VietNamNet Bridge – Parents complain that their children have too much homework but teachers say parents demand that their children study hard.

Thu Hong, an office worker, said she regrets her decision about sending her son to a school in Hoan Kiem District in the central area of Hanoi.

Although Hong and her family live in Hoang Mai District, she still decided to enroll her child in a “star” school in Hoan Kiem, believing that the schooling environment there is better.

However, too many problems have arisen since the day her child began going to school. Since the boy had to travel 10 kilometers to reach to school, he has to get up at  6 am every day. Meanwhile, her son can only go to bed at 10 pm at the earliest, after he finishes doing exercises given by the teachers.

“I don’t know what will happen when the winter comes. If my son went to a school near my house, he would have 30 minutes more for sleep,” she said.

Hoang Thanh, a parent in Cau Giay District, said his son only has six hours a day to sleep. “My child does not attend private tutoring lessons like his classmates. He just has to fulfill the home exercises given by teachers. However, he still does not have enough time to sleep,” he complained.

“He yawns repeatedly every morning before he enters the classroom,” he said.

His wife complained that the boy does not have time to talk with parents in the evening. “I am afraid that his communication skills cannot develop. He just sits quietly doing exercises in the evening,” she said.

Nguyen Thanh Huong, an office worker, said her daughter’s timetable is “taut like a violin string”.

“My daughter fears that she would be punished by the teachers as she cannot fulfill all the home exercises. However, she really cannot do all of them because she doesn’t have enough time,” Huong said.

The parent blamed the situation on the Ministry of Education and Training’s unreasonable curriculum.

Huong cited a report of the National Sleep Foundation as saying that students who have good sleep have better behavior than those who lack sleep.

The report pointed out that children aged 5-12 need 10-12 hours of sleep every day.

“I heard the ministry has released many decisions to ease the overloading. However, these decisions clearly cannot help,” she noted.

Meanwhile, MOET said that it has created several measures to ease the overloading. In late 2013, it released a document requesting teachers not to give home exercises to first graders.

It also decided not to give marks to first graders, but only make comments about their schoolwork. And it is considering re-compiling textbooks in an effort to restructure the curriculum.

A teacher at a primary school in Hanoi blamed the parents, not teachers.

“They (the parents) all want their children to be the best students. And they always ask the children to learn hard,” she noted.

“A parent complained that his son became lazy and spent all the time on games because I did not give homework,” she said.

Chi Mai