It is quite normal to have more children entering school every year. However, the increase in the number of 1st year primary school students this year is believed to be the highest ever.

Overall, the HCM City Education and Training Department expects the number of first year students to increase by 15 to 25 percent.

In Tan Phu District of HCM City, a deputy director at the district’s education office said that 6900 students have registered for the 1st year, 1000 more than 2008. By comparison, only 4100 students are registered for 5th year, the final year of elementary school.

The same situation prevails in many other districts in HCM City. At Thu Duc District, Education Office head Nguyen Trong Cuong said a record high number of students, 5800, will enter the 1st year class in September. Only 3600 students are expected in the 5th year classes.

In Binh Tan district, 6,500 children will enter school, 1500 more than last year. Phu Nhuan district expects to receive 2,500 children in the 1st class this year, 600 students more than last year.

In fact, the city’s education department still has not yet established a final count of the students who will enter the first class this year. At all the district education offices, there is worry that there may be several hundred registrations just before the first day of school. In 2008 in Go Vap district, for example, the number of first year students ballooned by 200 over initial registrations.

Standard schools may have to lower their standards

Though the number of first year students will increase sharply, there will not be an equivalent increase in capacity. As a result, a lot of schools will have to lower their standards in order to receive all students

In Thu Duc district, for example, even in ‘national standard’ schools, class sizes will have to increase to have enough classrooms for 5,800 students. Education Office Director Cuong said that a lot of schools will have to accept crowded classes.

Tan Phu district plans to raise the number of students in every class to 45 or even 50.

In Phu Nhuan district, the local authorities have decided that students who now go to class in both the morning and afternoon will only have one shift of studying each day. Meanwhile, intensive English classes at Nguyen Dinh Chinh and Trung Nhat schools will be discontinued to make room for ordinary classes.

According to the HCM City Education and Training Department, the construction of new schools in the city has been going very slowly. This has hindered its efforts to improve the teaching quality.

VietNamNet/VnMedia