The “schools must not fail” pressure

The Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in HCM City started a trial program of teaching natural science subjects in English three years ago. This is the first school in Vietnam is implementing the program. Students of the school still follow normal curricula stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training, but they have additional intensive lessons in English. The school has eight English intensive classes with 250 students.

As a preparatory step for the trial program, in 2022, the school decided to make English a compulsory exam subject in the school entrance exams. Most of the students, who passed the exams, scored eight and higher on the English test. Therefore, when it comes to teaching subjects in English Le Hong Phong has bigger advantage than other schools: all of its students are good at English.

Meanwhile, the gifted high schools under the Hanoi National University and Hanoi University for Education do not have such an advantage. “Our school has two classes, where students learn natural science subjects in English. However, in every class there are only a few students good at English,” said Luu Thi Lan Huong, a biology teacher of the gifted high school under the Hanoi National University.