Since extra classes for small children have become so popular, education experts have come forward to warn that this will do more harm than good, and by doing so, parents will “steal” children’s time.

While nearly all parents think that their children need to learn the first grade curriculum in advance, other “brave” parents strongly believe that it is unnecessary.

Four years ago, Vu’s daughter in Hanoi entered first grade at Nam Thanh Cong Primary School. Vu insisted that her daughter did not need to learn read and write before going to school. As a result, the teacher complained about her daughter, saying that the little girl lagged behind her friends. The teacher even commented frankly that the girl should be tutored, or she would not catch up.

At that time, while her daughter’s friends could read a newspaper fluently, her daughter still found it difficult to spell words.

Despite the warnings, Vu did not bring her daughter to extra classes. “Every year, I spent half an hour to study with her. Finally, she became one of the best students of the class when the school year finished,” she observed.

Parents who share this view, all admit they are under hard pressure from teachers in the first semesters of the first grades.

“My daughter was always on the list of students who the teacher said needed to make more effort. Though I felt sad, I never forced her to study hard, I just tried to tell her to try more,” remarked Hien in Hanoi, whose daughter is entering the third grade this year.

According to the parents, parents should not feel like failures if their kids do not earn high scores in their first days at school.

To surprise of many, a lot of teachers also agree that it is not necessary to study in advance, saying this brings more harm than good. They assert that, if students can read and write before going to school, teachers will not have to work hard, but this will bring harm over the long term.

“When students think that they know everything already, they are not interested in learning any more,” argued Do Anh Van, a teacher from Xuan Dinh Primary School in Hanoi.

Nguyen Thanh Binh from Nguyen Sieu Primary School added that, if parents decide that their children do not need to study early, they need to prepare their children psychologically. “If the children feel they are inferior to classmates, they will feel sad,” she maintained.

Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, Head of the Pre-school Education Division under the Hanoi Education and Training Department violently criticizes learning in advance.

She claimed that children who finish kindergarten and prepare to go to first grade need to a transitional period when they gradually move from playing to learning. During this time, she advocated, kids should not be forced to work hard.

A recent survey conducted by Nursery School B at No 5 Phan Chu Trinh street in Hanoi revealed interesting results: many children who did not learn in advance, had lower grades than their friends in the first two months at school, but they then surpassed them in the later period.

Source: Tien phong