VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of parents complain that their children have to receive a too big volume of knowledge every day.

Loan, who has a daughter going to the first class, complained that the curriculum of Vietnamese language subject is too long and heavy. “I have found out that a lot of exercises in Vietnamese language do not fit the children, who have just finished nursery schools,” she said.

Difficult exercises turn students force students learn by rote

Loan has cited a lot of sentences in the textbook for first graders that she believes are too long and difficult to understand. Especially, the sentences have a style rich in images, which makes it difficult to understand for first graders.

“I cannot understand why the compilers of the textbooks have to use such difficult words, while the words can be replaced with many easy and interesting words,” she said.

Sharing the same view with Loan, Le Van Tuan in Hoang Mai district in Hanoi, said that first graders have to learn the things that could be even difficult for higher graders. “It took me too much time to explain about the Muong village. And I realized that despite my great efforts, my child could not understand this well,” he said.

“With the too heavy curriculum, it seems that the textbook compilers try to force students to learn by rote,” he added.

Children go to school, students also have to learn

Mai, who lives in Phu Dien residential quarter in Tu Liem district in Hanoi, said that since her grandchild goes to the first class, his parents have to tutor the boy all the day, or the child cannot understand the things the teachers says at the class.

“His parents always get churlish with the boy, because the boy could not understand the lessons in the textbook,” Mai said.

Not only in Vietnamese language, the boy also has problems with other subjects such as mathematics and English. “It seems that the curriculum for first graders includes the knowledge for 3rd and 4th graders as well,” she added. Therefore, since the day the boys goes to school, the whole family, including parents and grandmother have to spend time to take care and learn with the boy.

An education expert, who asks to be anonymous, also said that first graders nowadays have to struggle with heavy sentences, and a lot of abstract concepts, which do not fit the psychology of small children.

Letting children learn in their power – the art of education

Nowadays, students, besides the exercises given the textbooks, always have to do home exercises which are the questions raised by teachers themselves. A parent in Thanh Tri district has given reporters a list of the questions given by the teacher of her child - primary school. There are too many complicated words, which could be even difficult to some adults.

Nguyen Thi Tan, a primary school teacher, said that students are required not only to be able to spell, read, but also understand the meanings of many words. However, she admitted that there are many “unsuitable words” which are really difficult for teachers to explain and for students to understand.

“Sometimes I have to try to explain the words with pictures and other teaching aids. However, I do not think that they cannot understand well,” she said.

Dr Nguyen Thuy Anh, a well known educator, also said that as for six year old students, a sentence with 6-7 words is suitable for them. In the first semester of the first grade, students need to access the texts with simple sentences.

Source: Dat Viet