On October 9, 2021, IIG Vietnam – the national representative of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Certiport in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar together with Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training organized an online conference on plans to standardize the English language and computer skill teaching and learning at high schools in Thanh Hoa province in the school year 2021-2022.

The conference was attended by Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Van Thuc, Director of Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, Ms. Bui Thi Thanh, Deputy Director of Department of Education and Training, leaders from divisions of the Department of Education and Training, and leaders from District/Town/City Bureaus of Education and Training; school boards of elementary, middle and high schools in Thanh Hoa province. Mr. Doan Hong Nam, the President of IIG Vietnam, Ms. Doan Nguyen Van Khanh, Deputy General Director, and managers of IIG Vietnam’s departments also attended the conference.

Under Thanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee’s guideline, the Department of Education and Training in coordination with IIG Vietnam develops programs to standardize the teaching and learning of English language and computer skills in the province. The programs are piloted at some elementary, middle, and high schools in the academic year of 2021-2022.

In order to improve students’ ability to use English and increase opportunities for them to practice English, Thanh Hoa deploys English Discoveries (ED), an online English program, which integrates with the country’s mainstream English textbooks, and pilots the program at some middle and high schools in the province.

For computer skills, elementary, middle, and high school students will respectively use the international informatics programs namely IC3 Spark, IC3 and MOS. At the end of each school year, students are not only equipped with sufficient computer skills according to the current regulations but they also get international certificates of computer skills.

According to Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Van Thuc, Director of Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, given the local students’ limited competence in English language and informatics, it is essential to implement the program of standardizing the teaching and learning of English language and computer skills at high school. Therefore, schools need to pay attention to the issue of improving students’ English and computer skills. At the same time, they also need to improve the quality of local English teachers and coordinate with IIG Vietnam to train those who have yet met the quality standard.

The Director of Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training also suggested that IIG Vietnam carefully adapts the programs to the particular local conditions in Thanh Hoa for the best outcome. 

On behalf of IIG Vietnam, Mr. Doan Hong Nam promised to work closely with the Department of Education and Training, the Bureaus of Education and Training, schools, and other concerning offices to implement standardized English language and informatics programs for high school students in Thanh Hoa province in order to achieve the best outcomes. During the implementation process, IIG Vietnam will also take into account feedback from educational institutions in Thanh Hoa in order to tackle any possible difficulties caused by the local particularities.

Some pictures taken at the online conference: