2010 is the year that many children who were born in 2007, the Year of the Golden Pig, begin nursery school. The number of children born in 2007 is so high that all nursery schools in HCM City have been overloaded.

All nursery schools have reported that seats for three-year old children have run out

Son Ca 5 Nursery School in District 12 in HCM City planned to enroll 25 children for the 2010 school year. However, the number of children who want to enroll is much higher: 130.

As a result, parents have to jostle at night in order to obtain seats for their children. Finally, Son Ca 5 offered 47 more seats for children born in 2007, but this still only meets a small part of the demand.

State owned nursery schools in District 5 have also been overloaded with “golden pig” children. Vang Anh School, for example, only has 70 seats for three-year old children, but it has received 260 applications. The school has decided to prioritize children whose parents are state employees and children who live near the school. During this school year, the school has had up to four classes for three-year-old children with 160 students total.

Vu Thi Xuan Lien, Headmaster of Vang Anh Nursery School, admitted that her school cannot receive all the children who want to attend to her school. As a result, many parents have had to bring their children to household-run classes, many of which do not have qualified teachers or high teaching standards.

My Dung, Headmaster of Sao Mai School in District 4, said teachers of the school will be put under immense pressure, because the classes for “golden pig” children are all very crowded. While other classes have 40-45 children in each class, the classes for “golden pig” children have 55 children.

In Hanoi, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that the number of parents who spend sleepless nights in fronts of nursery schools in order to buy school application forms has never been so high.

All nursery schools have reported that seats for three-year old children have run out. Hoang Thi Lan, who has a son born in December 2007, complained: “I decided to bring the child to school last year, but I was told that the child was too small to go to school. Now, I can’t find a seat for him this year”.

“There are too few seats and too many students,” she said.

At Chu Van An Nursery School in Tay Ho District, more than 200 parents scrambled for 82 seats at the school.

Also in Tay Ho District, the B Nursery School plans to receive 180 children, but has received more than 400 applications.

Dinh Ngoc Lan, Deputy Headmaster of Dinh Cong Nursery School, said her school still has seats for children born in 2006, but the classes for the children born in 2007 have become overcrowded. Meanwhile, a representative from Mai Dich School said the school can only receive 40 more children because there are no more seats.

People believe that the children born in the year of the golden pig will be lucky in their lives. The destiny of the golden pig children is still unclear, but it is clear that their parents will have to struggle harder in order for their children to attend school.

According to the HCM City Statistics Office, 100,700 students were born in 2007, an increase of 5.1 percent over the previous year 2006 (95,800).

Source: Tuoi tre