VietNamNet Bridge - “I write this letter to ask you, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the school, to allow my son to become a ‘bad student’ this academic year,” a letter posted on a personal Facebook reads.

Within four hours after the letter was posted, it received 13,000 likes and 3,400 shares.

The letter caught the special attention from the public because it was written by a parent, who, unlike other parents, wished to see her son obtain the ‘bad student’ title instead of ‘excellent’.

“Like many other mothers, I sometimes forgot that my son is a unique and independent essence who does not resemble anyone else. Therefore, I often compare him with the sons of Sau, the neighbor, and Ba, the leader of my residential quarter. 

"If my son got 8 marks for his school work, I would blame him and ask him to say why he could not get 10 marks like Sau’s son could. My son never received compliments from me, but he usually heard complaints that he was not as good as the other children in the same residential quarter.

Vietnamese students are overloaded with school work and try to obtain high achievements to please their parents.

"And my son has suffered from depression. It was so discouraging that all of his efforts were not recognized by parents,” the letter reads. 

“My son was an excellent student from the first to the ninth grades. But things got worse after he entered the 10th grade. He managed to be good at math, chemistry and biology because he wants to become a physician. But he is bad at other subjects. He cannot run fast to get good marks for physical exercises. He is not good at writing essays because he doesn’t have good expression way.

"I was so mad. I had an inferiority complex when my colleagues asked about my son’s learning achievements. I hated the way they poured scorn on me.

"I came to see my son’s teachers and asked them to admit my son to private tutoring classes and I brought them to extra classes at learning centers. I wanted my son to become an excellent student.

And he tried to commit suicide last night,” the letter continues.

The boy repeatedly banged his head strongly against the wall. He said he did not want to live anymore because he feared he would make his parents feel ashamed about him.

The author of the letter was Nguyen Ngoc Thach, a young writer. He said he wrote the letter on behalf of his sister who is the mother of the boy.

In fact, the boy’s story is also the story of many other Vietnamese students, who are overloaded with school work and try to obtain high achievements to please their parents.

Le Hanh