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Feature: Vietnam's primary schools see overloading study

Source: Xinhua | November 9, 2014, Sunday | Online Edition

The Vietnamese people boast a long-standing thirst for learning and often pay due attention to it with a hope that a high education would make their lives happier.

Children are victims of their parents' pressure on study in realizing their ambition of having a prosperous life in the society.

This causes many children, especially primary school graders, to suffer more from overloading study, both in school and at home.

Ly Thanh Yen, 42, a famous lawyer in Hanoi, has set up a tough study schedule for her daughter, who is currently at the fifth grade.

"I want my daughter to have a better life than mine, so she has to learn as much as possible right now. She needs to have good records in all subjects," she told Xinhua reporter.

The "good" records that he mentioned to are scores from eight to 10 (as implemented at general schools in Vietnam).

Once, as the girl got only six scores for her math test, the mother required her to make a "report" explaining the reason why and how she performed so bad, and urging her not to repeat the failure.

"My parents are very happy when I get good marks, and of course very angry with my low marks. Since I has been in pre-school class (the last year in the kindergarten before the kid join in the general education system), I am always told by them: study, study, " said the 11-year-old girl Yen Nhi.

Nhi said she has a simple dream, as to have one day per week off from study to play with friends or do something of favorite.

Nguyen Thu Thuy, a teacher at Hoai Duc Primary School in Hanoi, told Xinhua that both teachers and pupils have been suffered from overloading works.

"We teachers are assigned with the task of achieving the yearly quota of 'excellent pupils' so that our class can get the emulation title 'excellent class', with which the school can be rated 'excellent school', said the teacher, adding that it is really a circle of tough competition among teachers and pupils and both have to achieve the set goal.

With more than 10 years in the teaching career, Thuy said parts of the pressure on the pupils come from the parents, who set a too high target for their children in study, while they forget the fact that their children have the right for relax with entertainments.

Tran Huyen Anh, a 4th grader at the International Lomonosov Primary School in Hanoi, had lunch with a sandwich while waiting for her parents to come and pick her home. She told Xinhua that she had no idea about "summer vacation" since she has been in her first grade, because she has to learn extra subjects during the off-school holidays.

"My parents want me to be recruited to a class for 'talented' pupils in English when I enter high school, that's why I have to take extra English classes from right now," she said.

The nine-year-old girl said apart from official classes at school in the morning, she has to attend extra classes in the afternoon, also at school, and an evening class at the foreign language center.

Every day, she leaves home at 7 a.m., and returns home around 8 p.m. After dinner, she prepares for the next day's lessons and can go to bed very late at night.

At her school's entrance, Xinhua reporter saw lots of people waiting for their children, who seemed to be so tired.

Vu Thi Luu, a 37-year-old resident in Hanoi, told Xinhua that she were waiting to pick up her two sons, a first grader and a fourth grader.

"I am lucky enough as my sons study at the same school, and the same shift in the afternoon (normally a general school in Vietnam has two shifts a day, morning and afternoon), so I can pick them together," she said.

The woman said after dinner, her husband and she had to assist their sons doing their homework until late at night.

"Their homework is truly overloaded compared to their study just at the primary level, but we have no other choice for our sons as we did not want them to lag behind their classmates."

Education experts said the imbalance between study (both in class and at home) and outdoor exercises produces negative impacts on children's mental and physical health.  With a full curriculum set by the teachers and a tense schedule acquired by the parents, the children have to try their utmost to satisfy both sides, and this results in an increasing number of children having autism or mental disorders.

According to Dr. Lam Xuan Dien, Director of the HCM City Psychiatric Hospital, the number of children coming for mental check-up at his hospital has been on the rise, especially before or after the semesters' exams (in late March and September). On the average, about 100 children are checked up a day, three folds more than in other time of the year.

Statistics from the hospital revealed that in 2011, there were 25,000 time-patients under mental treatment aged between three to 15 years old. The number rose to 28,000 in 2013 and over 32,000 as the end of October this year. Among them, there were "excellent" pupils who received good awards from their schools.

Meanwhile, MA Thach Ngoc Yen, an expert in psychology who is working for a consultation office for children under the HCM City' s Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said each year her office receives over 1,000 cases relating to child mental disorders, of whom 45 percent get stress due to overload in study.

On Oct. 15, 2014, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), in a move to reduce the overload in study for the primary pupils, issued a decision upon which the score-rating model at the primary schools (from the first to fifth grades) will be abolished.

Instead of giving scores for all tests, there will remain only two evaluation tests done at the end of the first semester and the other for the whole year. The pupils' capability in study will be evaluated mainly from the teachers' evaluation.

In the 2012-2013 school year, Vietnam had over 14.7 million students at general education schools (from the first to 12th grade), of whom 7.2 million were primary school pupils, reported to the ministry.

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