LookAtVietnam – Vietnamese students finished their school year in late May. They returned for the new academic year in early June.

Vietnamese students finished their school year in late May. They returned for the new academic year in early June. Pedagogical experts are protesting that Vietnamese students nowadays must study too hard while they have no time for play. One week off a year, they maintain, is far too little.

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It is summertime, but many primary schools still open every day and parents are sending off their children each morning. The summer vacation for students in big cities is very short.

On June 14, summer day classes started at Nguyen Dinh Chieu Primary School in Binh Thanh District. Students go five days a week, from 7 am to 4 pm. Teachers and students act as if it were the regular school year.

A school representative explained that the parents have pushed to organize such classes.

Many parents complain that they do not have time to look after children during the summer and they want them at school in the daytime. The representative also confirmed that the school will open summer classes from July 1 to gather students three times a week.

Many specialized knowledge centres developed by secondary and high schools opened classes in early June. Students can learn physics, mathematics, chemistry, literature and English. Such centers under Nguyen Trung Truc High School in Go Vap District started on May 25. Those at Truong Chinh and Le Van Tam Secondary Schools opened on June 7, just one week after students finished the school year.

Parents feel happy when their children can attend school in the summer. Bich, whose son is a student at Ngo May Secondary School in Phu Nhuan District remarked: “After finishing the summer class, he will start a new school year. I feel secure that he goes to school these days.”

TP, a 12^th grader of Phu Nhuan High School, had only one week for her summer holiday. “I am now going to extra classes in June, while I must return to school on July 12,” she revealed, explaining that summer classes are compulsory.

In the Bach Khoa area of Hanoi, the owner of a rental property admitted that his clients are parents of students. They rent a room to organize summer classes for their children.

Summer classes have become makeshift day care centres. Parents bring their children because they want to have somewhere for their children in the daytime, when they must go to work.

Hoang Mai Phuong has a son in a summer mathematics class in Thai Thinh Secondary School. She feels secure when the boy goes to class because he can be looked after while she goes to the office every day. “Instead of keeping him at home where nobody cares for him, it is better to bring him to school,” she commented.

Many schools in Hanoi have announced that they will only begin summer classes in mid-July. Hanoi parents have not been able to wait and have taken their children to extra classes since early June, just as soon as the regular school year ended.

Source: Tuoi tre