Projects in Viet Nam

Education

Peace Corps Viet Nam’s English Education Project has as its goal that students attain the communication skills in English necessary to access academic and/or professional opportunities. Peace Corps Volunteers are assigned to high schools to support English language programming in and around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Volunteers co-plan and co-teach, alongside Vietnamese public high school teachers, English classes at their assigned secondary school. They also support formal and informal activities that are identified and prioritized by school leadership and counterpart teachers. These may include designing, adapting and/or piloting learning materials; co-facilitating extracurricular activities, events, and recreational activities that create opportunities for practicing and improving English language skills; model teaching and peer observation; and simply engaging in daily conversations with teaching colleagues and students, in English, over the course of their two-year assignment.

Peace Corps Viet Nam’s English Education project is a strategic fit to Viet Nam’s national priorities. Strong English language skills increase educational and professional opportunities for citizens of Viet Nam. Viet Nam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has prioritized foreign language instruction with the approval and implementation of the National Foreign Languages Project. The education system is shifting from 7-year to 10-year curricula in English language instruction; new competency standards have been set for teachers and college graduates. Families that have access and financial means invest in many hours of private tutoring. Yet, except for a small number, students and teachers of English all over Viet Nam struggle to meet basic standards.