Ho Chi Minh City's education department has released a new set of teaching guidelines for English-language classes at primary schools banning the use of audio-visual tools, among other rules.
Tuoi Tre reports that the government body has stipulated several new regulations for the 2017-2018 academic year at local primary schools. One such rule bans foreign teachers from assigning western names to their students, a common practice in classrooms.
According to the new guidelines: "Native [English] teachers should call students by their Vietnamese names and under no circumstance address them by English names."
The regulations also ban the use of tools such as cassette players, CD players and smart boards to play music or videos for students during class.
"Teachers are expected to create language practice through personal social interactions instead," the news source shares.
These rules do not impact the city's hugely popular ESL centers; instead they cover the less-common public school courses taught by native English speakers. Some public schools arrange these classes, and they are paid for by the parents of the students who attend them.
The education department has also ruled that schools wishing to begin such courses must get approval from both the students and their parents before initiating the classes.
[Photo via Thoi Moi]
