English Proficiency Survey: Teachers Worried They Will Have to Spend Money on Training

Native teacher in an after-school club session - Photo: NS

After the article "Survey of English proficiency of 73,000 teachers: Teachers are upset, don't understand what to do?", many readers and teachers sent information to Tuoi Tre newspaper to share their "suffering" and worries.

Bad timing

Claiming to be an "insider" of the English proficiency test, a reader with the nick hnm***@gmail.com lamented: "Only insiders can understand the suffering of these "out of this world" decisions. Surely when teachers fail, they have to spend money and time to attend training courses, and if they pass, they have to spend money to get a certificate at least. You can't escape the sun. I'm an insider, sometimes I'm also embarrassed by the regulations of the department, division, andeducation department."

For many teachers, English proficiency testing is necessary, but the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training hastily organizing it at this time when schools are organizing second semester exams for students is inappropriate.

Readers Hoang Ngoc Vinh said: "I think that surveying teachers' English proficiency is necessary if the goals are clear and properly organized. However, the current implementation is still limited in terms of technical errors, the timing is not suitable, and the survey questions are too difficult, not close to the reality of teaching work to see how teachers use English in teaching and self-study?

Surveying all teachers, including those who do not teach English, makes many people feel pressured and do not understand the ultimate goal?".

According to this reader, online exams can easily lead to cheating, losing honesty and fairness in the results. The Department should learn from experience in the purpose of surveying the right subjects, organizing exams in a more focused and public manner, and at the same time providing clear explanations so that teachers can feel secure and cooperate.

Reader Anh Vu also "questioned" why the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training "gives special attention" to teachers during the current stressful time of final exams, and "most English teachers have graduated from universities and colleges that meet the standards of the ministry and department, and now they are taking Cambridge standards?".

If you don't want to pass, don't force teachers to go to school.

Among hundreds of comments sent to Tuoi Tre Online , many are worried that after "failing to pass the test", teachers will have to take English training courses.

A reader with the nickname QH commented: "The way this exam was set was like the previous digital transformation survey. Computer science teachers also failed the test and had to take remedial courses. That time, the exam questions were given by Saigon University at an unimaginable level of difficulty and covered the entire IT industry. As a result, Saigon University organized a review session and charged each teacher 500,000 VND."

Sharing the same concern, a reader with the email address nguy****@gmail.com asked: "If I fail, will I have to retake the course and pay?"

Meanwhile, reader My Chi frankly said: "The essence of the problem in this incident is that if teachers do not do the test with satisfactory results, they will have to go to training courses for 6.2 million VND. And I guarantee that no teacher can do it by themselves because the questions are too difficult, they have to ask someone good at English at IELTS level 8 to do it. So is it true that requiring teachers to do the survey, with difficult questions, is to force teachers to go to training courses?"

From those opinions, My Chi and many others hope that the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City will have an independent and objective voice, survey teachers, but not force teachers to go to school.

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SON NAM

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khao-sat-nang-luc-tieng-anh-giao-vien-lo-khong-dat-phai-bo-tien-hoc-boi-duong-20250425153403748.htm