LookAtVietnam – With power point slides running to music, eighth-grader My Linh started with confidence in her presentation on the topic of “love at school”.

Students at Nguyen Van To School in HCM City are divided into groups for discussions.

The class’s atmosphere became enlivened with laughter as the two sides - pro and con - debated about the question.

It was an after-school project of living skills for Class 8/2 of Nguyen Van To Junior High School in HCM City’s District 10.

Class 8/2 is among eight classes of the school selected to learn living skills, instructed by eight students from HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities’ Education Faculty.

“We divided into four groups that teach three Class 8s and five Class 6s,” instructor Dinh Thi Thanh Ngoc said.

“We chose them because eighth-grade students are at puberty age while those at the sixth grade have just entered junior high school, so they are in need of living skills,” Ngoc said.

Ngoc and her colleges were assigned to teach at Nguyen Van To School as interns from November last year to March. Seeing the lack of life skills among the students, they suggested the school let the instructors bring living skills to the classroom.

“We were permitted to use the extracurricular classes on Friday and Saturday - which used to be conducted by head teachers,” Ngoc said.

During the classes, the students were taught to combine presentation and teamwork in different topics such as life, love, the knowledge of the Communist Party and the beauty of the homeland.

Head of Ngoc’s group Huynh Thanh Loc said it was necessary to help students experience themselves when presenting and discussing in groups.

“By doing that, students will have their own lessons about what they need to think about, what they need to talk about,” he said.

Loc recalled it was difficult at the beginning because students were shy to work and co-operate with others.

“They worked with each other unwillingly and there were often disputes,” he said. “Gradually, after lots of discussions and teamwork, they got along better.”

To make the class run smoothly, Loc and his group had to prepare the curriculum carefully and they ran a trial group first to find the best way of teaching.

“After classes, we also review and readjust to match our ideas with reality,” he said.

Loc said another difficulty was that they had to use their own money for teaching aids, including paper, pens and pictures.

“Luckily, the school supported us with facilities and most of all, they agreed for us to implement the programme.”

School deputy principal Nguyen Thanh Phat said such life skills classes were necessary for his students.

“According to the regulation of the Ministry of Education and Training, all schools have to operate classes of extracurricular activities for students,” he said.

“However, most schools lack professional teachers to take charge in such classes, so head teachers are assigned to do the job.

“Head teachers normally have a background in their profession, they don’t have skills in psychology, so such classes used to be boring.”

Phat said the group of Education Faculty students had brought new and appropriate methods to such classes.

“I have proposed the faculty establish a training course in extracurricular classes for teachers,” he said.

“Once completed, the teachers will get certificates and be eligible to conduct such classes in living skills.”

Education Faculty head Nguyen Anh Hong agreed.

“Extracurricular classes, as requested by the Education Ministry, have been taught in boring ways and most students are not interested in such classes,” she said.

“Besides, there hasn’t been a training course for teachers of these classes.”

Teachers in charge of such classes need to be trained to teach living skills.

“We are going to open such courses for teachers,” she said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News