Two first-grade students attend class at Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, Ho Chi Minh City, in March.

Parents say family life is being disrupted as Ho Chi Minh City primary schools cut down on full-day classes to accommodate the skyrocketing number of new students.

“We are really worried because the school has announced it won’t offer full-day classes this year,” said Ngo Thanh Y, whose child studies at Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School in District 1.

According to Y, he and his wife both work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, so no one is at home in the afternoon to take care of their child after the morning classes.

Not to mention that one of the parents would also have to spend their lunch break picking up the child from school every day, he said.

“Without full-day classes, our family life will be overturned,” the father said, adding that he was looking for afternoon classes for the child.

Surge and cut

Dinh Tien Hoang School is cutting eight full-day classes as a way to put up 390 newcomers during the next school year. The school said the number of first-time students was 15 percent higher than what it had expected.

The HCMC Department of Education and Training (DoET)’s latest statistics showed the number of first-graders usually increased by 5,000- 7,000 on average annually. But the surge was over 10,000 this year.

One reason for the dramatic increase in numbers is that 2003 was considered by many a very lucky year on the lunar calendar. So, many people had children that year, resulting in a baby boom, Hoang Thi Hong Hai, head of Tan Phu District’s education department told a local newspaper.

Districts like Go Vap, Tan Phu, Binh Tan, Thu Duc, and Binh Chanh have been hit with 15-25 percent more first-graders this year compared to last year, according to DoET.

This has forced many schools to make the same move as Dinh Tien Hoang.

Binh Tan District, for instance, is cutting around 95 of its full-day classes, as the number of first-graders registered this year is 2.5 times higher than the number of graduates.

Many schools like Le Cong Phep and Binh Tri 1 have plans to remove all their full-day classes.

In Tan Phu District, 17 full-day classes will be cut.

‘Don’t know what to do’

Thousands of parents have complained recently that they would have no way to care for their kids if they were not in school all day.

Nguyen Trong Nam from District 12 said his child was admitted to Tran Quang Co Primary School’s second branch, which does not offer full-day classes. So, Nam said, he applied for a transfer to the first branch.

“But after completing the procedures, we were informed that the school would not run full-day classes either.”

Nam said he and his wife only had an hour for lunch break and would find it nearly impossible to pick up their son then.

“We don’t know what to do now,” he said.

DoET Director Huynh Cong Minh said whether or not a school holds full-day classes is up to the school, not the department.

HCMC has long been running a campaign to offer full-day schooling to improve education quality, and the city’s master plan aims to have 100 percent of its primary-schoolers attending full-day classes by 2010.

Cut and expand

Many schools in District 8, meanwhile, are also expanding class sizes while ending full-day school, saying that cutting full-day classes isn’t enough.

“It’s easy to cut down or stop full-day classes at the first-grade,” said Vo Ngoc Thanh, deputy head of District 8’s education department.

But Thanh said that schools still lacked facilities even after cutting full-day programs, so the size of upper-level classes needed to be expanded in order to lower the number of classes and accommodate all the newcomers.

“So, the only way is to merge students of other grades to make room for the new students,” he said.

Schools in Thu Duc District have been forced to expand classes to up to around 45 students on average, despite the Ministry of Education and Training’s standard of no more than 35 children per class, said Nguyen Trong Cuong, head of the Thu Duc District education department.

Tan Phu District is following suit with class sizes likely to expand to around 50 students per class.

Some schools like Xuan Thoi Thuong in Hoc Mon District have had to transform parts of their dining rooms and playgrounds into makeshift classrooms.

VietNamNet/Saigon Tiep Thi/Thanh Nien