Thanh Hoa: Highland areas lack English teachers.

The government's project, "Making English the second language in schools from 2025-2035, with a vision to 2045," is expected to create a breakthrough in improving students' foreign language proficiency. However, in the mountainous region of Thanh Hoa, the realization of this goal is still facing many difficulties and challenges.

Thanh Hoa province is currently experiencing a shortage of English teachers in its mountainous regions.

In many schools in the mountainous areas of Thanh Hoa province, the shortage of English teachers remains the biggest challenge in implementing the project. At Pu Nhi Primary School (Pu Nhi commune), the school currently has 14 classes but only 2 English teachers. With such a limited number of teachers, organizing enhanced or differentiated instruction based on students' abilities is almost impossible. Teachers have to teach many classes, leaving little time for in-depth instruction in each lesson.

At Linh Son Primary School (Linh Son commune), the entire school has 418 students but only 2 English teachers. One of these teachers has to teach at multiple schools in the area. Meanwhile, Linh Son Secondary School has also lacked English teachers for many years. At the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, the school will only be able to add one contract teacher to meet the minimum teaching requirements.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Xuan Hung, Principal of Linh Son Secondary School, said: "The biggest difficulty currently lies not only in the number of teachers but also in the uneven quality of foreign language teaching. The government's policy is correct and necessary, but schools in mountainous areas need a suitable roadmap. The school will create conditions for teachers to study and improve their foreign language skills, but guidance and appropriate implementation models from the education sector are also needed."

Besides the shortage of teachers, teaching and learning English in mountainous areas faces many obstacles due to the unique characteristics of the region, where students are primarily children of ethnic minorities. Many students encounter difficulties right from the language transition process, from their mother tongue to Vietnamese before learning English. The lack of a regular communication environment makes it difficult for listening and speaking skills to develop naturally.

Through further inquiries with teachers currently teaching in the mountainous areas of Thanh Hoa province, we learned that, in addition to difficulties in human resources, the infrastructure for teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in many schools in the mountainous regions is still inadequate and does not meet the requirements of innovative teaching methods.

At Pù Nhi Primary School, the main campus only has 2 out of 11 classrooms equipped with televisions; at the satellite campuses, only 2 out of 3 classrooms have teaching aids. The lack of audiovisual aids makes it difficult for teachers to organize visually engaging and lively lessons – a particularly important factor in foreign language learning at the primary school level. Ms. Vi Thị Lan, an English teacher at the school, said: “Highland students are often enthusiastic about simple English communication activities, especially when learning through images and sounds. However, without adequate support, the effectiveness of teaching will be significantly affected. With additional visual aids, audio, images, and appropriate methods, the students learn better. But currently, many classrooms still lack the minimum equipment needed for foreign language teaching.”

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son, Chairman of Linh Son commune and a former educator, also stated: “The implementation of the Government 's project 'Making English the second language in schools in the period 2025-2035, with a vision to 2045' in mountainous areas is not simply about increasing English lessons, but also requires a comprehensive and synchronized approach, from the teaching staff and teaching methods to the infrastructure. For English to truly become the second language in schools in mountainous areas, if we don't promptly implement and overcome the aforementioned limitations, it will be very difficult to catch up with the lowland areas.”

Nguyen Chung

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/thanh-hoa-vung-cao-thieu-giao-vien-tieng-anh.html