scientists and manufacturers joining hands in having high quality machines made in Viet Nam is a very good idea although investors do face some risks in using these at prices perhaps not much cheaper than foreign made products.
With experience gained, however, there is no doubt that local scientists and manufacturers will eventually be able to improve their products and lower costs.
Do you think these conflicts will be resolved and how so?
I'm confident that these conflicts can be resolved. Yet, one thing I would like to stress is that these types of conflicts happen in developing countries only, where research organis-ations and institutes work independently from project owner activities.
In developed countries, almost all major corporations have their own R&D departments servicing their business development needs.
In Viet Nam, the Government needs to define market demand related to each industry based on the nation's socio-economic development programme, assigning R&D missions to research institutes and importing new technologies to help ensure development strategies are achieved.
In this way, R&D results could be successfully applied to a chain of projects and improve technology for the production of high quality products at competitive prices.
In the case of Vietnamese hydro power plants, before 2004, companies had to import around 100 per cent of all hydraulic engineering machines and equipment.
By 2005, as the demand for hydro power plant development rose, the Government foresaw the possibility of manufacturing hydraulic engineering equipment domestically with the right technologies and foreign support.
As a result, the Ministry of Commerce (the present day Ministry of Industry and Trade) called on the Institute of Mechanical Engineering to create the necessary conditions for technology design and manufacturing. The Institute has worked closely with manufacturers in producing high quality hydraulic machines and equipment for more than 30 domestic hydro power plants, including those at northern Son La and Lai Chau procinces, at competitive prices.  
VNS

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Vietnam - Public hospitals as good as inns


When well-off patients are turning their backs against local hospitals, the Ministry of Health is seeking to “attract” them by diffusing Vietnam’s medical achievements to the people, but...

$1 billion runs to Singaporean hospital/year

Speaking at a meeting with Deputy PM Nguyen Thien Nhan on July 2, 2011, Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien (Deputy Minister of Health at that time), said that Vietnamese patients spend around $1 billion per annum for treatment at hospitals in Singapore alone.

The number of Vietnamese patients who go to Thailand, South Korea and other countries for treatment is also high, according to the Ministry of Health. Therefore, Vietnamese people spend much more than $1 billion for overseas healthcare services.

According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnamese patients are not fully aware of achievements and progresses of Vietnam’s healthcare sector, while the country’s health sector has strongly developed to reach the regional and world level, as the Health Minister says.

Whether Vietnamese patients are not aware of this fact? Why do they go overseas for treatment?
Officials of big hospitals in Hanoi said that though Vietnam’s medical techniques are not inferior to that of other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnamese people still flock to overseas hospitals because the quality of medical services and the attitude of health workers at overseas hospitals are so good in comparison with Vietnam’s.

A woman who took her mother to the Raffles Hospital in Singapore said: “Before going to Singapore, I and my mother were very worried because we are not good at English and we do not have any connection there. But our worries quickly disappeared when we arrived at the hospital.”

According to her, the Singaporean hospital was very clean, beautiful and patients were taken care very thoughtfully, as the true meaning of “taking care”.

She said she did not have to wait for doctors. Health workers were very friendly and very eager with their job.

“The biggest difference between Singaporean and Vietnamese health workers, is that they did not menace and constrain patients to do this or that. They only gave consultations and patients make their choices,” she added.

She said before going to Singapore, her mother was treated at a big hospital in Hanoi. The Vietnamese doctor told her that the disease could not be cured but her mother could prolong her life by using specialized medicines. These medicines however, were supplied by that doctor only. 

“We had to pay high fees but they (Singaporean doctors) did a good job and they were deserved for the payment. In Vietnam, even when you pay highly, you cannot expect to receive worthy services,” she said.

Thorny problem

Dr. Nguyen Tien Quyet, director of the Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi, said that only a small part of patients who use overseas treatment services are fond of foreign products, the remaining patients go to foreign hospitals because of the imbalance of the supply and demand of medical services in Vietnam. 

Ly Ngoc Kinh, former chief of the Medical Examination and Treatment Agency under the Health Ministry, said that many people in Vietnam have got rich and they do not satisfy with the local medical services.

“Our clinics face a contradiction: those that have good doctors cannot afford development and expansion and vice versa. This is a matter of policy and it cannot be solved overnight,” Kinh said.

According to him, the quality of health services in Vietnam is too poor. “Foreign hospitals are similar as five-star hotels. They provide five-star services and they collect five-star fees. But in Vietnam, the best hospitals are similar as inns. If our big hospitals like Bach Mai and Vietnam-Germany have land and money to build five-star hospitals, Vietnamese patients will not go abroad.”

While there is no land for building hospitals, many hotels, shopping malls and golf courses are mushrooming.

“The plan to upgrade district and provincial level hospitals has been canceled due to inflation,” Kinh disclosed.

Source: VNN

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Vietnam - HFMD disease: a dilemma for health authorities


The hand-foot-mouth disease has become something of a nightmare for parents, with the toll having risen to 38,000 affected cases and 87 fatalities in 60 provinces and cities across the country. Though health authorities are struggling to contain the disease, they are facing many obstacles in treating patients.

An elderly grandmother arriving in a city hospital from Binh Tan district in Ho Chi Minh City was in a dilemma as the hospital asked an  advance fee of VND40 million because doctors said her grandchild needed intravenous Gamma Globulin drug, a red blood cell extract for treatment of HFMD. One single jar of intravenous Gamma Globulin drug costs VND4.5 million and every hand-foot-mouth patient needs a minimum of 10 jars for treatment.

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy head of Children Hospital No.1 in HCMC, assures that the insurance company covers all hospital fees for children below six years of age. Accordingly, relatives of child patients are all asked to present insurance cards or birth certificates of the child within 24 hours.
Hung stressed that medical workers should provide treatment to children immediately on arrival to a hospital and go through the formalities of paper work and payments later.

Luu Thi Thanh Huyen, head of the Insurance Company in HCMC, said that there is no need to pay hospital fees in advance but to show only birth certificates or insurance cards upon arrival with a patient to a hospital.

Although the disease is spreading like wild fire in Vietnam, no province has yet announced an HFMD epidemic. Pham Viet Thanh, director of the Department of Health in HCMC, the city most affected by the disease, said despite the high numbers of affected patients this year, medical workers are in control of the disease and can identify the virus that causes the disease.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization authorities spoke with a Sai Gon Giai Phong journalist, explaining that a nation can declare a disease epidemic when there is a remarkable increase in the number of affected patients as compared to previous years.

Last three successive years of 2008, 2009, 2010, Vietnam reported over 10,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease. However in the first seven months of 2011, Vietnam has reported more than 38,000 cases and can therefore declare a disease epidemic.

Eight provinces and cities that have been most affected by HFMD include Hanoi, the northern province of Thanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, southern provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Tien Giang and Ben Tre.

At a meeting held to review the socio-economic conditions of the city in August and the first eight months of the year, an official from the city Department of Health said that there was a distinctive slowdown in the number of HFMD cases and health workers are in control of the disease.

All the same he frets the disease can re-occur in September when students start their new academic year, mainly in the unhygienic residential blocks where migrants dwell and in private pre-schools.
HCMC People’s Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan has ordered the health department and relevant agencies to keep a tight control on the disease and continue to step up preventive measures.



Source: SGGP
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Aug 30, 2011

Discovering Vietnam - 0012






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Vietnam - TOEFL 550 requirement frightens English teachers

Vietnam has been following the national strategy on teaching English at general schools. However, the lack of standardized teachers has been hindering the strategy implementation.


In an effort to standardize the English teaching in the new 2011-2012 academic year, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has stipulated that only the teachers who get 550 TOEFL marks will be eligible for teaching English at grammar schools. However, very few teachers can meet the requirement, which spells that Vietnam will seriously lack standardized teachers.

TOEFL 550 requirement causes headaches to teachers

506 English teachers in Soc Trang province will have to pass the important test to be held in late September, to be able to continue teaching English at their schools. The test has made the teachers worried stiff.

Nguyen Thu Nga, an English teacher of the Le Loi High School, said that for the last many years, English teachers mainly teach two basic skills of reading and writing. Meanwhile, TOEFL requires good skills in all reading, writing, listening and speaking, which teachers do not have if they do not practice the skills regularly.

“We live in rural areas, therefore, we do not have the opportunities to practice the skills,” Nga said. “If MOET still insists on the high requirements, many of us will not be able to continue teaching, or have to learn more to repeat the tests.”

Meanwhile, educators have predicted that no more than 10 percent of the total teachers would pass the tests, while the other 90 percent would have to attend training courses to improve their skills.

A recent survey conducted by MOET in Ben Tre province has found out that only one teacher out of the 700 current teachers can meet B2 standard, 60 teachers can meet B1 standard, while the others could not meet any requirements.

According to Nguyen Van Huan, Deputy Director of the Ben Tre provincial Education and Training Department, the majority of teachers at primary schools are the ones trained to teach at secondary schools. Therefore, their teaching method proves to be unsuitable to small children, and the English teaching has not brought the desired effects.

Huan went on to say that the education department has decided to change the teacher recruitment method. It is now seeking teachers by considering the education profiles, inviting for interviews and considering the actual ability of candidates.

It is also very difficult to find out qualified English teachers in Hanoi. In 2010, the Hanoi Education and Training Department examined the qualification of 148 teachers, who joined the pilot program on teaching English to third graders, and found out that only 28 teachers could meet TOEFL 550. This means that the majority of teachers could not meet the standards.

Upgrading teachers’ qualification? It’ll take time

The traditional English teaching method which has been applied for the last many years has produced a lot of generations of students, who can only read, but cannot listen or speak English. Therefore, the decision by MOET to standardize teachers and modernize the English teaching has been commented as a necessary thing.

Under the MOET’s plan on teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system in 2008-2010, in the immediate time, the teaching of English in accordance with new curriculums would be applied to third and higher graders. In 2010-2011, the teaching was provided to 20 percent of third graders, while the figure would be expanded to 70 percent by 2015-2016, and 100 percent by 2018-2019.

The English teachers’ qualification surveys have been carried out in many provinces and cities nationwide. All the secondary school teachers have to pass the tests in all the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

Under the current regulations, English teachers must have B2 level, equal to TOEFL 550, to be able to teach at general schools. 

However, general schools have voiced the concern that if the MOET’s standards are applied, they will lack English teachers, because very few teachers can meet the requirements. Meanwhile, in the 2011-2012 academic year, 30-40percent of third graders need to learn English.

Nguyen Hoai Chuong, Deputy Director of the HCM City Education and Training Department, also said that it will take time to upgrade the qualification of English teachers, and that the work cannot be done overnight.


Dan Viet

Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.