Nguyen Thuy Dung, whose daughter is a first grader in Hanoi, said since the ‘coronavirus holiday’ began, the teacher has been giving home exercises in math and Vietnamese language to students regularly.

Students don't go to school these days

Dung noted that her daughter can do math exercises on adding and subtracting up to 2 digits well. However, the girl’s knowledge about Vietnamese language is not good.

Recently, the girl and her classmates have begun following online lessons via internet. When the teacher asked students to write in their notebooks the word ‘qua ca chua’ (tomato), Dung’s daughter could not do it.

Later, Dung asked the girl to write many other words, and was shocked when she made a lot of mistakes.

Parents fear that first graders may lose literacy skills and that students in higher grades may suffer from depression.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, a teacher at the Tay Ho Primary School, before carrying out online teaching, held a trial teaching hour which lasted 30 minutes.

As first graders cannot concentrate on lessons well, Huyen asked parents to attend online lessons together with their children.

Huyen said the long holiday will make many students forget what they learned in the first semester.

“If students come back to school in June, teachers will have to work hard to repeat old knowledge,” she said. “Only if students learn without interruption from June to September, when the new academic year begins, will they be able to read and write well."

Other teachers in Hanoi also think that online teaching is more effective for higher grades. A teacher said a 30-40 minute online teaching period is just enough for teachers and students to talk to each other.

Meanwhile, parents who have children going to secondary and high schools have been warned that their children may suffer from depression if they have to stay at home for too long.

Ngoc Anh, a parent in Thanh Ha Cienco, said her son, a seventh grader, enjoyed the first days of staying off school very much. He solved all home exercises given by teachers, and read books and drew pictures.

But later, all the activities became boring. He began spending more time watching TV and playing with his smartphone.

“I was shocked when he slept throughout a day. He just got up to get a bowl of rice and went back to bed again. Then he had a mild fever and got well again,” Anh said.

Mai Lan 

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