A secondary school student in the northern province of Ninh Binh connects to her teachers and classmates through an online learning platform

This is one of the measures taken by the Ministry of Education and Training amid the long school closure due to COVID-19.

Students at most universities; pupils at high, secondary and primary schools; and children at kindergarten nationwide have been off school for almost eight weeks.

Due to the continuing threat of COVID-19, the exact date schools can reopen has not yet been decided.

The second semester of the 2019-2020 school year started in January and normally ends in May.

Due to the long school closure, the school year will finish no later than July 15, according to a new plan by the education ministry.

According to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do, the ministry will review and streamline the school curriculum to shorten learning time when students are back at school.

The streamlining will ensure that students are equipped with knowledge and develop their capacity to be able to meet criteria. The streamlining plan will be approved by the ministry, not by single schools, he said.

The ministry has also planned to strengthen online teaching and lessons on TV.

Localities and educational facilities must follow the ministry’s instructions to offer online training based on the streamlined curriculum.

The ministry also ordered verifying content of lessons to broadcast them on channels of the Vietnam Television.

The Ministry of Education and Training will work with the Ministry of Information and Communications to offer free technological platforms for online teaching, Do said.

The school closure has interrupted learning of 12th graders who will sit for the national high school exam.

The ministry has set the exam date between August 8 and 11 instead of July.

To help 12th graders make the best preparations for the exam, the ministry will publish sample tests.

Do said the ministry would hold a meeting this week with local education departments to discuss these plans.

“The ministry always puts the safety and benefits of students, teachers and school staff as a top priority. Therefore, the school, students and parents should not be worried and actively co-ordinate with the education sector to fight against the pandemic and at the same time ensure learning and teaching quality in spite of the school closure,” he said.

HCM City instructs primary schools to teach online until pandemic subsides

A primary school student in HCM City learns English lessons online from a foreign languages centre.

The HCM City Department of Education and Training has instructed all primary schools to teach their students online on their website as schools continue to remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, second and third graders will learn maths and Vietnamese online while fourth and fifth graders will also learn science, history and geography in addition, according to the department.

The principals will decide the frequency of classes based on their students’ capacity and the facilities available.

Video recordings of what teachers teach and the exercises they give will be posted on the school website every week.

Schools without a website are required to send videos and exercises via email or phone messages to students’ parents.

Several middle schools such as Minh Đức School in District 1 are already teaching online after training its teachers in online lessons last month.

When the city People’s Committee decided that all students would remain at home until April 5, the school’s leaders decided that all teachers would teach online from March 16.

The teachers could stay at home for this or go to the school.

Trần Thúy An, principal of the school, told Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper that initially it was chaotic with students talking with each other, leading to too much noise.

But things have settled down since and are going smoothly, she said.

Many parents were unhappy because they did not want their children to use a computer when they were not near them since they had to go for work, she said.

But more than 50 per cent of the children were learning online, she added.

Teachers at other schools said the large number of students in each class (usually 45-50) precluded teaching online.

The department has also instructed foreign language centres that work with schools to teach English to set up online lessons.

On March 19 the department had instructed foreign language and computer centres to stop organising contests and called on district authorities to monitor them.

The Trade Union of the education sector will provide an allowance of VNĐ1.2 million (US$51) to teachers who are pregnant, have children less than a year old, sick, or have decreased incomes due to the pandemic.

It is also organising a programme to sell food and essential items at low prices.

It is collaborating with financial organisations to provide loans at low interest rates to teachers and private schools to enable them to pay salaries to their teachers./. VNA/VNS/VNN

Foreign teachers at language schools lose jobs amid COVID-19 crisis

Because of the epidemic, many international examinations have been postponed, and all foreign language centers have closed.

Shorter summer holiday for schools, more official national holidays proposed

Some educators and experts have suggested shortening the summer holiday and designing more holidays within a year.