Hanoi looks to boost educational cooperation with UK

Hanoi (VNA) – Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung has highly evaluated the UK’s education and training environment and hoped to expand cooperation with the European country in the field.

In his working session with a delegation from British education establishments led by Trade Envoy of the British Prime Minister Edward Vaizey in Hanoi on October 3, Chung said the city is planning to make foreign languages, mainly English language, and Informatics, compulsory subjects at all schools.

However, Hanoi is facing difficulties due to low English proficiency of many teachers, Chung said, expressing his hope that the city will be supported by the UK to build a standard foreign language training programme for teachers.

This will be a foundation for the city to successfully realise its foreign language universalisation programme, thus targeting further goals such as becoming a smart city or a startup and creative city in the context of increasing international integration, he said.

For his part, Vaizey showed his good impression for Hanoi’s development, saying that the UK has been interested in cooperation, research and investment in education and training with countries around the world, including Vietnam.

He hoped that the UK would have more opportunities to connect and set up education-training partnership with Hanoi in the near future.

As one of the countries with the oldest education in the world, the UK can share its experience with Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular, in operating international standard schools as an inevitable development trend of the globe, he said./.