Being part of the activities chain during the “Education Development Festival” taken place in HCMC, IIG Vietnam has organized the seminar: “ENHANCING ENGLISH & IT PROFICIENCY FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN HCM CITY UP TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS – A COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION”. The seminar was honored to have many leaders of the Department of Education and Training HCMC, Bureau of Education and Training, Specialists, School principals as well as teachers from different universities, K-12 schools and other training institutions in Hochiminh City. The seminar gives a comprehensive solution on the current action plan to improve English and information technology proficiency of the students and teachers in the area.

HCMC Thong Nhat Hall is filled full with teachers and guests

 “HCMC Education Development Festival” is an annual event held by the Department of Education and Training Hochiminh City with the purpose to create a scope of a urban education system with merit and value in both teaching and learning quality. “Education Development Festival” is also a bridge to connect different resources all together for a common good – to develop a modern and state-of-the-art education system. With the theme in “Globalization – Development”, the “HCMC Education Development Festival” 2014 was honored to have Ph.D. Tran Quang Quy – Vice Minister of Ministy of Education and Training– and many other leaders in the Education field. This is a symbolic event of the Education channel in Hochiminh City; it is the proof for the determination to connect all creative resources in order to create a stable foundation for the development of the Education system in Hochiminh City. Accompanied with the Department of Education and Training Hochiminh City (DOET) in several education activities in general and to  participate in the trade show for the “Education Development Festival” for specific, IIG Vietnam also organizes the seminar: “Enhancing English language and IT proficiency for teachers and students in HCMC up to international standards”.

Ph.D. Tran Quang Quy, Vice Minister of Education and Training (third one from the right hand); Mr. Do Quoc Anh, General Director of MOET Representative Department in HCMC  (first one from the right hand), Mr. Le Manh Ha, Vice President of HCMC People’s Committee (third one from left hand) are visisting IIG Vietnam’s booth

During the seminar, specialists from IIG Vietnam – the exclusive authorized representative of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Certiport in Vietnam – have provided the attendants with comprehensive solutions to support the DOET HCMC with the process of enhancing the proficiency of English language and IT for both teachers and students in Hochiminh City relative to the international benchmark, accompanied by the assessment standard system and solutions to help teachers and students achieve these benchmark.

Mr. Pham Ngoc Thanh, Vice Director of HCMC DOET is delivering opening speech

Solutions to Standardization of Foreign Languages for Students in Hochiminh City

On the basis of the family of assessment standards developed by ETS for K-12 students, the Department of Education and Training HCMC has issued the Document N^o 384/GDĐT-VP on the graduation requirements for students in HCMC, IIG Vietnam will collaborate with the DOET HCMC to organize many seminars and conferences to publicize information about the assessment standard tests as well as the teaching methods for students; organizing training workshop for the TOEFL Primary for primary school teachers and TOEFL Junior for the middle school teachers; supplying online training programs such as English Discoveries Online (EDO), TOEFL Official Learning and Preparation Course (OLPC) and CRITERTION for middle school teachers

hosting annual TOEFL Primary Challenge and TOEFL Junior Challenge to measure English ability of students.

Mr. Doan Hong Nam, IIG Vietnam President, is presenting at the seminar

Solutions to Standardization of Foreign Languages for Teachers in Hochiminh City

Also on the basis of the family of standard assessment developed by ETS, the Department of Education and Training HCMC has issued the Document N^o 2426/GDĐT-TC on the competency requirement of foreign language teachers. As a matter of fact, IIG Vietnam and the DOET HCMC will come together to organize several training program based on the intake level of teachers to help them achieve the outcome benchmark. Each training program will be divided to 2 parts: propel workshop for the TOEIC test using online/distant learning programs together with in-class training and advanced TOEIC training at the end of the course. This method is considered a really effective solution to improve several limitations that previous training programs have incurred. One major problem was time arrangement for the workshop as many of the teachers could not attend the workshop regularly leading to only 50 percent of the participants were able to be certified at the end of the course.

 Solutions to Standardization of Information Technology for Students and Teachers in Hochiminh City

On the aspect of training information technology field, IIG Vietnam has introduced the specialized evaluation system developed by Certiport for K-12 students, among which the primary school students will be tested with IC³ Spark; the secondary school students will be tested with IC³ on computing fundamentals, key applications and living online while high school students will be evaluated based on Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) and Adobe Certified Associate (ACA). In order to standardize the information technology capability of students, it incurs the need for more capable teachers in charge. IIG Vietnam commits to provide the teachers with sufficient teaching materials while providing the students with respective learning materials. All of these materials are developed by Certiport specialists and can be adjusted accordingly to satisfy the conditions of Vietnamese school system and guarantee the sufficiency of course content and skills relative to international standards. Besides, IIG Vietnam also supplies several learning software to help the students be familiar with the test format and be more confident engaging in global technology competition.

Representatives from Certiport, HCMC DOET and IIG Viet Nam at the seminar

 In reality, the seminar of “Enhancing English language and IT proficiency for teachers and students in HCMC up to international standards” has been carried out by the Department of Education and Training HCMC in collaboration with IIG Vietnam. In details, the most popular competitions were TOEFL Primary Challenge for primary school students, TOEFL Junior Challenge for secondary school students and the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship (MOSWC). These contests have been received gratefully by the students, parents and teachers in HCMC. Besides, IIG Vietnam also collaborated with the DOET HCMC to organize several training workshop in IT and English language for teachers relative to the international standards.

 The conference is a boost to help the DOET and schools in the area to recognize the target and the steps needed to reach that target in the near future. In order to reach the objective of HCM city that there must be more than 50 percent of students taking standardized English tests and 20 percent of students taking standardized technology tests by 2016. The solution will help the students have more opportunities to get evaluation periodically and homogenously relative to the international standards, on the other hand, it will provide the teachers with information about the standardized English and Information Technology assessment system as well as the real life based educational solutions.