Though the
Ministry of Education and Training has decided to eliminate classes for
selected students at grammar schools, such classes have existed for many years.

The race for classes for selected
students

Classes for
selected students are understood as the classes designed for the best students
and selected by schools. The students studying in these classes are considered
as having better learning capability than the students in other normal classes.

A Communist
Party’s resolution clearly stipulates that grammar schools must not organize
classes for selected students and that there must not be primary and secondary
schools for the gifted, except the arts and sports majoring schools.

Educators
have also pointed out that such special classes should not exist in grammar
school. Vo Ngoc Thu, Head of the district 5’s education sub-department in HCM City,
said selected classes will create unfairness to both students and teachers.
Students with weak learning capabilities will feel inferiority, while teachers
will have to work hard. She also said that in normal classes, teachers will
still be able to discover talents of every student, because a student may be
bad at mathematics, but he could be good at Vietnamese language.

Ta Tan,
Head of the Tan Phu District’s education sub-department, also thinks that
putting excellent students and weak students into different classes proves to
be the antiscientific education method, because in this case, students will not
have the driving force to learn.

However,
according to Tien phong, selected classes have still existed in nearly all
schools.

A parent
who has a son going to Hoang Liet Primary School
in the Hoang Mai District in Hanoi,
said she has to move heaven and earth to obtain a seat for the son at the
selected class. She declined to reveal how much she had to pay to get the seat,
but said that it was really costly.

Though
parents have to spend money and feel tired of the race for the selected
classes, they still struggle to send children to such classes. They simply
think that their children will have the opportunities to learn with good
teachers and friends.

Selected class students burdened
with heavy schedules

A father of
a girl who is going to Dich Vong A Primary School in Hanoi complained that his daughter has to
spend all the time studying and she nearly has no free time. The girl goes to
school in the morning, and then goes to the private tutoring class in the
afternoon. After that, she has to do home exercises in the evening and only can
go to bed at 11 pm.

A woman
also admitted that both the daughter and the mother feel tired with the
studying she does. The girl is going to 2^nd grade, but she has to
deal with a heavy volume of lessons every day. “She goes to school six days a
week, but the teacher still asks to have private lessons with her on Sunday,”
the woman complained.

The Trung Vuong Secondary School in Hoan Kiem district in Hanoi has at least 4-5
selected classes for every grade. A parent said that students of mathematics
majoring classes have to work most hard. They have to do the mathematics
questions like the questions given to gifted students.

After
successfully enrolling in schools, students will have to sit through three
exams (mathematics, literature and English) to show their capability. The
results of the exams will serve as the basis for teachers to put them into
suitable classes. In order to be able to get seats at the selected classes,
students have to prepare for the exams for several years before the exam days.

Every year,
schools organize similar examinations to restructure classes. Only the students,
who pass the exams, can stay at selected classes, while those, who cannot, will
have to move to the classes for normal students. Therefore, students and
parents always have to work and learn harder and harder.

Le Tien
Thanh, Director of the Primary Education Department under the Ministry of
Education and Training, has affirmed that schools violate the current
regulations when organizing selected classes and organizing exams and tests to
classify students

However, he
admitted that it is impossible to punish all the violators. He stressed that it
is the responsibility of local authorities.

Source: Tien phong