On January 17, 2021, the TOEFL competition for Primary, Secondary, and High school students school year 2020-2021 in Haiphong has been organized at 2 schools: Chu Van An Secondary school and Vinh Bao Province Primary school. IIG Vietnam – the official and only representative of Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar through an authorized representative Success International Education Co., Ltd and Haiphong Department of Education and Training, has organized the competition annually for many years. For the 2020-2021 school year, the TOEFL competition in Haiphong continues to attract students from 88 primary schools, 39 secondary schools, and 14 high schools to participate. This year has a surge in the number of suburban students participate, proving the powerful wave of learning English in the city.

The TOEFL competition in Haiphong uses the TOEFL test provided from the Educational Testing Service, using TOELF Primary, TOEFL Junior, TOEFL ITP as the criteria to judge the English prowess of the participants.

Students from primary schools will take TOEFL Primary Step 2 (for students from grade 2 – 5). Students from secondary schools will take TOEFL Junior (for students from grade 6 – 9). All the students participating in the competition will receive TOEFL Primary or TOEFL Junior international score sheets. These TOEFL international score sheets not only provide the students’ information about their level to create an efficient learning path but also open chances to join quality schools national or international. Furthermore, exceptional primary and secondary school students will have chances to compete in the Final round of the TOEFL Challenge.

High school students will take the TOEFL ITP test. This is a chance for students to skip taking English test in the National Entrance Test and qualify for standards to get into quality universities. Since 2014, the Ministry of Education and Training has regulated that students who have a score of 450 or above in TOEFL ITP are allowed to skip the English test in the National Entrance Test and receive a 10 in English. Besides, for many years, many universities such as National Economics University, VNU University of Economics and Business… have selected TOEFL ITP as one of the requirements for direct application.

The TOEFL competition not only creates a meaningful playfield for students but also provides a measurement to test their English skills using the TOEFL test, through that:

1. Help students find improvements in their English skills every year.
2. For high school students, allow them to skip the English test in the National Entrance Test and qualify for standards to get into quality universities.
3. Help student’s families find the efficiency in investing in allowing their children to learn English through the past year, verifying whether their entrusted English center is sufficient or not.
4. Schools and teachers can verify the quality of teaching and learning in order to have a new direction to build, change the method of education.

Haiphong Department of Education and Training judges greatly the positive meaning of the TOEFL competition and encourage students to evaluate their English skills through international tests like TOEFL Primary, TOEFL Junior, and TOEFL ITP. The competition is an exciting English playfield, has a positive effect on the wave of learning, practicing this important skill when still studying at schools.