A central Vietnam province plans to spend over VND176 billion (US$8.4 million) on a project to improve the learning and teaching of English from now until 2020.

The People’s Committee of Binh Dinh Province has said that most of the funding will come from the state coffers and the remaining will be raised from other sources.

This year the province will allocate VND24 billion ($1.1 million) for assessing the English command of 510 teachers, improving the language proficiency of 270 instructors, enrolling 30 teachers for improvement courses to be organized by the central government, sending 5 teachers to English-speaking countries for further training, and supplying learning and teaching equipment to schools at all levels.

Previously Long An, a southern province, had earmarked VND437 billion ($20.8 million) for helping its K-12 students to be able to speak English after graduating from high school.

The plans are in line with a national English teaching and learning project based on benchmarks from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Under this project Vietnam wants most of its students to be able to use a foreign language, especially English, confidently in their study, daily communication, and work by 2020.

Currently the Ministry of Education and Training demands that high school teachers reach the framework’s second-highest skill level (C1), while elementary school teachers must achieve the fourth-highest level (B1) and middle school educators the third-highest (B2).

CEFR is a guideline put together by the Council of Europe between 1989 and 1996 to provide a method of learning, teaching and assessing which applies to all languages on the continent. It is now used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages in other countries as well.