VietNamNet Bridge – Urban parents rush to bring their children to the extra classes in which the children learn superfast math question solving methods.

Le Hai Thu in Ba Dinh district in Hanoi complained that the nerves of all her family members have been “taut like a violin string” over the last few months because of math questions.

Thu, like many other parents in urban areas, wants her children to be good at math, which is considered the “king science”. Therefore, Thu sends her 5-year old daughter to superfast math class and the son, a second grader, to extra classes where he learns to solve difficult math questions.

As a result, Thu and other family members have always been busy solving math questions.

Illiterate children also can learn superfast math

Hanoi’s parents have been told that their children should get familiar to superfast math as soon as possible.

A lot of children aged 4-12 now follow the curriculums under which they are taught to make mental calculation and “super mind” math. This means that even the small children who still cannot read and write can also learn how to solve math questions quickly.

A training course lasts 2-3 months for which parents have to pay the tuition of over VND1 million. Preschool children would learn to recognize numerals on fingers and perform addition, subtraction calculation between 0 and 99 with hands

Thu said her daughter was very excited with the learning when attending the first three lessons. The girl tried to do all the home exercises, even though she still could not write numbers, and Thu had to write down the results on paper.

However, the girl later got tired of the lessons and refused to go back to the class, saying that she got bad marks because she still could not recognize numerals.

Thu finally decided that her daughter would not go back to the class, even though she paid tuition for the whole training course already.

Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong, Headmaster of Luong The Vinh High School, a well-known educator, said that preschool children only should play puzzles and learn to recognize letters. It is not necessary to force a child to spend hours on math questions.

Cuong said that at preschool age, children can learn when they are at play or join collective activities, while no need to sit for math exercises.

Parents should teach their preschool children to take basic steps instead of forcing them to move too fast.

Primary school students struggle with difficult math questions

Pham Hai Nam, a parent in Tay Ho district in Hanoi complained that he could not help the son solve the math questions given by the teacher, even though Nam has a master degree in math.

Some days ago, the boy asked his parent to help solve the question: Fill in the gap where there is “…”:45 + 2…= 68. As 68 – 45 = 23, Nam told the boy to fill “3” into the gap.

However, the answer was not accepted by the teacher, who asked students to solve in another way. The method chosen by Nam could not be applied to the students, who still have not learned the subtraction with two-digit numbers.

A lot of primary school students have been crying about the difficult questions, because they cannot solve them, and their parents cannot help.

Tien Phong