VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has released a list of four bans that primary schools must follow in an effort to ease the workload on students.

There will be no home exercises for students who have two study sessions a day and no competitions to select excellent primary school students. And there will be no selected team of excellent students to participate in exchange activities and academic activities, and no entrance exams for secondary schools (to select sixth graders).

Pham Thi Yen, headmaster of the Thang Cong B Primary School in Hanoi, said she agreed that it was necessary to ease the current heavy workload on students.

She said that the "no home exercise” principle has been applied at her school for many years.

"The students from the first to third grades don’t have to do home exercises. Fourth and fifth graders are requested to review the lessons and prepare well for the next days,” she said.

Yen also thinks there is no need to organize competitions for primary school students, saying that rivalry will put small children under pressure.

Pham Thuy Ha, headmaster of the Nguyen Van Troi Primary School in HCM City, said the ban was a reasonable decision to help ease homework load for primary school students.

However, Ha thinks that while the contests for excellent students should be removed, it is still necessary to organize knowledge exchange events where students can learn from each other.

A teacher of English was pleased to hear that there will be no English competition for primary school students.

"I am tired of the English competitions,” she said. "This is not because I have to spend too much time to prepare my students for the competitions, but because I always feel too much pressure.”

Parents have also agreed with MOET’s latest decision. Huong Giang, a parent in Hoan Kiem District in Hanoi, noted that exercises need to be fulfilled at school, not at home.

Giang said she was sad that her daughter did not have time to read the books she buys for her.

"My daughter can only read them on summer holiday, because she is too busy on ordinary days,” she explained.

Giang said she did not believe that students would become lazier once they have fewer obligations.

"There are numerous things my daughter can do after school hours if she does not have to do home exercises,” she said. "I want my daughter to grow up physically and mentally healthy. I am not trying to turn her into a talent.”

Le Huyen – Ngan Anh

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), in an effort to ease excessive amount of homework for students, has prohibited teachers to hold after-school classes. But many instructors have ignored the ban.

Classrooms at most of the primary and secondary schools in districts 1 and 3 in HCM City are lit up in the evening: students, after school hours, study during evening shifts.

One woman, who was standing in front of the Tran Quang Dieu Primary School in district 3, told reporters that her son is a student at a secondary school in district 1. However, he goes to a primary school to attend private tutoring class, because his teacher rents a classroom there.

Not far away from Tran Quang Dieu School, on a small alley off Le Van Sy street, many students attend a private tutoring lesson given by a famous teacher at his house.

Tra My, a student at Tran Van On Secondary School, said she was lucky enough to be admitted into the class. "There are 15 students in the class. The teacher is very famous. He is very choosy about students,” My said.

At the District 4 Children’s House, teachers and students can be seen teaching and learning in classrooms, despite the noisy sports and culture activities in the yard.

T, a teacher at a primary school in Go Vap District, admitted that she now runs an extra class with 15 students.

"Parents ask me to give extra lessons to help the students improve their learning aptitude,” she said. "I cannot understand why MOET does not allow private tutoring to students, if this is really good for them.”

Pham Thuy Ha, headmaster of Nguyen Van Troi Primary School, denied that students go to private tutoring classes because they were forced to do so.

"Many parents told me that they would rather send their children to classes in the evening than leave them at home, because children would waste time on watching TV,” Ha said.

"Teachers open private tutoring classes because they can see the high demand from parents. Students are not forced to attend the classes to help teachers earn extra money as people think,” Ha added.

Le Ngoc Diep, former head of the primary education division of the HCM City Education and Training, said that many parents want their children to attend private tutoring lessons.

He said that most of the students in extra classes are from the inner city, where most parents get home late in the afternoon and cannot pick their children up at 4.30 pm.

Few students in the suburbs attend after-school lessons, because they can study at home with their parents.

A teacher at a primary school in Hanoi complained that it is unfair to prohibit primary school teachers to give extra teaching hours, while high school teachers are not covered by the ban.

"While high school teachers can earn tens of millions of dong a month from extra teaching hours, we cannot,” she said. "As far as I know, the Labor Code does not prohibit laborers to work extra hours.”

Chi Mai