LookAtVietnam – It’s no surprise these days that 5-year old children in kindergarten can already read and write. It’s no surprise these days that 5-year old children in kindergarten can already read and write. They begin studying lessons for the first graders in advance, even before they go to school.

Loan, the daughter of Thao in Hanoi, is entering first grade this school year. At first, Thang, Thao’s husband and an information technology engineer, did not think that they should send Loan to extra classes. He believed that children should be taught at their right ages. Thao finally persuaded him to bring the little girl to study early, saying that every child can read and write at her age.

As a result, Loan is in P.’s class at Thinh Liet Primary School. Every week, Loan has three hours of P., for which Loan’s mother pays 600,000 dong.

According to Thao, the class is full, with 20 children. She is happy that her daughter studies with a good teacher, who will also be her teacher at Thinh Liet School. By learning in advance, her daughter will not lag behind her friends.

Education forums these days are the site of many debates about teaching children early. Many parents who once studied abroad and have been influenced by education in the US or Europe strongly protested teaching in advance. They called this an anti-scientific teaching method. However, they find that they still must teach their children early or bring them to extra classes.

“As all parents bring their children to extra classes, I cannot stay outside the movement,” a parent wrote on an education forum.

“When my child was small, my wife and I agreed that we would not take him to any extra classes before first grade, and let him play freely. However, we have completely changed our minds now,” admitted Le Quan, a Ph.D. in Economics, who once studied in France and is now Dean of a big university faculty in Hanoi.

Phan Thi My Xuan, a mother in HCM City, commented: “The Ministry of Education and Training advises parents not to teach children to read and write before they go to the first grade. However, we should not follow the guide.” When asked why, she responded, “Because if your children do not know to read and write in advance, they will lag behind other friends in classes.”

Xuan added that her son was a “phenomenon” in his class, because he could not read and write like other classmates. As a result, Xuan had to teach the child every day from 6 pm to 11 pm.

According to many parents, they lack confidence in the teaching quality at primary schools, which is the main reason that forces them to bring their children to extra classes.

“At many good schools, there are up to 60 students in every class, double the level stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training. With such a high number of students, teachers will not have enough time to take care for every student,” a parent explained. “Therefore, we well understand that we need to ‘save’ our children before we rely on the school’s aid.”

Van, a parent with a daughter at Hoang Liet Primary School in Hanoi, reported that she is a “modern mother”, therefore, she does not force her daughter to learn too much, and the daughter, after spending both the morning and afternoon at school, does not have to do homework. However, one day, she realized that the daughter does not have the right way of sitting or holding a pen.

“If I had brought the child to an extra class, my daughter would have been able to avoid such mistakes,” she lamented.

Source: Tien phong