VietNamNet Bridge - Local students are so busy they don’t have time to have meals at home, and instead sometimes eat while on motorbikes when they are taken to school or extra classes by their parents.

A video clip posted on the internet and shared by thousands of parents and students shows the images of two students in school uniforms sitting behind their father on motorbike and having their meals.

The clip received many ‘likes’ because it shows the typical situation of millions of families in Vietnam.

Hoa, a parent in Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi, said she was not surprised when seeing the image. Hoa has loafs of bread or packs of sticky rice in her handbag for her son, a 9th grader.

“My son usually has extra classes after school hours and he has to go directly from school to the classes because he doesn’t have much time to change clothes and have meals,” she explained. 

Local students are so busy they don’t have time to have meals at home, and instead sometimes eat while on motorbikes when they are taken to school or extra classes by their parents.

Hoa has to leave the office at 5:30 pm every day to take her son from school to the classes. And he has only 20 minutes to eat the sticky rice or bread on the way.

“It is very crowded and dusty during rush hours. But my son needs to have a light meal before continuing his lessons,” she said.

Mai Trang, a parent in Ba Dinh district in Hanoi, also said her two children, 9th and 5th graders, have to take meals on the way from home to school.

“They don’t have time to have meals at home,” she explained. 

Another problem is that they cannot arrange time to fulfill all the tasks they are assigned. They go to school in the morning and to extra classes in the afternoon. 

Evening is the time for them to do home exercises and watch TV for 30 minutes. They go to bed at 11:30 pm and cannot get up before 7:00 the next morning, especially in winter. Meanwhile, the first lesson at school begins at 7:30 am.

The busiest students are 12th graders, who have to prepare intensively for high school finals.

Nguyen Ngoc Ha, a 12th grade in Hoan Kiem district in Hanoi, complained that she has not had any lunch or dinner together with parents and younger sister since the new academic year began. “I don’t have time for this. I have to eat my lunch at school or on the way to school,” she explained.

Trang, the parent from Ba Dinh district, denied that she forced the children to study too much.

“With the current teaching method and curricula at general school, if they don’t take extra classes, they won’t pass the exams for the university,” she said.

Le Van