LookAtVietnam – “Tenth grader Luong Ngoc Anh has been chosen for the school team to take part in the national chemistry contest.”

Students at Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School in HCM City. Keeping parents informed of their children’s activities at school via mobile phone text messages or emails is becoming a popular communication method.

Sending e-mails or mobile phone messages to inform parents on study performance and extra-curricular activities is becoming common in schools.

The trend has resulted in the Ministry of Education and Training’s decree on improving application of information technology in schools.

The communication methods also permit parents to get in touch with teachers.

HCM City Education and Training Department’s Primary Education Unit head Le Ngoc Diep said parents’ demand for updated information on their children had increased because they were busy to meet teachers regularly.

Diep said schools still communicated in the traditional way by filling in a book on a child’s performance each month. However, most parents chose the online or message system.

Chu Van An High School teacher Le Kim Thanh said weekly information about students’ marks and activities by e-mails and messages also ensured the right information got through.

Previously the information was sent home in written form and was open to tampering with by students who wanted to avoid parents being informed of bad marks or comments, Thanh said.

They could forge their parent’s signatures on acknowledgement documents or change the marks, he said.

Direct reporting also allowed problems to be detected quickly. Tenth grader Anh might have been chosen for the chemistry competition this year, but last year was not so good.

“Anh got into some bad company at school but we had no idea about it until a month had passed when the information report showed my son’s results had dropped,” Lan said. “Then, I had a talk with him and found out about the situation.

“Now, I get a message from his teacher once or twice a week, for which I have to pay VND10,000 per month. I get to keep up with his performance and share the happy or unhappy things with him.”

Anh said he was really surprised one day to come home to find a small party prepared for him by his family to congratulate him on his success.

Nguyen Thi Nhung, mother of a grade 9 student in HCM City’s Tran Van On secondary school, said e-mails allowed parents to be better informed on their children’s progress.

It gave parents the opportunity to have an input into the education if it was proving inappropriate, Nhung said.

“Also, we can give the children advice or encouragement to help them escape from difficult periods of time,” she said.

Tran Hung Dao School principal Bui Duy Phuong said that when parents got bad news about their child’s progress, they immediately went to the school to co-operate in improving the situation.

However, the system does not always runs smoothly. Nguyen Thu Hoai, in Grade 10 at Marie Curie High School, said that after a tiring day at school his mother started shouting at him when he arrived home because of his bad marks in mathematics.

“She did not care that sometimes I find the tests too difficult; that I would try my best next time; that it was understandable.”

Child Psychology Research Centre psychologist Nguyen Thuy Hanh said this was the problem. Care needed to be taken to make sure quick communication methods did not negatively impact on children. Some children would not appreciate having their every action reported home to parents.

Hanh said the reporting process should take into consideration the interests of the child and the benefits or otherwise.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News