“Why do I have to do better in school than others? It is now summer holiday, but I still have to go to class. I don’t have childhood. Do you know, dads and moms?” said K. V, 12, a student from district 8 said at ‘Listen to children’s voice’, a forum held by HCMC authorities in early June.

Other young students said they felt pressure to be good learners. They quickly overcame their timidity and became more self-confident when raising questions at the forum.

This was the third consecutive year the HCMC Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs organized this forum.

“We want summer holiday”

N. H from Le Thi Rieng Primary School also complained: “Parents want me to study well, but my capability is limited. Can you help me?”

Meanwhile, T. N, a sixth grader at Bach Dang Secondary School, reported to the city’s leaders that many students in his class have to go to extra class. If they don’t, they will be victimized by teachers.

“You (the leaders of the city), please, help us, so that we really have a summer holiday,” another student asked.

Nguyen Lu Gia from Save the Children commented that in general, parents and teachers want their children and students to study well and they tend to put high expectations on students.

However, he warned that by forcing children to learn to hard and requesting students to do too many home exercises, thus leaving children with no free time to play, parents and students are ‘abusing children’. The problem is that adults don’t understand that this is a behavior of child abuse.

Gia asked departments and agencies to inform others about children’s rights more regularly and in a larger scale to families and schools. The solution for the immediate time, according to Gia, is to ask students to exchange views and have dialogues more regularly with parents and teachers.

The organizers of the forum thought that students would not dare make suggestions, so they came up with the idea of asking students to talk about what they would do if they were headmasters of a school.

A lot of students raised their hands to speak about this.

“I would not give too many home exercises, because I want my students to have free time to relax and play. I would instruct the teachers in my school to have correct behavior and not to be on first-name terms with students,” said L.T.L, who was supported by the entire audience.

Chi Mai 

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